How to Avoid Employee Burnout
Employee burnout is a genuine problem in the modern workplace, with some surveys putting the number of UK adults who have suffered from it as high as 70%. The affected employee may not immediately identify it as burnout, as they aren’t sure precisely what is happening to them.
Burnout can manifest as a loss of interest in their favourite aspects of the job and a general lack of enthusiasm. There is often an increase in irritability shown toward colleagues and customers alike, despite there being nothing out of the ordinary to trigger it.
What Exactly is Burnout?
According to clinical psychologists, burnout is a syndrome that is developed mainly in response to an accumulation of stress over a long period of time, combined with negative emotions and burning through their resources for coping. A burnout state is when employees feel overwhelmed by what is in front of them and don’t know how to change the situation so they are on top again.
This can lead to a decrease in employee retention as many employees who find that a job is impacting negatively on their mental health will choose to leave and find another job where they won't be as overwhelmed and they will be appreciated more for their efforts.
How to Recognise Burnout in Employees
Employee burnout can take some time to manifest fully and can often be seen in the early stages as chronic stress that hasn’t diminished over a long time period. It will likely become burnout if it lasts over 3 to 6 months. It is an emotional state that can look like drowsiness and fatigue in the early stages, with an associated decline in short-term memory and a decreased concentration overall.
As burnout continues, more symptoms, such as gastric problems, insomnia and chronic headaches, will manifest. Absenteeism can also increase across this stage as the employee simply can’t bear to be at work, but this also worsens their problem as the time they take away means they never feel like they have caught up, which serves to ratchet up the pressure on them further. They can become closed and withdrawn and find it hard to be drawn into conversation with their colleagues.
This can make life very difficult for their colleagues as they often feel that they should be picking up the slack and covering for the errors made by the person struggling with burnout. While this is commendable, it can also make it more difficult for the person with burnout to seek help with the problems they are experiencing, as things won’t come to a head quickly.
The final stage of employee burnout is characterised by excessive apathy and a loss of vitality, risking a descent into a deep bout of clinical depression. All interest in work tends to be lost at this point, and it is at this point that many will seek to take time off to deal with their depression. This is where it becomes a real difficulty for the company, as in many workplaces, employees can take up to three months off on full pay, with a further three months on half pay. Any time beyond those six months.
What are the Causes of Burnout
Several factors contribute to the build-up of burnout in employees, and many of them relate to the intensity of the work being undertaken. This is why some of the careers where burnout is the most common are those where emotionally intense work is undertaken, such as social work and nursing.
Emotionally Demanding Work
It can be challenging to pursue an extraordinarily intense and demanding job, and switching off again at the end of the working day can be tricky. These kinds of careers require the people doing them to invest in the well-being of their clients or patients as part of the job, which makes burnout more likely to happen to people in these jobs.
Thwarted Ambition / Lack of Recognition
It is not just the inability to switch off and taking emotional baggage home that causes the problem, the negative emotions inherent in burnout are often triggered when an employee is refused a promotion chance as well. This impacts negatively when they feel they could have stepped up to a higher level. Thwarted ambition can be a significant factor in triggering an employee burnout episode.
A lack of recognition can also lead to burnout, when someone is working at absolute capacity and doing a good job with it, the wrong words from someone in the management tier can cause them to spiral. Having a meeting where an employee is told to “pull their socks up” or that they “aren’t pulling their weight” when they are actually one of the better-performing employees can cause anger and resentment to build up, contributing to burnout.
Monotonous Work / Working at Capacity
If employees are doing a lot of monotonous work or are working at capacity for weeks and months on end, this is another potential cause of burnout. Employees need to know that there will be an end point to them having to work at absolute capacity. It shouldn’t be something they have to do all the time, as this isn’t good from a mental health perspective. It is unfair to expect an employee to work at this stress level for a sustained period.
Ways to Prevent Burnout
Prevention is always a better and easier option than cure, and in the case of burnout, it means reviewing how you treat your employees. Look at how heavy their workloads are and check if they have been running at a heavy workload for a sustained period. If so, try to take some of the weight off their shoulders by assigning some to someone who isn’t quite as burdened.
Try to ensure that people take the vacation time to which they are entitled and that the work doesn’t just pile up for them while they are away. Make sure they don’t dread taking time off because all the work will just be waiting for them on their return. If they can actually relax and rest, it may be enough to stave off burnout.
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