How to Build Resilience at Work: Seven Habits From Real Jobs

Resilience at work is the capacity to adapt to pressure on the job and recover after setbacks, in a way you can sustain. It is built through habits and the people around you. It is also not the same as putting up with a workplace that is harming you. This guide gives a plain definition, seven habits drawn from people who tested them on real jobs, and the part of the job that belongs to employers.

Resilience at work, toughing it out and burnout

The three get confused, and each needs something different.

The World Health Organization describes burnout as an occupational phenomenon rather than a medical condition, marked by exhaustion, mental distance from the job and reduced effectiveness. Continuing to work does not show that the pressure is being managed. Resilience is the part you can build.

It can be trained, though the evidence is modest. A 2018 review in BMJ Open by Joyce and colleagues, from UNSW and the Black Dog Institute, pooled 11 randomised trials across varied populations, not only workplaces, and found a moderate positive effect of resilience programs on reported resilience scores. Programs based on cognitive behavioural therapy, mindfulness or a mix of the two appeared effective. That is a reason to take resilience seriously as a skill, not proof that any particular set of habits works, including the ones below.

How to build resilience at work

The seven habits below each come from a real working life. You do not need all of them. Pick the one that matches the pressure you are under now.

1. Shrink the worst case
2. Protect the routine that keeps you ahead
3. Set expectations and keep them steady
4. Build a small network that covers for you
5. Hold a boundary before something gives
6. Treat a no as part of the job
7. Know when to walk away

1. Shrink the worst case

Before a decision you are dreading, write down the worst realistic outcome and what you would do if it happened.

Dan Bailey spent 11 years in the Army before starting a mature age electrical apprenticeship in 2009, and now runs Tradie HQ in Osborne Park, a shared base for one man trade businesses. On episode 21, his test for a call that might not come off is blunt: "no one's going to die. What's the worst case scenario?"

He also explains where some of that comes from. The Army's adventure training, adopted from the British, was built on what the Brits called battlefield inoculation: preparing people for pressure by "developing a scenario which was of high perceived risk but low actual risk." Canyoning and white water feel dangerous and are run safely. Much of working life is the same: the pitch, the difficult phone call and the quote you might lose feel far riskier than they are.

The limit matters. Dan works on rope access and remote power jobs where the risk is real, and there the answer is a safe system of work, not a mindset. This habit is for fear that is bigger than the risk.

2. Protect the routine that keeps you ahead

Work out which part of your routine buys you control of the day, then defend it first when things get busy.

Builder Tim Keogh gets up at 4:30 on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays and is in the gym by 5am. On episode 9, Paul asks how much that helps when business is under pressure:

Routine is everything.

When his site supervisor left and Tim took on the role himself, the routine broke. He describes getting to the gym half an hour later than usual and already having seven calls and five messages before 6:30. "It just feels like I'm not ahead of everybody else," he says.

Recovery belongs in the routine too. Cafe owner Simone Sichel works hospitality hours and chose to live in Subiaco, close to his venues, partly so he can get home between shifts. On episode 18:

This morning I woke up at 2. If I can fit a nap during the day, it will be really helpful.

Your version might be a walk before email or a hard stop on Thursday nights. Whatever it is, treat it as part of the job rather than a reward for finishing the job. The self discipline guide covers building a routine you can return to after a miss.

3. Set expectations and keep them steady

Say what done looks like before the work starts, and react the same way to the same problem every time.

Dan's view of leading a crew comes down to one idea: "it's about being predictable."

Like, you want people to know where the boundaries are and sort of what the expectations are and that sort of stuff.

Paul agrees that expectation is not talked about enough, because "we assume sometimes as leaders that people know what they're doing." Dan takes it a step further. When a worker gets a job wrong because they did not understand the scope, he says "that falls on me as the person who told them what to do, because, you know, I didn't confirm with them that they understood it."

This matters for resilience because a moving target is exhausting. People can absorb a hard job. They struggle with a job where the rules change depending on the day or the person. If you are not the one leading, you can still ask what done looks like before you start, which turns a vague worry into a clear task.

4. Build a small network that covers for you

Find two or three people you can call when you cannot get to something, and be that person for them.

Before Tradie HQ existed, Dan and two mates were all running one man electrical businesses. Each of them would win jobs they could not get to, and, as Dan puts it, "the last thing you want to do as a small business is say no to a job." So they covered for each other. Each kept the others' company shirts in his car and charged an agreed hourly rate, so the client was looked after and nobody had to turn work away.

The same idea runs through Leo Gonzalez's sneaker label, Life of Viral, which he runs with a business partner. Leo discovered he was colourblind after confusing burgundy with navy while designing a sample, and then having a colour vision test. His partner now checks colours with him. On episode 20, Leo explains what the partnership gives him:

I always want someone that I can just be like, hey, check this out. What do you think about this?

A network like this is not a formal mentoring program. It is the handful of people who know your work well enough to step in, and who you trust to tell you when something is off.

5. Hold a boundary before something gives

Write down what a client, customer or employer is actually getting from you, and notice when you are routinely giving more.

