The Bucket Theory (2024)

Every so often I have a bit of a lightbulb moment (yes, they hurt) when something that I have been doing just 'clicks'. Often I find it ends up being an 'of course' or a 'well duh' type scenario and the big revelation is actually what's been going on the whole time, and one of those is what I call The Bucket Theory.

Without getting all motivational and emotional, it's pretty simple. Every person comes to work with a bucket. This bucket follows you, goes with you and the thing about it is that everybody's bucket is a different size, and will hold a different amount.

Still with me? Good.

So the obvious question is 'what fills the bucket?'. The answer? sh*t. Yes, sh*t - all the crappy, ordinary, frustrating and annoying things that happen at work. The times a coworker makes you feel crap, the times your boss micromanages you and the days where you really just don't want to be there - each of those adds a few more drops into the bucket, until eventually the bucket does one of two things.

It either overflows - or it breaks.

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When the bucket overflows it ranges from a simple 'hey, I need to step away' to full on losing-your-sh*t - that bit depends on what sort of person you are. When it breaks, that's when you see people quit, have a complete career change, walk away from a role or anything in between, all the way up to ongoing mental health issues. And none of these things are good.

So as a manager or a leader, I see our role as making sure the buckets don't get full in the first place - but also having the mop ready for when it inevitably happens. A lot of emphasis is placed on mental health in the workplace - my unpopular-but-realistic opinion is that for as long as we've been asking people to come together - be it at school, playing sport or at work - you are guaranteed to get personality clashes, obstacles and, if I'm a bit too honest, people who just genuinely don't want to play nice for whatever reason, so while it's nice to aim for a world where it never happens, it's realistic to do the best you can to avoid it - but know how to handle it when it does. And you can bet that it does!

For me, cleaning up after the bucket has spilled over is not about wrapping the person in cotton wool. It's acknowledging that it's happened - that it's Okay it's happened - and that maybe there's some things we could do or change to avoid it in the future. If the bucket breaks it doesn't doom the person to failure, but what it does do is raise some serious red flags about the environment and mean you've got some investigating to do. And chances are if you're dealing with a bucket broken, there's going to be a long road to putting it back together, if it's even possible at all.

The takeaway from this is simple - aiming to never have burnout is unrealistic and I dare say it's impossible. Aiming to manage it, recognise it and acknowledge and support who's going through it is the realistic - and responsible - way to be.