I read something a while back that I think captures what burnout is. It's when people don't have time to do the things that they want to do in life.
At some point if people don't see how they can accomplish what they want to in life, they will eventually get burned out and move on into something else.
Burn out is something that I see in college athletics. I see it a lot. I have experienced it as well, and sometimes I wonder if I still am in a way burned out.
I was so shocked a couple of years ago when one of my friends, who graduated with a degree in sports management, ended up pursuing a career in real estate. How could you not want to work in sports?
Well there are plenty of reasons. Among those that I have worked with in the past and re-connected with now, there are plenty of them who are just burned out. They still work in sports, but would be happy to do something outside of sports for a change.
Why is that?
Mostly, LONG HOURS and LOW PAY.
$9 an hour plus commission doesn't exactly amount to a whole lot more than $30,000 a year. That's not a whole lot when you are trying to pay off college debt. That's not a whole lot if you want to have a family and certainly not enough to be the only provider.
My favorite typical college athletics move is to have the intern, or graduate assistant who works 40 plus hours a week while only getting compensated for about half of that. Is that illegal? Yes. You can't be forced to work more than 20 hours a week. However, you do it if given the opportunity. You work those hours and work hard in the name of experience and networking. You know that if you won't donate those extra hours without really being compensated, that you won't ever make it in the industry. There is a little of the "Devil Loves Prada" in college athletics as well.
Those that do have a full-time position are not compensated well for their time. They work atleast 9-5, plus set-up and break down at all events. Often times they work after or before hours as well. Events often happen on weekends or on the holidays. If you are lucky you might get to go home for a few days. If you are one of the workers who is sacrificing a lot and living far from home, you may not get to go home for the Holidays. Why go home for 48 hours if it takes you 16 hours to get there?
Then those that work in sports get to see their friends and hear about their jobs. Their friends jobs might not be that interesting. They might be boring jobs, but they might be from 9-5 exactly, from Monday through Friday and they might pay three times or more the amount of what they make in sports. When you see people who are just as capable and smart as you are making three times the amount of money you are while working less hours it's hard not to ask yourself why you don't get out of college athletics.
Some people forget that people who work in college athletics don't always get to work for their favorite team. How many people actually get to work in the department of their favorite team? In reality it's not as many as you would think. Yes, everyone roots for the teams that they work for. You instantly become their fan. But in many cases you root for teams of schools that you didn't go for. You have to develop a passion for another school. Some people are good at that and some aren't. I'm personally ok at doing that. I know of someone else who recently said that "I just want to be able to go watch the games I want to go to." If you work at Bowling Green but are an Ohio State fan you aren't going to be excited about the chance to watch the Bowling Green game from the sideline while the Ohio State game is on television.
Another reason I hear of is that they don't see how they could work their way up.
Sports is extremely competitive because everyone wants to work in sports. Why sell rope if you can sell season tickets to your favorite team? It's obvious why everyone wants to work in sports, but it's also what makes it hard.
Many people with a Sports Management degree are looking for jobs in college sports. Many people outside of sports want to work in sports. Many people with business degrees, MBA's or Law Degrees want to apply their knowledge to sports. They can do that. Every team needs an accountant, someone to understand rules, someone to market to fans. If someone has that knowledge from another background and can apply it to sports they will be stiff competition.
It's also easy to get stuck in certain positions with no way out. Many coaches can get stuck at a Director of Operations position, or they get that assistant position but at a bad program. The coaches lose and can't find another job. Coaches usually get jobs because they know a successful head coach. When that head coach gets a job they can be brought in as part of their staff.
Ticketing is another place that I have heard of a few people being stuck. For some reason I have heard that people who work in ticketing aren't taken as seriously as people in other positions. If you aren't taken seriously or aren't included in important meetings than you can't work your way up. At some point you decide that you are capable of being more than a ticket sales manager with an MBA who works for $40,000 a year.
In order for people to work their way up you have to work those long hours and do your job well, plus volunteer and do other things. You have to get involved in other departments. It helps you network and understand them. But remember, this extra volunteering is on top of the already long hours you put in.
The thoughts that can start to creep in about your career in sports is how you can balance everything you want in life with everything you want to do in your career. Is it possible is the question that people have to ask themselves. Can you stay healthy and work long enough and hard enough and catch the right breaks to get a job that pays? Are you willing to sacrifice everything for it?
Many times people in sports start to see that the price paid to get to the top eventually isn't worth it. How do you have a relationship or marriage that functions when you are never home and make no money? No matter how much people say they love one another, that leads to divorce more often than not. How can you afford to pay off your college debt, buy a car, buy a home, support a family and pay for your children's college education when you don't make a lot of money?
These are all things that I have either heard people complain about or are things that I have thought about. Working in sports is extremely cool. It's extremely cool to be in the know. It's amazing to be on the floor when an arena is rocking. It's amazing to see two hall of fame coaches and their teams battling each other.
But doing that comes at a price and over time it can take it's toll on people and can lead them to being apathetic towards working in college athletics over time. Burn out and apathy towards jobs are something that I have witnessed a lot of. There are many and probably a majority who work in college athletics who enjoy what they do, but their are more than you think who would just be happy to do something that requires less hours and pays more so that they can accomplish all the things they want to in life.
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