Sarah LaFontaine, LMHC — When High Achievement Becomes a Trauma Response

Dr. Mickey Fitch-Collins on Burned Out in the Middle

If you've ever looked up at the end of a workday and wondered what you actually accomplished — this episode is for you. Dr. Mickey Fitch-Collins, human skills facilitator at Learnit and former professional bass fisherman turned leadership expert, joins Systems Check to talk about why the middle layer of most organizations is quietly breaking — and what actually fixes it. Mickey hosts the Learnit Lounge Podcast, where she covers the shifts facing learning and development professionals — from data-driven training to the power and pitfalls of AI. Learn more about her: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mickeyfitchcollins/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/mickeyfitchcollins/]

Charity O'Reilly on The Burnout You Build Yourself

Charity O'Reilly is a trauma therapist, practice owner, and author who specializes in complex PTSD. But what makes her the right guest for this show isn't just her clinical credentials — it's that she burned out badly, rebuilt on her own terms, and now helps other high performers stop recreating the same cycles they thought they'd escaped. We're talking about the version of burnout nobody talks about: the one you build yourself, with the best intentions. Learn more about her work at https://charityoreilly.com [https://charityoreilly.com/] and her blog https://charityoreilly.com/blog/ [https://charityoreilly.com/blog/]

Nischal Rana on Burnout: Stop Optimizing for Your Best Days

What does it really cost to build and maintain the systems that keep public health infrastructure running—and what does that reveal about sustainable performance? In this episode, Nischal Rana, an integrations engineer for the State of Connecticut, breaks down burnout in DevOps culture. We explore the go-go grind mentality that gets normalized from day one, why optimizing for your best days is a fast track to burning out by 35, the communication skills no computer science program teaches you, and why building strong relationships will outlast even the most specialized technical skills. Raw, honest, and from someone who’s lived it on the inside.

Elizabeth Morrison, LPC on Why High Performers Burn Out Silently

Elizabeth Morrison — licensed counselor and neuro inclusive systems designer — breaks down why high-performing tech professionals burn out silently. We get into the structural conditions tech environments accidentally engineer against their own people, what functional depletion looks like before anyone quits, and the one thing any leader can do this week to start building a system that actually holds. This isn't a wellness conversation. It's an operations one. https://www.creativesolutionscoaching.com/ [https://www.creativesolutionscoaching.com/]

The Human Side of SaaS Sales — Mark Steinbach on Performing Without Burning Out

Selling high-stakes SaaS isn’t just about numbers—it’s about people, habits, and mindset. Mark Steinbach shares lessons from early sales missteps, key signals in complex deals, and mental routines that keep top performers sustainable. Discover how to navigate the pressures of high-stakes software sales without burning out and maintain peak performance in every deal.