When at work, stress can quickly leave employees feeling overwhelmed. Without the proper tools and support structures in place, this stress can quickly turn into burnout, leaving employees unable to perform to their true potential. Considering that 79% of employees experienced heavy periods of stress at work at least once a month, burnout is now much more common than one might think.
The actual symptoms of burnout can range from emotional exhaustion to even physical fatigue, depending on the individual person. One thing is certain, burnout is on the right, with 52% of workers reporting feeling burnt out. That number has increased dramatically over recent years, with COVID exacerbating the difficult circumstances that people are working in.
Companies that don’t adapt to this new normal and ensure that their employees have systems in place to fall back on risk losing the momentum of their teams. At best, burnout could set back a project. At worst, it could lead to key members of your team quitting to find jobs with a less stressful environment.
In order to help your business navigate the dangers of employee burnout, we’ve created this guide. We’ll document the key signs that point to burnout and the best strategies that you can use to prevent employee burnout.
Let’s get right into it.
How To Spot an Employee That’s Burning Out
Even if your team is completely virtual, there are still core signs of burnout that you should be able to spot. Especially if you’ve been working with your team members for an extended period of time, it’ll be even easier to notice any differences in their attitude or work ethic.
When monitoring for burnout, there are a few qualities that always seem to start to show:
Lack of Engagement - If an employee seems much less interested in the projects that you’re currently working on, they could be suffering from burnout. When burnout hits, it’s easy to feel like projects don’t matter, leading to employees not caring about the work they’re doing. If you notice that a positive and engaged employee is participating much less than normal, this could be a sign.
Careless Mistakes - We all make mistakes from time to time, that’s just being human. But, when an employee starts to make careless mistakes across all of their tasks, it could be due to a lack of interest. Careless mistakes, when repeated time and time again, are a sure sign of someone that’s not committed or interested in the work they’re doing. Before you see red flags, know that this is common for someone that’s feeling burnout.
Self-Doubt - Burnout can impact self-confidence to a great degree. If employees are given more work than they can handle, they might not be able to turn in top-quality work. If you notice employees are constantly doubting the quality of their work or the validity of their input, their self-doubt might be a sign of burnout.
Decreased Satisfaction - When you pull off a milestone at work, you normally have mixed feelings of relief that a project is over and pride in the work that you’ve created. If you notice employees simply moving from one project to the next without blinking an eye, they might be experiencing burnout.
While these four signs are by no means the only possible signals that an employee might be experiencing burnout, they are often a very good indicator.
Be sure to look out for these signs. Even if you’re not 100% sure that an employee is feeling burnt out, it’s always better to move to preventative strategies ahead of time.
Best Strategies to Prevent Burnout in the Workplace
When trying to prevent burnout in the workplace, many of the strategies which work best come back to great communication. If your employees don’t feel like they can come to their manager and honestly discuss how they’re feeling, then they’re much more likely to suffer in silence instead of reaching out.
To help you create a better culture in the workplace, here are our top three strategies for preventing burnout:
- Hire more employees
- Prevent Recovery Time
- Provide Career Opportunities
Let’s break these down further.
Hire More Employees
While this one might seem a bit brash, it really does do wonders for your workplace. One of the leading causes of burnout is too much work, with employees having to take on more than they can handle. A fairly easy solution for this without delaying your projects is to make sure there are more employees to handle the work.
Be sure to discuss with your employees and pinpoint areas where they think they need an extra hand. If there is a specific task or role that they’re covering that burns them out, you can hire a new person to cover that function.
Prevent Recovery Time
What happens when you finish a project? Do you congratulate your employees and give them a small break, or do you just rush straight into the next one? If your management style is more the latter than the former, then you should work on giving your employees more credit for the work they do.
Offering down periods between projects will allow employees to figuratively get their breath back. Although only one or two days, this break can really work magic in improving employee stamina in the long run.
Provide Career Opportunities
Many employees suffer from burnout as they feel stagnant in their position. If they don’t see any opportunities to grow or move up the ladder from their position, their work can often feel pointless.
By providing employee development opportunities, where everyone can improve their skills and gain experience that helps them move toward promotions, they’ll have more of an incentive at work. At the end of the day, managers have to remember that a job is simply a job for most people. If you can’t provide a clear pathway up the ladder, another company will.
Final Thoughts
No employee wants to underperform at work. But, if they’re continually getting more work than they can handle, especially without reward, then you’ve created a recipe for burnout. In our current world conditions, with more people working from home than ever before, it’s important to have online resources that employees can reach out for.
Instead of letting your employees suffer in silence, create a conversation about burnout. With a positive space where your team can discuss their workload, how they’re feeling, and voice their concerns, everyone will be better prepared for the future. Fostering a culture that places employee wellness first is vital; preventing burnout should be a top priority for every manager in the workplace.
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