Tips for Avoiding Employee Burnout

This second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic has left people feeling stressed, uncertain and exhausted. For those fortunate enough to have work, many are burning the candle at both ends.

The Myth About Remote Work

There is pressure to produce more because of the myth that working remotely means you’re not working enough. The lines between work and home are blurred and boundaries are crossed as to how to say no and when to put way thoughts of work for the day.

The myth about remote work is real even if only in the eyes of the employees themselves. The time savings captured by the absence of a commute allows for the rationalization that “I’m just working the hours I would have used to commute back and forth to and from work” or “I’ll just check on my email for a few minutes before bed” and it finds employees working much longer hours and struggling to separate their work and home life.

According to a recent study by Robert Half, 55 per cent of professionals who transitioned to a remote setup for work due to the pandemic shared that they work on the weekend. Also, 34 per cent of these remote employees indicated that they regularly worked more than an 8-hour day.

In what Canadian cities does this occur most prevalently? The highest percentages of remote employees who work on the weekends include: Calgary, Alberta; and Toronto and Ottawa, Ontario.

What is Burnout?

Let’s now make this a perfect storm and add in working remotely where meetings and collaboration occurs virtually. How do you really tell how employees are doing? Before we answer this question, let’s ensure we’re on the same page by defining the term, burnout. The Mayo Clinic defined it as a state of physical, emotional or mental exhaustion combined with doubts about your competence and the value of your work.

According to the book, Burnout, by authors Emily and Amelia Nagoski, even when you feel totally depleted there remains something in the back of your mind that niggles at you saying that you haven’t done enough or what’s necessary. This contradiction in thought and experience puts you at odds with feelings of being overworked, inadequate, and overpowered by life.

What is a Leader to Do?

Now, let’s add the leader or front-line manager into the mix. They are responsible for the organizing work, communicating key directives from senior management, and ensuring that the deadlines are met. They too are feeling the pressure and stress of today’s uncertain climate yet have the added responsibility of keeping a pulse on employee morale, productivity, and overall well-being.

To a leader’s dismay, it is their top talent, the hard-working team players who are often most at risk. The University of Cambridge conducted a study of more than 1,000 US workers and found that those who are highly engaged in their work are also exhausted and ready to leave their organizations. No employer wants to lose their most motivated and hard-working employees due to burnout.

Here are 5 tips to employees avoid burnout:

1. Lead by example.
   Employees observe what you do. If you’re encouraging them to take regular breaks and prioritize their well-being, you should do the same.
   
   Asking your team to disconnect requires you to discipline yourself as a leader to avoid sending emails late at night or creating situations for your team that result in heavier workloads.
   
2. Share experiences through team-building activities.
   Hold brief (e.g., 30-minute time blocks) virtual sessions on a weekly basis with your employees and use break-out groups to talk about how stress can harm the body and brainstorm around ways to keep burnout under control.
   
   Allow your employees to buddy up and have each other’s back to watch for signs of burnout too. As a leader, you don’t have to be the sole caretaker in this mental health prevention endeavour. People learn best from people they trust and those who are credible in their eyes. It may be a colleague who shares tips for what has been working well for them.
   
3. Educate about burnout warning signs.
   Ask your employer to provide criteria, resources and checklists to watch for signs of burnout.
   
   There are free burnout tests that can be taken in 5 minutes or less including those offered by MindTools.com and PsychologyToday.com. Consider testing yourself and inviting your employees to do the same.
   
4. Understand your employees’ workloads.
   More sophisticated technology allows for increasingly agile ways of working. To help prevent employee burnout, ensure you have direct oversight of what your employees are working on and understand their overall workload.
   
   Aside from tech tools, consider the old-fashioned approach and verbally check in with your employees on a regular basis, even for 5 minutes, to solicit feedback and connect to show you care.
   
5. Provide practical tips for managing stress.
   As a leader, part of your role is to mentor your people in ways to be effective, and productive. This involves providing tools and examples of how to delegate and focus one’s time without interruption, especially when the pressure is on and deadlines are tight.
   
   It means creating an environment where it is okay to ask for help, admit mistakes, and ask for time off before burnout takes hold. This process requires the ability to communicate freely and openly so that people feel safe to share when they are struggling.

Increasingly, employees are at risk of burnout and the need to prioritize and ensure balance is put back in their life is critically important. There are no easy or quick answers, but there are free tools available to relieve stress, promote trust, and support well-being.

The reality is: burnout is detrimental to an organization’s bottom line. We know there is a great deal to consider regarding this topic. Please contact us with your questions and let’s work together and create solutions that work best for you and your organization.