October 1, 2021
Reports, and maybe your own lived experience, indicate that stress, overwhelm, and burnout are impacting employees across the Northland.
Here are a few tips to help you identify the signs of burnout and take action to mitigate the harmful impacts on your workers AND your organization.
Workplace stress and burnout is nothing new. Yet, studies show the pandemic has exacerbated the strain for many workers and has been an accelerant for negative impacts. In fact, according to a Spring Health survey, 76% of U.S. workers report experiencing burnout.
The World Health Organization (WHO) includes burnout in its International Classification of Diseases, describing it as “a syndrome conceptualized as resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed.” WHO outlines three dimensions:
When employees are experiencing burnout, they may be in survival mode rather than in an optimal work mode. Employees may feel hopeless, unproductive, isolated, bitter, and detached.
An interesting Harvard Business Review study indicates that some workers (roughly 22%) experienced an improvement in wellbeing since the start of the pandemic.
The biggest contributors to the positive impacts included more time to exercise, healthier eating, and more family time. These data points can be used as lessons on what supports employee wellbeing amidst challenging work and life events.
According to a Gallup report, the risk of occupational burnout greatly increases when employees exceed an average of 50 hours per week and escalates substantially at 60 hours per week.
How people experience their workload also matters. Employees who are engaged and have job flexibility tend to work more hours each week while reporting higher wellbeing. But “endless” workloads can feel suffocating regardless of the number of hours actually worked per week.
Sustainable workloads support the ability to unplug in meaningful ways from work. It avoids the feeling of an endless hamster wheel of tasks and to-do lists. It also enhances the opportunity to incorporate healthy choices (like a walk break or a workout) into the day and actually have the energy it may take to purchase, prep and eat healthier meals.
Projects and timelines are not static. An important role of leaders is to stay connected with their teams to gauge deadlines and workloads, with an ability to make adjustments to avoid overwhelm.
A short survey may provide insight into a broader snapshot of your workforce on issues such as stress, fatigue, and burnout.
Some organizations are evaluating the infamous culprit that gobbles up our time: work meetings!
Admittedly, meetings have a valuable role and are a critical part of the flow of information. Yet, unproductive and unnecessary meetings erode our schedules, creating less productive time each day and exacerbating the pressure on workloads.
Utilize the Harvard Business Review meeting cost calculator to understand the cost of recurring meetings at your organization. Critically assess which meetings are essential and whether all meeting attendees actually need to be there. For remote workers, allow cameras off for some meetings to minimize screen fatigue.
Experiment with creative solutions that fit your setting and culture, such as setting aside one day (or a half day) per week without meetings (for example: no-meeting-Fridays). Finally, challenge the length of the meeting. Perhaps a one-hour meeting could be shortened to 45-minutes?
Discuss expectations around timelines, especially for matters such as responding to organizational email, messaging, and similar communications. This is especially important if your organization has adapted to a flexible or hybrid schedule, as team members may be working different hours.
For example, a coworker leaves early each day to pick up their child from daycare, but flexes this time and works an hour each evening. This individual may be sending emails at 8pm. It will be important for colleagues to have parameters and know that communication sent after 5pm will typically be responded to the next day.
Knowing that clear expectations for “response hours” are 8am-5pm may bring peace of mind and relieve the pressure of feeling “always on the clock.”
Your role as a leader is to help set these healthy boundaries and then walk the talk!
The benefits of paid time off are well established, with studies showing improved productivity, lower stress, and better overall mental health.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), paid vacation leave was available to 92% of private industry workers in the largest establishments (those with 500 workers or more) and 70% had access in the smallest private industry establishments (1–49 workers). Yet, studies show U.S. workers are not utilizing their vacation/paid time off to the detriment of their wellbeing and organizational productivity.
Leaders play an important role in valuing the importance of employees taking planned time off from work to unplug and re-energize.
The negative impacts of burnout include an increase in sick time (63%), drop in performance (13%), and an increase in turnover with employees more than two and a half times more likely to be job shopping!
Savvy employers keep a pulse on their workforce to recognize the signs of burnout and take proactive steps to mitigate these negative impacts.
The future is uncertain as COVID variants take hold around the world. A huge takeaway for your organization is the power of planning. Take time to examine what worked, what didn’t work, and lessons learned over the past year. Don’t squander this hard-earned opportunity. Integrate what worked and re-tool what didn’t work to navigate these challenges.
Originally published in August 2021 Business North.
HR thought leader and principal at Audacity HR, Stacy Johnston, provides innovative solutions with a mission to support organizations in understanding and engaging their biggest competitive advantage… their employees. Johnston is a licensed attorney and holds the SHRM-CP and PHR credentials.
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