Alana Fallis
Head of People
Quantum Metric
Episode 85
The HR Identity Crisis: How To Prevent Burnout By Living Beyond Work
Current chapter: Built by People podcast features insights from world's top HR leaders
Built By PeopleJuly 30, 2025 · 9:02
Thesis
“HR professionals must define their identity outside of work, prioritize self-care, and establish clear boundaries to prevent burnout, recognizing that their job is a part of their life, not its entirety.”
Show notes
Alana Fallis took a three-month break from her job as Head of People at Quantum Metric. Not a vacation — a full stop. She'd spent years being the corporate therapist, the problem solver, the always-on executive — and somewhere in the process of scaling her company from 300 to 500 people across six countries, she lost track of who she was when she wasn't working.
What she describes isn't dramatic. It's worse: a slow, quiet merging of professional identity and personal self until there was no daylight between them. Her CEO's advice when she returned? Disable Slack notifications on your phone. That's not a small thing — it's a culture signal. And Alana built from there, implementing blackout hours, restructuring her calendar, and overcommunicating boundaries to her team so they could actually hold her to them.
This episode is a candid, first-person account of what burnout actually feels like for the person in the building who's supposed to have the answers. And a practical roadmap for what recovery — real recovery, not just a long weekend — looks like.
- Why HR practitioners are uniquely vulnerable to burnout — and why they're also the least likely to admit it
- How blurring personal and professional identity creates a "one-way ticket to losing yourself"
- The specific boundary structures Alana implemented: blackout hours, notification settings, calendar blocks
- Why finding community with other HR practitioners is a career-sustaining, not career-adjacent, priority
- The one question Alana asks anyone in burnout: what is the thing that's actually weighing on you?
This episode is brought to you by Previ — an employer network that saves employees thousands on the necessities they already pay for, at no cost to the company.
What you'll take away
- 1HR is an emotionally demanding role; seeking community support and setting boundaries are crucial for resilience.
- 2Burnout often results from the blurring of personal and professional identity, leading to a loss of self outside of work.
- 3Actively engage in non-work-related passions and self-discovery during breaks to redefine your relationship with your career.
- 4Implement strict work-life boundaries, such as 'blackout hours,' disabling notifications, and dedicated calendar blocks for personal time and health.
- 5Overcommunicate boundaries and intentions with your team, and ruthlessly evaluate calendar commitments to protect focus time and manage workload effectively.
What most organizations get wrong
- •Alana's CEO advised her to disable Slack notifications on her phone, a practice that might go against conventional executive expectations of constant availability.
In Alana's words
“being an HR practitioner is hard. It's a really hard job and it requires a really big emotional investment where we are the corporate therapists and we're also the people problem solvers.”
Highlights the intense emotional labor inherent in HR roles, contributing to potential burnout.
“I felt a lot like who I am as a person and my identity at work became one thing. So I really took on my work self nearly all the time, even when I wasn't working. And it was a sort of one-way ticket to losing sight of myself.”
Pinpoints the dangerous blurring of personal and professional identity as a root cause of burnout.
“I don't even have Slack notifications enabled on my phone. He told me to do that. So if your CEO tells you to do it, that's what you do, right?”
Illustrates a surprising, yet effective, boundary-setting strategy directly encouraged by senior leadership.
“I overcommunicate with my team. I overcommunicate my intention to have my boundaries, and I make sure we're able to flex our efforts so that in the busy season we are able to step back a little bit more because it's the truth that there just are these cycles in the business where you have to be more on.”
Emphasizes the importance of transparent communication and flexibility for maintaining work-life boundaries throughout business cycles.
“My first advice would be to get to the root of your burnout. What is the thing that's actually weighing on you?”
Encourages deep self-reflection as the essential first step to effectively address and overcome burnout.
“It's most important to define yourself outside of work. You are not your job. You are not the problems that you solve day in and day out.”
A concise and powerful summary of her core philosophy on preventing burnout and maintaining personal identity.
The problems this episode addresses
- •HR professionals frequently experience significant emotional drain and burnout due to the 'corporate therapist' role and constant problem-solving.
- •Rapid company scaling (e.g., from 300 to 500 people), international expansion, and organizational changes (like RIFs) lead to overwhelming workloads and pressure on HR teams.
- •Lack of clear work-life boundaries results in HR leaders feeling 'plugged in all the time,' contributing to burnout and a loss of personal identity.
- •Managing global teams across diverse time zones exacerbates workload challenges, leading to long hours and difficulty disengaging.
- •HR practitioners often lack a supportive community to discuss problems and share strategies, leading to feelings of isolation.
- •Ineffective calendar management, characterized by excessive recurring meetings, consumes valuable time and prevents focused work.
In this episode
Built by People podcast features insights from world's top HR leaders
Built by People
You're head of people at a tech company called Ontometric
In the Elevator With Sarah Silverman
Alana left Quantummetric due to burnout
I Left My HR Job Due to Burnout
Alana took a 3-month break from work before returning to Quantummetric
Quantummetric's Alana on Her Relationship With Work
You implemented a lot of new boundaries while you were away from work
How to Manage Employee Burnout While on Vacation
Alana says it's most important to define yourself outside of work
Advice for Starting a Business on a Personal Level
Topics covered
Organizations and entities mentioned
Full transcript
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