You might be seeing the term “burnout” a lot more these days, and for good reason, worker burnout has been increasing steadily and it can cause some real problems in the workplace.
Burnout, simply put, is the emotional, mental, or physical exhaustion currently affecting nearly a quarter of the American workforce on a daily basis.
Burnout expresses differently in everyone and can come from a host of sources like a dysfunctional or inconsistent workplace, poor management, confusing job expectations, and the lack of a true work-life balance. Often employees simply take on too much because managers keep asking them, and eventually the inability to say “no” to a superior will cause unmanageable stress.
The strain might not just come from a heavy workload either, it’s often a result of constantly dealing with micromanaging or high levels of bureaucracy.
Burnout can lead to less severe effects, like the inability to concentrate, lack of motivation, apathy, or general irritability, and increase to the detrimental, like health problems such as fatigue, heart and gastrointestinal problems, depression, insomnia, and an increased risk of abusing substances as a coping mechanism.
Even the most engaged employee can suffer from burnout if the proper steps aren’t taken by management.
Unfortunately, even though regular vacations do have significant positive correlations with employee engagement, simply getting away won’t solve the core issues if employees are coming back to the same chaotic environment that they left. Your employees will need your help to change how they approach their job, their workload, or likely both, otherwise you’ll face significant turnover.
As a manager, don’t push perfectionism. High standards are wonderful, but they need to be realistically met in the long term, so be willing to lessen workloads. Do what you can to change how you organize and structure your employee’s responsibilities; even making a few changes to streamline processes and open up communication can greatly alleviate tensions.
Keep business dealings to business hours and consider implementing company initiatives to stay healthy and combat stress with an emphasis on self-care. This could mean access to yoga and meditation or just simply making mental health days as ubiquitous as sick days. If employees feel like they can occasionally take a day off without judgment then they’re far less likely to reach the point of no return.
And of course, keep yourself in mind, too—managers are even more likely to experience symptoms of burnout when experiencing these issues.
