An unlucky 13 years ago, Suzi McAlpine was a senior executive in the New Zealand division of one of the world’s largest human resources consulting firms, when a moment on the school run shocked her. Stopping outside the school gates, a trembling voice asked, “Mummy… can I please have a hug?”
“No! I don’t have time,” was her reply, as she slammed the door and raced off to work.
A few minutes later, Suzi pulled over to the side of the road, because she was sobbing so much she couldn’t see the traffic. Normally a warm and affectionate person, the mother of three had become so numb she wasn’t able to hug her eldest son. Although she had observed the experiences of many burnt-out workers through her career, this was the first time she had felt the very personal face of it.
“To this day, the look of my son’s eyes in the rear-view mirror haunts me,” writes Suzi in “With hindsight, I know I was in the thick of it. I