Vee Venture founded The Ventress, a coaching business for women in the adult entertainment industry. In 2025 she coached a few hundred women and took every result personally. On episode 19, she describes going above and beyond, taking extra calls and helping clients with their lives:

I couldn't just keep it professional. I couldn't just keep it like, oh, you know, this is what you've signed up for. This is all that you get. And I kept giving and giving.

Her summary of where that leads is blunt: "And at some point something's got to give." She has since cut back to a smaller inner circle with regular check ins, partly to get time back with her family.

Caring about the work is not the problem. The problem is when the extra becomes the expectation and nobody, including you, has agreed to it. Agree on what is included up front, and revisit it when the extra starts to become routine.

6. Treat a no as part of the job

Expect rejection as a normal cost of the work, and review each one for what it tells you.

Vee is clear that hearing no is part of getting anywhere, and that the people she looks up to were told no many times:

You need to be knocked down, you need to be humbled and you have to keep going.

Professional boxer Jackson England lost his first three amateur fights and describes his amateur career as an apprenticeship to the pros. On episode 16 he says "You learn more from losing, whether it's in a fight or in life."

For a job without a scorecard, try this after a lost quote, a knocked back proposal or a bad review: note what happened, what you handled, what you would change and what you will do next. Then close the file. The record of what you handled is worth keeping; the next hard week, it is more convincing than telling yourself you will be fine. What Is Adversity? covers the difference between a setback and circumstances that are genuinely stacked against you.

7. Know when to walk away

Keeping going is not the same as staying. Set a point at which a stalled project or role has to show progress or end.

Leo spent 17 months in the United States designing samples for a project that never went into production, and he saw his children once in that time. The promised start kept moving:

Tomorrow, tomorrow. And tomorrow never came. And all the designs were like samples there, you know. So one day I just decided to say, I'm leaving.

He came home to Perth. He is also clear that leaving that job was not the same as giving up on the work: "I had never had in this industry a feeling of quitting." Resilience includes recognising when the situation, not your effort, is the thing that needs to change.

Building resilience in a team

If you lead people, most of the habits above apply to how you run the team as much as to yourself. Four examples from the show:

• Make it safe to put your hand up. Dan tells young workers on their first trips away that if they need to come home and do not want to tell their supervisor, they can ring him. He will arrange the flight and give a cover reason, such as training, so the real reason is never disclosed.
• Keep your reaction steady. On episode 11, Paul and Trent Brisset, managing director of Auslink WA, discuss handling mistakes without shouting: working out a solution so it does not happen again, then moving on.
• Repair it quickly when you get it wrong. Tim Keogh describes snapping at a worker, finding out the worker had been right, and ringing him the next day to say so.
• Train people for the busy moment, not the quiet one. Simone trains his cafe staff to accept that a mistake has happened and fix it, rather than argue it, because on a Saturday morning with hundreds through the door there is no time for anything else.

Each of these lowers the pressure people bring to work, which leaves more capacity for the pressure the work itself creates.

Resilience is not only your job

Personal habits cannot fix a workplace that is unsafe, and it is worth being clear about where the line sits.

In Western Australia, regulations for the control of psychosocial risks took effect on 24 December 2022. They require a person conducting a business or undertaking to eliminate psychosocial risks, or minimise them so far as is reasonably practicable. WorkSafe WA's code of practice on psychosocial hazards gives stress, fatigue and burnout as examples, alongside bullying, harassment, violence and aggression. If the pressure you are under comes from one of those, the workplace must address those risks. Personal habits cannot replace that duty.

Signs you may need more support

These are prompts for reflection, not a diagnosis:

• A small setback ruins the whole day.
• Rest, weekends and time off no longer restore you.
• You are short with people who have done nothing wrong.
• You have stopped asking for help because explaining it feels like more work.
• The routine that used to keep you ahead has quietly gone.

These changes can have several causes. If they persist, affect your daily life or worry you, talk to a GP, who can assess what support or treatment you need.

If any of this is close to home: in Australia, Lifeline is 13 11 14 and Beyond Blue is 1300 22 4636, both 24 hours. For people in construction, MATES in Construction's helpline is 1300 642 111, also 24 hours. In an emergency, call 000.

Where to go from here

The full conversations give each of these habits its context.

• Episode 21: 11 Years in the Army to Building Tradie HQ, with Dan Bailey, on decisions, expectations and covering for each other.
• Episode 19: Moving Out at 13 to a Seven Figure Business, with Vee Venture, on boundaries, burnout and hearing no.
• Episode 20: Barista to Sneaker Designer, with Leo Gonzalez, on walking away from a stalled project and working with a partner.
• Episode 18: The Real Cost of Opening a Cafe, with Simone Sichel, on hospitality hours and training staff for busy mornings.
• Episode 9: Building Trust and Crafting Culture, with Tim Keogh, on routine and repairing mistakes with a crew.
• Episode 11: From Rock Bottom to 300% Growth, with Trent Brisset, on culture and handling mistakes.
• Episode 16: Pro Boxing and the Pursuit of Greatness, with Jackson England, on losing early and learning from it.
• What Is Mental Fitness? Meaning, Habits and Real Examples, on reviewing a loss without replaying it.
• What Is Adversity? Meaning, Types and Real Examples, on hard circumstances and the people around you.