Volunteer​/psych students research to prevent actual burnout

Volunteer:
Psych Students to Prevent Employee Burnout

3 days ago — be among the first 25 applicants.

Looking for psychology/behavioural science students who want to do research that actually gets used.

We’re building a platform that predicts employee burnout 2-4 weeks before it happens. The AI can spot the warning signs, but the problem is that managers don’t know what to do with that information. They can see someone’s struggling, but they don’t know when they’re “allowed” to step in, what to say, or what actually helps versus what makes things awkward and weird.

That’s the gap we need to close.

Someone to build an evidence‑based intervention library grounded in Self‑Determination Theory. This means:

• Manager conversation guides that don’t sound like corporate HR speak
• Self‑care suggestions for employees that aren’t just “take a bath”
• Team intervention protocols for when multiple people are burning out
• HR recommendations when the problem is systemic, not individual

This isn’t academic work that lives in a drawer. Real managers will use these guides with their teams starting January. The pilots are happening whether we’re ready or not.

• Literature review:
  What actually works for burnout recovery? What’s the evidence for autonomy‑supportive leadership? When does psychological safety training stick versus fail? Map effect sizes, quality ratings, contextual factors.
• Write the damn thing:
  Manager guides need opening scripts that don’t sound robotic, questions that create space for honest conversation, action plans that actually get done. Employee self‑care acts must address specific needs (autonomy vs. competence vs. relatedness vs. exhaustion), work for different contexts (remote vs. office), and have scientific backing.
• Organise it so developers can use it – tag everything, create selection logic, structure the database.

• We’re raising funds in 2026. If you do great work on this and want to stay involved, there’s a real path to a paid role as we scale. It could be continued consulting during pilots (analyzing what’s working), joining the team properly, or co‑authoring research papers if we publish.
• We’re not promising anything we can’t deliver, but the trajectory is clear: volunteer foundation work now, paid opportunities if we raise and you want them.

• You’re studying psychology, organisational behaviour, occupational health, or something adjacent.
• You care about whether interventions actually work, not just whether they sound good.
• You’re comfortable diving into literature, or at least excited to learn.
• You want portfolio work showing you can bridge research and practice, not just review papers.
• Previous work experience doesn’t matter. Genuine curiosity about this problem does.

• Practical experience translating research into something usable.
• Mentorship from someone who actually works in this field.
• A portfolio piece that shows a rare skill (most psychology students can critique studies, fewer can design interventions people will actually use).
• Potential co‑authorship if we publish findings.
• And frankly, the satisfaction of knowing your work might prevent someone’s burnout in a real company.

In 2002, I was about to be evicted. A stranger helped me find housing with one simple philosophy: “I help you, you help me. Everybody happy.” I spent the next 20 years paying that forward. DMAFB brings that same idea into workplaces – predict who’s struggling, mobilise acts of kindness and support before things get bad.

We’ve got several hundred volunteers signed up for testing, partnerships with Brunel and London Met building the tech. We finished Founder Institute, we’re deliberately not doing more accelerators. MVP launches end of December, pilots start January.

Your intervention framework is what makes those pilots actually work instead of just being another wellbeing initiative that fizzles.

Send us three things:

• 1) Who you are (2–3 sentences, doesn’t need to be formal)
• 2) Why this interests you (what draws you to this problem specifically?)
• 3) One quick intervention design sample

Pick any workplace challenge you’ve…