In Episode 47, certified health coach Noemie Mooney explains why nearly half of workers globally are burned out and why individual wellness fixes can't solve what's structurally broken at work, drawing on BCG's 2024 burnout research, Singapore Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon's "push factors versus pull factors" framing, and the concept of ethical fading from Tenbrunsel and Messick (2004).

In a 2024 survey, the Boston Consulting Group found that 48% of workers across eight countries are grappling with burnout, which means we’re well past the point of calling this an individual problem.

In this episode I unpack what Singapore’s Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon recently named at the Legal Profession Symposium 2025: people aren’t leaving careers because they’re being pulled to something better, they’re being pushed out by what work has become.

Favourite Line:

“Helping people cope with a broken system is not the same as changing the system that is breaking them. Both things have to happen at the same time.”

In This Episode

* Why is workplace burnout structural rather than personal?

* What is ethical fading and how does it degrade your judgement at work?

* Why don’t wellness apps and resilience training actually fix burnout?

* What are push factors versus pull factors when people leave their careers?

* What did BCG’s 2024 burnout research find across eight countries?

* Why does workplace culture stay broken even when leaders say they want change?

* How do you tell the difference between coping and actually solving burnout?

Timestamps

00:00 Intro 02:17 Welcome from Rio 03:20 Push factors versus pull factors 05:13 BCG and the 48% statistic 06:10 What ethical fading really means 07:53 Why wellness apps fall short 10:45 What this means for you

Mentioned in This Episode

* Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon, Opening Address at the Legal Profession Symposium 2025 (Singapore, 29 July 2025)

* Ethical fading, Ann Tenbrunsel and David Messick, Social Justice Research (2004)

* BCG, “Half of Workers Around the World Are Struggling with Burnout” (2024)

Your Experiment for This Week

Notice one workplace habit that your industry, your team, or your company treats as completely normal. Name it. Then ask yourself who that habit actually serves. Not the work, not the people, but the inherited idea of professionalism it might be propping up. You do not have to fix it. You just have to see it clearly for one week.

What is one workplace habit your industry treats as normal that is quietly making everyone exhausted?

Noemie x

Noemie Mooney is an ACE Certified Health Coach, ICF-trained Behaviour Change Specialist, certified yoga instructor, and creator of the MAKE SPACE Method™. She writes Unwritten Potential, a newsletter about evidence-based wellbeing, sustainable habits, mental wellbeing, and health behaviour change for people who are done with hustle culture and wellness BS.

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The urge to fix, solve, and advise before someone has even finished talking has a name: the righting reflex.

In this episode, certified health coach Noemie Mooney explains William Miller and Stephen Rollnick’s work on motivational interviewing, why well-meaning advice often creates resistance, and why high achievers often turn the righting reflex inward.

Because sometimes the most powerful thing you can do is not fix.

It is to listen.

In this episode

* What the righting reflex is, and why the urge to help can make change less likely

* What motivational interviewing is, and why it has become such an important evidence-based coaching approach

* Why unsolicited advice often backfires

* Miller and Rollnick’s “dancing vs wrestling” metaphor for coaching, guiding, and behaviour change

* Why high achievers often struggle with self-compassion

* How the simple shift from “but” to “and” can change your relationship with difficulty

* A practical experiment to try this week in your relationships, and with yourself

Timestamps

00:00 Intro02:00 Welcome and first Substack Live prep04:00 When corporate problem-solving backfires05:30 The righting reflex explained08:00 How we do it to ourselves09:30 The “but” vs “and” reframe11:00 Your experiment for the week

Mentioned in this episode

* The righting reflex: Miller and Rollnick’s concept from motivational interviewing, describing the urge to fix, correct, or solve before fully listening

* Miller, W.R. & Rollnick, S. (2013). Motivational Interviewing: Helping People Change (3rd ed.)

* The “but” vs “and” reframe: A coaching tool drawn from acceptance-based frameworks and positive psychology coaching

* Interoception episode: Last week’s episode on listening to your body [🎧 listen here]

Your experiment for this week

Next time someone you care about tells you about something hard, try this:

No solutions for the first five minutes.

Instead, ask three questions:

* What does that feel like?

* What’s the hardest part?

* What do you think you need?

Notice the urge to fix.

That’s the righting reflex.

Advanced version: try the same three questions on yourself.

Favourite line

The space between someone sharing a problem and you offering a solution is the most important space in any relationship. Including the one you have with yourself.

Reflection question

What’s the last thing you tried to fix that actually just needed to be heard?

Noemie x

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Noemie Mooney is an ACE Certified Health Coach, ICF-trained Behaviour Change Specialist, podcast host and the creator of the MAKE SPACE Method™, a science-backed framework for sustainable habits and mental health. She writes on Substack about burnout, habit formation, and evidence-based behaviour change psychology for people who want practical tools without the self-help BS.

Every week I help 2000+ burned-out humans build sustainable habits for real, messy life. No toxic wellness. No hustle culture. No BS. ⚡️Let's goooo!