Burnout Archives - The Future of Work Exchange

Mental Well-Being Critical to Curbing Employee Burnout

Business Leadership General Insights by John Yuva on 11/20/2023

When we refer to the Future of Work, we’re often talking about a better overall workforce experience. Certainly, a workplace that considers employee purpose, well-being, and work/life balance. In essence, the Future of Work should help prevent one of the leading causes of workforce distress and The Great Resignation — employee burnout. Indeed conducted a survey in 2021 of 1,500 U.S. workers to compare the level of burnout before and after the COVID-19 pandemic. The survey revealed that 67% of all workers believed burnout had worsened during the pandemic. What was the primary reason behind the increase?

Despite most employees working remotely, the survey indicated that more than half (53%) worked more hours virtually than when they were on-site. According to Indeed: Nearly one-third (31%) say they are working “much more” than before the pandemic. On-site workers reported longer hours as well, with 27% who said they worked more daily, and 34% who worked longer on a weekly basis. The inability to unplug from projects, coupled with the lack of guidance surrounding work/life boundaries contributed to longer working hours.

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Employee Burnout Still Simmering in Enterprises

Business Leadership General Insights by John Yuva on 01/05/2023

The State of Burnout in 2023

While the Indeed survey took place in 2021, how is employee burnout faring as we begin navigating 2023? According to a recent report from Aflac “2022-2023 Aflac WorkForces Report,” more than half (59%) of American workers are experiencing at least moderate levels of burnout, a notable increase over 2021 (52%) and on par with the levels reported in 2020 at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Aflac surveyed 1,200 employers and 2,001 employees. Survey responses indicated the following:

Employees who suffer from high levels of burnout report lower job satisfaction (55%)
Lower confidence that their employers care about them (47%)
Negative perceptions of work-life balance (55%)
A higher likelihood of seeking another job in the next year (56%).

Matthew Owenby, chief human resources officer for Aflac Incorporated, stated, “A major concern of employee burnout is the impact on their well-being and how it affects engagement and retention. Employers are looking for new ways to offer benefits that help improve their employees’ mental health balance,” he said.

Knowing the signs of employee burnout is critical to prevent retention issues. In its “A Manager’s Guide to Preventing Employee Burnout,” Lyra identifies 8 signs of employee burnout that managers and executive leadership should be aware of as they interact with employees.

Exhaustion or feeling overwhelmed
Physical symptoms such as chronic headache or fatigue
Anger or irritability
Distancing themselves from their work
Nervousness or feeling uncertain
Low motivation
Sadness
Difficulty concentrating

Strategies to Extinguish Burnout

When managers witness the above signs in an employee, it is empathy more than anything else that he or she needs. Acknowledging how work can be overwhelming at times and how as a manager those same feelings exist establishes a common ground by which to probe further.

Here are four strategies to bring employee burnout to the forefront in the enterprise and address it with compassion, understanding, and well-being in mind.

Address employee burnout directly. Often, the best way to come to terms with an issue, is to address it head on. During an interview with CNBC, Jennifer Moss, author of “The Burnout Epidemic: The Rise of Chronic Stress and How We Can Fix It,” spent time with CNBC’s Workforce Executive Council.

She views employee burnout as a mental health issue. And one that needs the support of management to promote trust, safety, and prioritization of mental health toward employees. Managers need to dedicate 15 minutes every week with their direct reports to assess how they’re feeling and where their mental pain points exist.

Moss says the following key questions can help managers better understand the mental well-being of their employees and devise solutions to address existing issues.

How was this week?
What were the highs and lows?
What can I do for you next week to make things easier?
What can we do for each other?

Flexible scheduling and time off pay dividends. One of the major workplace outcomes from the pandemic is the concept of flexible scheduling. Many remote workers realized they were more productive during specific hours of the day. Depending on the role, companies enabled employees to choose hours that better reflected availability and higher productivity.

Similarly, time off to rebalance, recharge, and reboot cannot be underestimated. Taking time off, even for a three-day weekend, is crucial to mental health and emotional well-being. However, managers (and even executive leadership) must model these behaviors. Unless a manager actively communicates, encourages, and sets the example for taking time off, employees will remain hesitant to pursue mental health days or PTO.

Work/life balance remains critical. The Indeed survey revealed that approximately “70% of all respondents have access to work communications on their phones — making them 84% more likely to work after hours.” How does this promote work/life balance? Employees are never truly taking PTO or enjoying off hours if they’re always connected to the office. However, some employees, particularly those in management positions, believe the company is unable to function without being tethered to it.

Work/life balance is about establishing priorities outside of work and living life off the corporate grid. Whether it’s taking vacation or going for a 30-minute walk to recharge, employers must encourage and model this Future of Work tenet to curb employee burnout.

Employee perks resonate with workers. What is the benefit of working for an organization? While compensation remains high on the list, it is benefits (including perks) that strike a chord with employees. Access to mental health professionals, days off beyond holidays, casual dress code, flexible scheduling, and other perks are helping with employee balance. The commitment to such perks is often reflected in an enterprise’s overall culture.

A strong enterprise culture with employee success and well-being in mind, will seek feedback to choose perks that appeal to most workers. Organizations should also consider activities (e.g., sports, cultural, community service, etc.) that occur outside of work but bring employees together regardless of business unit.

