If you've ever looked up at the end of a workday and wondered what you actually accomplished — this episode is for you. Dr. Mickey Fitch-Collins, human skills facilitator at Learnit and former professional bass fisherman turned leadership expert, joins Systems Check to talk about why the middle layer of most organizations is quietly breaking — and what actually fixes it.

Mickey hosts the Learnit Lounge Podcast, where she covers the shifts facing learning and development professionals — from data-driven training to the power and pitfalls of AI.

Learn more about her: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mickeyfitchcollins/

Charity O'Reilly is a trauma therapist, practice owner, and author who specializes in complex PTSD. But what makes her the right guest for this show isn't just her clinical credentials — it's that she burned out badly, rebuilt on her own terms, and now helps other high performers stop recreating the same cycles they thought they'd escaped. We're talking about the version of burnout nobody talks about: the one you build yourself, with the best intentions.

Learn more about her work at https://charityoreilly.com and her blog https://charityoreilly.com/blog/

What does it really cost to build and maintain the systems that keep public health infrastructure running—and what does that reveal about sustainable performance?

In this episode, Nischal Rana, an integrations engineer for the State of Connecticut, breaks down burnout in DevOps culture. We explore the go-go grind mentality that gets normalized from day one, why optimizing for your best days is a fast track to burning out by 35, the communication skills no computer science program teaches you, and why building strong relationships will outlast even the most specialized technical skills.

Raw, honest, and from someone who’s lived it on the inside.