Article

Joy Is Resistance: How We Can Sustain Ourselves and Our Work

2026-10-27 · By Business Fights Poverty Global Expert Network members: Maha Khan & Ambreen Waheed

Maha Khan and Ambreen Waheed of the Business Fights Poverty Global Expert Network explore how purpose-driven professionals can recognise burnout, set practical boundaries and build care into the way they work. Drawing on a GEN Peer Clinic, they highlight early warning signs, flexible working, peer connection, joy and collective responsibility as foundations for sustainable impact.

Purpose-driven work can take a personal toll. Financial uncertainty, demanding relationships, stretched resources, and a strong sense of responsibility can make it hard to recognise our limits, set boundaries, or ask for help.

These pressures are particularly acute for freelance consultants and independent advisers, who may need to negotiate working conditions contract by contract. Turning down unsuitable work or challenging expectations can feel financially risky. Inside organisations, competing priorities and the pressure to keep delivering can create similar conditions.

A recent Business Fights Poverty Global Expert Network Peer Clinic explored the different forms burnout can take, and how care can become part of the way we work. The conversation made one point especially clear: sustaining our impact starts with taking care of ourselves and one another.

Burnout Takes More Than One Form

Burnout is not simply the result of working too hard for too long. It can show up as physical exhaustion, illness, insomnia or digestive problems. It can also appear as resentment, avoidance, self-doubt, overthinking, depression, or a loss of motivation and connection.

Maha Khan described becoming ill while leading a start-up that grew from 30 to 105 in one year in a conflict-affected state organisation. She focused on building an inclusive culture, encouraging work-life balance and caring for colleagues, yet failed to extend the same care to herself. Eventually, her body could no longer keep up, and she had to leave.

Years later, while freelancing, she recognised similar signals in her body sooner. She liked the team and was capable of doing the work, but the contract drew on skills that drained her physically and mentally. Financial pressures meant walking away was not a straightforward option. Instead, she spoke candidly with the client and proposed reshaping the work around her strengths and the team’s needs. Through negotiation, they reached an agreement.

Her experience shows why early recognition matters. A faster heartbeat, tense shoulders, a crowded mind or reluctance to open an email may seem minor in isolation. Together, they can indicate that work is becoming unsustainable.

Not every warning sign is physical. Burnout may begin with the loss of excitement that once made the work meaningful. For professionals committed to social impact, questioning whether their efforts can make a difference can be particularly difficult. In a challenging environment for international development and sustainability, that loss of purpose may be as important to notice as exhaustion.

‘What has been the first signal that you have ignored, whether it is in your mind or your body?’ – Maha Khan, Global Expert Network member.

Boundaries Must Reflect Real Constraints

Recognising the signs does not automatically reveal an easy solution. People cannot always leave a difficult role, decline a contract or reduce their hours. Income matters, particularly when opportunities feel scarce, and professionals are balancing consultancy, job applications, new ventures and personal responsibilities.

Healthy boundaries therefore need to be practical rather than idealised. Sometimes the most useful step is not to leave, but to renegotiate. That might mean asking for more time, proposing different responsibilities or explaining which conditions make good work possible.

Ambreen Waheed shared how she had requested flexible hours while doing creative work, including the option to work at night when that suited the task. She also described bringing her young son into the office in Pakistan in 1995, when workplace childcare was unavailable. Rather than concealing the arrangement, she explained that knowing her son was safe allowed her to focus and perform well.

Her action also drew attention to colleagues who did not have the same privilege of a private office. Within months, the organisation converted a room into a daycare centre. A personal boundary helped expose a wider organisational need.

This matters because resilience should not mean endlessly adapting to unsuitable conditions. Individual negotiation can open space for change, but organisations and clients also carry responsibility for creating working arrangements in which people can thrive.

Care Begins with Understanding What Sits Behind Performance

When somebody’s performance declines or their behaviour changes, the immediate response is often to focus on the work itself. Yet the source of the problem may lie elsewhere.

