I understand that saying I’m burned out is a thought but sometimes it’s a tough one to get out of. Yesterday, I reached a breaking point of physical and mental exhaustion at work and decided to go home and rest since I wasn’t accomplishing anything anyway. Today, I am struggling to get myself to go in. My thought is, “I just need a break.”

As it stands, I would normally be at work by now and am still in my pajamas. The backstory is I work in healthcare and am dealing with multiple leaves of absence, a “burned-out” workforce (they tell me this daily), a reduced number of staff to handle the same if not higher workload, and no end to this in sight.
I guess my question here is, is it ok to just take a break sometimes even if it means I won’t meet the obligations of my job (at least for today).

I am a leader and feel like I can’t lead with the thought drama that is going on and again, the exhaustion. Part of me knows I need to take care of myself to be an effective leader, the other part feels tremendously guilty for not being there for my team.

And then I keep telling myself, these are just thoughts, you should be able to do the thought work and get over it.