Although burnout exists in all areas of our lives, it has been observed more frequently in recent years, and it become especially noticeable during the pandemic.
Common around the world, burnout is the culprit behind unmanageable workflows and unfinished projects. Burnout can cause inefficiencies in the office, and at worse, mass walk outs or high staff turnovers that are hard to managers to cope with.
Serious decreases in work efficiency and performance are due to low mood, stress and eventually burnout, and is considered normal and expected in high-pressured or very busy job roles. As burnout is being recoginsed, more and more people are working hard to achieve a healthy work life balance.
Burnout occurs over a period of time and causes mood disorders that can change suddenly. Burnout syndrome causes inefficiency and low performance in general but also depression and anxiety which leaks into the private lives of your staff and their social relations.
What is Burnout?
The World Health Organization added a parenthesis for those experiencing burnout.
As well as stress, suffers also experience physical and mental pain, lack of enjoyment and pride in thier work as well as a decrease in the desire to work.
This leads to a decrease in employee productivity and a noticeable decrease in performance. While burnout syndrome is considered a type of mental collapse, psychiatric intervention may be required in long-term cases.
Burnout caused by the stress experienced in the workplace, long working hours, not having enough days off, and working under intense pressure can cause severe changes in the emotional states of the employees.
In addition to decreased energy and a feeling of exhaustion, burnout also causes an inability to focus and negative emotions and tension between teams.
At first, burnout was seen as a problem that employees could cope with on their own, but nowadays, companies are expected to help prevent thier employees from burnout by offering additional benefits and taking a holistic approach to management.
Burnout is not usually a under the control of employees and some employees may not be able to overcome this situation without professional help.
For this reason, companies that provide support to their employees in the form of life coaches and therapists are seeing their employees cope better and remin happy and productive in the office.
What Causes Burnout?
In order to find the causes of burnout, first of all, it is necessary to look deeply into the conditions under which your employees work.
You need to evaluate this objectively, not as a manager, but as an employee. Understanding the impact of burnout on employees and finding out why it happens should be done by professional psychologists, life coaches, and therapists who are experts in their fields.
It is imperative to ensure that employees who experience burnout syndrome realise that situation is not their fault and let them know that they have support from the company.
Overworked and underappreicated
Burnout can occur due to many situations, from overtime to overwork, or to employees who still work at home well after after working hours and those who lose holiday entitlements because of lack of flexibility in their work schedules.
To understand this, you need to meet with the employees one-on-one and let them explain their feelings.
Mental Health Problems
Burnout sometimes does not occur only because of heavy working conditions, it may be due to a problem in the family or their social life. Likewise it could be a psychiatric condition that he or she experiencing that is triggering this mood change. The key is to be understanding and patient without being invasive.
Caring too Much
One of the main reasons for burnout is the desire to be productive every minute and every second during working hours. Burnout occurs in employees that care about their jobs and their company, so offering your full support will help you retain loyal and hardworking employees in the long run.
What are the Signs of Employee Burnout?
Understanding signs of burnout in your workplace may take some time. It is likely your employees will be reluctant to admit they are burntout in order not to damage thier position in the workplace.
Behavioural Changes
If you sense a stagnation lasting for a few weeks in an employee who usually has very creative ideas and radiates energy, this may be a sign of burnout syndrome.
In such cases, it is necessary to monitor the employee for a while and, if the situation continues in the same way, it may do you well to ask them how they are doing in their next one to one meeting.
In addition, if you have an employee who consistently delivers the deadlines then suddenly they begin to miss deadlines consistently over a few weeks, it could be a sign that they are struggling, either at work or at home.
Unexplained Absences
Some employees may say that they are sick and not come in, or want to leave work early. They will likely have stories that are inconsistent, jarred, and do not make much sense. Life happens and sudden absences are inevitable and mostly genuine, however if this is happening frequently over the course of months, it could be due to burnout.
This may give some clues that the employee has burnout syndrome. However, each of these symptoms may not be a sign of burnout syndrome - it is best not to assume but always ask if you are unsure.
Normal Mood Changes
No one is perfect and everyone struggles from time to time. Problems in their private lives, environmental factors, health conditions, bearavement and the myriad of things that can go wrong in life negatively affect the mood of the employees. Therefore, not every negative behavior should be associated with burnout syndrome.
They key is to be understanding and flexible. Never force you employee or make them feel backed into a corner, but let them know that your door is always open without judgement. Employees, even the most burnout and unhappy, are lifted when they know that their managerial team is patient and understanding.
Making sure that you have vigorous HR department is also key to helping your employees feel supported, and that they know their their feelings are recognised as human beings first, and employees second.