Ambreen recalled managing an employee who had been transferred after conflict in another department. Her team found him aggressive and wanted him moved again. Instead, she looked more closely at the circumstances affecting him.

The employee was struggling with transport, changing shifts and family responsibilities. The organisation helped him find housing closer to work and temporarily moved him to morning shifts. Ambreen also asked the wider team to support his improvement rather than isolate him.

The example offers a practical lesson for managers. Before treating reduced performance as an individual failing, ask what pressures may be shaping it. A relatively small change to shifts, location or team support can sometimes remove a significant source of strain.

This approach requires care and discretion. It does not mean expecting employees to disclose personal information. It means listening without judgement, avoiding premature conclusions and creating enough trust for people to explain what support would help.

Joy and Connection Are Part of the Work

Work cannot always provide energy, fulfilment and belonging. When it becomes draining, people may need to seek those things elsewhere: in nature, exercise, books, creative activity, volunteering or time with others.

One clinic participant described watching old films and television programmes, and returning to unread books. Another said they drew energy from activities beyond work when changing a contract wasn’t possible. These are not trivial distractions. They can restore space, perspective, and a sense of self that doesn’t depend on professional output.

Connection matters too. Independent work and career transitions can be lonely, particularly when much of the day is spent alone. Peer gatherings, professional communities and informal conversations can reassure people that fear, uncertainty and loss of motivation are shared experiences rather than private failures.

Maha offered a phrase that stayed with the group: ‘Joy is resistance’. When the external environment repeatedly gives people reasons to worry, making room for joy becomes a deliberate practice. This does not mean ignoring or suppressing the grief, fear or pain we may experience through our work or personal lives, but rather acknowledging and allowing space for these emotions while also seeking moments of joy and connection. In doing so, we can begin to move from depletion towards what one participant called working from ‘a full cup’.

Service may also restore connection. Volunteering at a shelter, supporting older people or mentoring a young person can create meaning outside paid work. For professionals whose careers have centred on service, this needs careful balance. However, it can offer a direct experience of contribution when professional impact feels distant.

Making Care a Collective Responsibility

Self-care matters, but it cannot compensate indefinitely for unhealthy working conditions. When we are deeply committed to our work and driven by a desire to make a positive impact, it can be easy to prioritise the needs of others while neglecting our own. Often, our bodies bear the toll first, signalling exhaustion and stress before we recognise that something needs to change. Caring for others and creating meaningful impact must therefore begin with extending that same care and compassion to ourselves. After all, activism starts at home, with love. Building care into work also means examining contracts, workloads, client expectations, management responses and the practical support available to people.

For individuals, the first step may be noticing an early signal and taking it seriously. It may mean pausing before accepting more work, naming a concern to a client, or protecting time for relationships and activities that bring energy.

For teams and organisations, it means looking beyond output. Managers can ask what sits behind a change in behaviour, make space for flexible arrangements and avoid rewarding constant overextension. Colleagues can listen with curiosity, ask before offering advice and help one another identify what can be changed collectively.

Purpose-driven professionals often focus on supporting people, strengthening organisations and addressing complex challenges. That commitment is valuable, but it does not require self-erasure. Taking care of ourselves is not separate from creating positive impact. It is essential to sustaining it.

The question is not simply how individuals can become more resilient. It is how we can build careers, contracts and organisations that do not demand depletion as the price of meaningful work.

Editor’s Note:
The Business Fights Poverty Global Expert Network (GEN) brings together over 200 experienced professionals from more than 30 countries who are passionate about driving positive social impact through business. Through peer discussions, shared learning and collaboration, members exchange insights, support one another and explore solutions to complex challenges. This article draws on a recent GEN Peer Clinic, with participants’ contributions shared anonymously to respect the open and personal nature of the conversation. If you have at least 20 years of professional experience and a passion for business and social impact, we invite you to learn more and apply to join the Global Expert Network.