Not every hat you wear belongs to you 🧀

I'm back from Madison, Wisconsin! CultureCon brought together hundreds of culture leaders, and roughly 75 of them joined me for my workshop, From Burnout to Boundaries: Protecting Your Peace as a Workplace Culture Leader.

Last week, I asked what burnout myths you've heard at work, and a lot of you wrote back.

The myth I spent the most time on in that room was the idea that enough self-care will keep burnout from happening to you.

The World Health Organization (WHO) classifies burnout as an occupational phenomenon that results from chronic workplace stress. That is, the workplace causes it.

Burnout is not a personal failure, and no meditation app or long weekend is going to fix a job that asks more of you than you have to give.

About halfway through the session, I asked participants to list every hat they wore in the last month. Some of the answers included therapist, referee, firefighter, and keeper of everyone's secrets.

Then, I asked them to circle the hats that were actually in their job description. Most of the hats stayed uncircled…

I imagine this feels familiar, even if "culture" isn't anywhere in your job title. When you're the person everyone comes to, you probably end up carrying a lot of work that nobody ever formally assigned to you.

Not every hat you wear belongs to you.

Hit REPLY and tell me which hats you would hand back if you could. I promise you that I read every single message.

Naming the hats is one thing. Handing them back to people who expect you to keep wearing them is much harder. I wrote a whole article about how to do that without torching the relationship.

​👉🏼 Read my 7 authentic strategies for setting boundaries at work, including what to do when someone keeps pushing past yours.​

Have a fabulous week!

~ Kyle | CaffeinatedKyle.com​

P.S. Every organization has people quietly wearing hats that were never theirs. Gallup found that burned-out employees are 2.6X more likely to be job hunting, which makes this an engagement and retention problem just as much as a wellness one. I'm booking speaking engagements for late 2026 and beyond, and I’m offering presentations that will give your leaders boundaries they can put into practice the same day. Invite me to bring this workshop to your team.​