Employee burnout is a problem during stable times, let alone stressful times. Lower productivity, emotional and physical exhaustion, lack of concentration, less recognition from managers, negativity and a decline in health are all signs of burnout. And employees are at risk now more than ever before. Thus, eliminating burnout in the workplace and further knowing how to prevent employee burnout is crucial for retention and overall employee well-being.
Therefore, read this resource by the Canada Medical Exam Society to understand the causes of workplace burnout, its prevention importance and how you can eliminate it for your organization. The estimated read time is 5-7 minutes.
What Is Employee Burnout
World Psychiatry defines burnout as a response to prolonged exposure to emotional, physical and interpersonal stressors. It is a chronic feeling of exhaustion, cynicism, and inefficacy.
Recent research has found that employees who experienced more significant stress levels felt higher levels of exhaustion, cynicism and inefficacy. Furthermore, most engaged employees feel the impacts of stress more than unengaged employees.
Common Causes Of Workplace Burnouts
- Overload of Work
- Pressure
- Role conflict and ambiguity
- Lack of support from managers, feedback, fairness and equity, participation in decision making
- Values disconnect
- A “broken” psychological contract between an employer and employee
Eliminating workplace burnout is vital. However, these factors alone or in combination can lead even your best people to withdraw from their work.
Importance of Workplace Burnout Prevention
Engaged employees drive actual business results — they’re energized, enthusiastic and focused. Engaged employees enjoy their work and help boost productivity, performance, morale and growth. Ultimately, employee engagement is beneficial for people and businesses.
However, highly engaged employees have low well-being due to unmanaged personal and workplace stressors, and burnout can happen. An employee has to be highly engaged to be burned out at work. The employee has to be all in and care deeply about their work to get to the point of feeling burned out. Therefore, top-performing, highly engaged employees are at the highest risk for burnout.
Did You Know?
With engages employees, businesses are;
- 78% more profitable
- 40% more productive
- 5x less likely to have a safety incident
- Stock growth price 2.5x that of their peers
How To Eliminate Workplace Burnout
The good news is that burnout is preventable. With strong management support and an understanding of what causes job burnout, employers can prevent their top talent from burning out more readily.
- Managers should meet with each of their direct reports each week for a one-on-one meeting. In this weekly meeting, managers should check on the employee’s overall well-being and address any issues that arise quickly. Design a plan for your employees to achieve their goals — balance is essential.
- Help your employees find their “sweet spot” of stress. Good stress keeps you on your toes, ready to rise to a challenge. In contrast, bad stress can lead to many physical and mental health problems. Thus, encourage your employees to leave an hour early after a particularly stressful day or take a break when needed.
- Challenge employees to create a plan to connect with a friend, family member or colleague at a scheduled time each week. Schedule weekly team lunches, go on a walking meeting or plan a team-building activity or happy hour. Celebrate your employees, and bring teams together to refresh and rejuvenate as a company to prevent work burnout. This will lift their mood and help them feel connected.
- Connect each employee’s role to your organization’s mission and values. Connecting roles to how jobs directly contribute to the company’s goals help reinforce why each employee’s role matters.
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