Mental exhaustion, anxiety and extensive stress are feelings that many working people face today. Our jobs are taking a toll on our physical and mental health due to high demands, unrealistic expectations and not enough time in the day. Job burnout is a common symptom of a larger issue that is going on in the workplace.
What is Burnout?
The Mayo Clinic defines employee burnout as “a special type of work-related stress — a state of physical or emotional exhaustion that also involves a sense of reduced accomplishment and loss of personal identity”. The World Health Organization describes employee burnout as “feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion, increased mental distance from one’s job, or feelings of negativism or cynicism related to one’s job and a sense of ineffectiveness and lack of accomplishment.” The stresses of work are becoming more prevalent, especially in the world of today.
Creating a healthy work balance for your employees is crucial for your business’s success. With employee burnout comes lack of productivity, apathy, absenteeism, and low quality work. Your employees’ well-being, both physical and mental, are important, remember- Great performance won’t happen if your team doesn’t feel great.
According to Mental Health America, “nine in ten employees report that their workplace stress affects their mental health and four in five employees feel emotionally drained from their work”. The pandemic has also “amplified” these issues for employees”. Many people not used to remote work are thrown into it. Boundaries between work and personal life have disappeared for some. Workplace stress, remote or onsite, is increasing. Having a job comes with working hard, that’s understood, but pushing until a person can’t continue to be pushed anymore isn’t the way to get what your business needs done.
Why Is Employee Burnout Bad For Business?
Employee burnout leads to decreased productivity which in turn affects companies. Work-related stress can cause a lack of performance. Health care costs of businesses are through the roof due to mental health issues started by work related circumstances. Giving your staff unrealistic conditions is proving to be detrimental to employees’ health and business’s processes “costing employers $31 billion to $51 billion per year in lost productivity” according to Sapien Labs. As well as Stress.org reporting that companies spend around “75% of a worker’s annual salary to cover lost productivity or to replace workers”.
“Excessive work stress related conditions reportedly resulted in 120,000 deaths and nearly $190 billion in health care costs each year” according to American Psychiatric Association Foundation.
Providing your staff with less stressful circumstances, attainable deadlines and goals will lead to better worker performance, more successful outcomes and more positive experiences in the workplace.
How To Support Your Employee’s Before Burnout Happens?
Showing support to your staff is pivotal to keeping employees wellness in check. Introducing these tips into your business can help to prevent and stop employee burnout.
1. Creating an environment in which your team can perform to their highest ability should be a focal point. The environment that you set for your staff will be what either leads you to success or not. The environment should be one in which people feel comfortable with each other, know each other and be able to have opportunities for both group and individual tasks. Mutual respect is essential to an effective work environment. Having interaction between your team is important so that relationships can be established.
2. Communication. The most basic but effective tip. Talking with your staff and allowing professional bonds is encouraged. Your staff should be able to talk with management openly and willingly. But this has to be introduced. You can’t expect your staff to be comfortable with talking with you or others if you don’t try to initiate a conversation.
3. Realistic Deadlines and Tasks. Your staff are human, and want to do good work, treat them as such. Your team aren’t machines who don’t take time to get tasks done. Putting unrealistic timelines on things only hurts your business and your staff’s performance. Giving realistic deadlines and tasks allows your staff for better productivity. The entire team should always be involved in setting deadlines and goals.
4. Breaks. Breaks are a good thing. Don’t be hesitant to give your staff some time to recuperate from their tasks. Mental breaks are very needed when working. They allow you to stay productive and continue working at a high performance. Allowing multiple breaks in a day can lead to more successful results. I run some software that makes me take several quick breaks throughout the day. I get up, grab some water, and clear my head. It really helps me continue my day.
5. You Don’t Have To Have That Meeting. Your staff already has enough to do, attending an hour-long meeting that gives no valuable information or a meeting that is not related to certain tasks is a waste of everyone’s time and your money. Every meeting should have a purpose, an agenda, start on time and end on time.
What Are The Signs Of Burnout?
- Lack of Concentration
- Feeling Exhausted All of the Time/ Chronic Fatigue
- Mood Changes
- Consistent Absenteeism
- Decreased Quality of Work
- Withdrawal From Co Workers
- Insomnia
- Anxiety
Your team is what helps your business stay successful. Don’t overwork the people helping you achieve your successes. Don’t burn out your employees with changeable circumstances and hinder their performance due to your own lack of understanding and disregard of their feelings. It’s your money being wasted and their health being sacrificed. Creating a healthy work balance is extremely attainable and a necessity of today.