The
article in question is called "High Achiever Burnout." While the whole thing (a short page skim) is worth a read, the part that really grabbed my attention was in the first 2 paragraphs:
Essentially they expand the scope of their job by assuming others’ responsibilities. In the short run this isn’t a problem. Their intent and resulting outcome is good. However, it’s rarely a one-off situation. It can easily become a habit and create what we call the “stage manager” syndrome—when things are going well no one notices your contributions, but when things aren’t, you end up holding the bag.
Coming from my background in low/no budget small regional theatre, I have a tendency to just step in and make things happen, knowing there's often no other recourse. It's so easy to get caught up in the "show must go on" mentality and just make it work. But as the author points out, this attitude can be quite destructive in the long term.
More personally: this year was my first time serving a full season as a resident stage manager rather than freelancing around. We're a small staff, and we all wear a lot of hats. Some of the structure of my job was inherited, other parts happened due to staff changes, show needs, and schedule requirements. What became very apparent by the last mainstage show was that I'd been spinning too many plates for too long with little to no break.
While I named all the reasons why the job ballooned beyond simply "stage manager," talking through things with a friend and then later my AD during an evaluation helped me identify that part of the problem was myself. I didn't come to my AD when things first started getting overwhelming; even when I reached out for help on occassion to other staff, it felt like I was admitting I couldn't do my job. Which, in essence, was true: but the question became how much of my work
should be my job.
We've identified a place in the budget where we may be able to hire additional help for me on a part time basis, and working with the music director on larger productions to take some of the load off me in rehearsal in terms of running tracks and keeping the sound cues straight in prep for tech with our board op (we don't use orchestras). This new season doesn't have any overlapping shows either, so my spring will be much better in terms of having time between shows to prep rather than this past one (where it felt like I was jumping from tech to opening to tech for a while).