Regardless of whether your team is remote, hybrid, or permanently on-site, managers should be gauging employee burnout. While difficult to quantify, employee burnout does have detrimental impacts on the bottom line. However, that shouldn’t be the primary focus or reason to monitor workforce well-being. It must be an effort that involves every level of the organization. When communicated and acted upon, mental wellness becomes the responsibility of everyone and is ingrained in the fabric of the culture.

The Future of How We Work Includes…Naps?

Business Leadership General Insights by Christopher J. Dwyer on 10/24/2022

Raise your hand if you’ve experienced burnout at work sometime over the past year. Worker burnout (notice that it’s worker burnout, not just employee burnout; external workers face this issue, too) has become a critical issue in the new world of work, with more professionals than ever before dealing with overwrought anxiety, stress, and both mental and physical exhaustion from their careers.

A study by job board Indeed, released earlier this year, found that 52% of all workers are feeling burned out, which was a near-10% increase from a pre-COVID study. While this increase doesn’t seem like much on the surface, just imagine the cross-section of workers this represents in terms of sheer volume…that’s millions and millions of business professionals, blue-collar workers, white-collar workers, freelancers, contractors, gig workers, etc. that are currently mired in a burnout epidemic.

Too, Ardent Partners and Future of Work Exchange research found that 72% of executive leaders anticipate transforming the way they manage their teams by centering their understanding of workers’ perspectives, feelings, and, yes, stress and exhaustion. This shift in business thinking (a key element of the Future of Work movement) translates into leadership knowing that burnout has become an issue to tackle in an increasingly-evolving world of work.

Nearly two weeks ago, The New York Times ran a feature on Tricia Hersey, the so-called “Nap Bishop” who preaches the value of rest, recovery, and reflection on the human body…and mind.

“Thus the Nap Ministry was born, and Hersey anointed herself its Nap Bishop. She urges followers to use time they might otherwise devote to extra work to sleeping instead, the stretches they’d spend staring at a screen to staring into space. Tense moments given over to worry about disappointing others would be better spent reflecting on our own needs and comforts, Hersey said. It’s about collectively refusing to run ourselves into the ground.”

The most powerful statement in that excerpt? “Collectively refusing to run ourselves into the ground.” Too many of us (the vast majority of us, I would believe) work well past the 40-hour mark each week, dedicating ourselves to our craft, our professions, and our passions. And, just because something is a passion doesn’t mean it can’t burn us out. Even the best-fit, best-aligned roles that make us complete can also make us haggard and exhausted.

When I first read the feature on Hersey and her Nap Ministry, I was a tad confounded myself; after all, taking a snooze at 2pm in the afternoon when you’re supposed to be behind a laptop, on the surface, just seems wrong. And it’s here where Hershey just nails this idea of “rest as privilege”:

“Rest can also feel like a privilege, and many people tell Hersey they can’t afford to lie down when there are bills to pay. She acknowledges that many see walking away from obligations as unrealistic, but counters that devoting even one spare moment to rest is worthwhile, and a practice that can be built on over time.”

Burnout has become an epidemic within the workforce over the past several years, particularly over the last two-plus years due to more and more professionals spending more time in a remote environment, in which the boundaries between “work” and “personal life” are often blurred. Those workers that cannot operate in a remote environment have also been pushed beyond their limits with staffing shortages abound.

I’ve worked remotely for a number of years and decided to experiment a bit with Hersey’s teachings. All of last week, I incorporated more rest, reflection, and yes, naps, into my daily work routine:

Monday. An afternoon stacked with meetings and calls means I can’t sneak away for some shuteye during the second half of my work day. I decide to shut down my laptop for 45 minutes at 12pm, play some acoustic Smashing Pumpkins, and close my eyes. My alarm blares as I am in a deep dream state. Immediate insights: Don’t nap when you came home at 12:30am from a concert in the city (again, Smashing Pumpkins), still feel the effects of a COVID vaccine booster, and wake up at 6am to walk the dog. If my alarm didn’t ring, I could have slept for another few hours.
Tuesday. My day looks nearly as same as it did on Monday, with a heavier arsenal of meetings during the second half of the day. Without the aura of exhaustion that plagued Monday, I set an alarm for 3:57pm (three minutes before my 4pm meeting) and head for the quietness of the master bedroom at 2:45pm. Immediate insights: This one actually rejuvenated me and gave me enough of a boost to 1) get through the rest of my work day, 2) manage two overtired children for homework and dinner, and 3) be awake enough to catch up on some television with my wife.
Wednesday. This is a truer test for the power of naps, with meetings staggered throughout the day (every other hour beginning at 10am). I aim for a 30-minute snooze after lunch. Immediate insights: This was less a “nap” and more “reflection.” I didn’t truly all asleep, but the serenity of sitting on a comfortable bed with nothing but my thoughts helped me refocus on my breathing and thoughts. It was a nice addition to the work day.
Thursday. The calls are relentless today, as is my delivery schedule. I notice that my only real opening for rest (or reflection) is at 4pm. I take the opportunity to shut down the laptop a bit early, head to the master bedroom, and set a timer for 70 minutes. Immediate insights: This was, by far, the best nap all week thus far. I had enough energy to handle an extra hour of work while the kids did their homework. And, thanks to Freshly, I didn’t have to cook. And, Thursday Night Football (the entire game, for once) was a real possibility.
Friday. Some team meetings in the morning, as well as catching up with old friends in the MSP world. With (obviously) much work to do in a no-call afternoon, I consider skipping a period of rest and reflection today…but when I realize that the weekend ahead is filled with kids’ activities and sports, as well as some FOWX work to tackle, it bodes well for my body and mind to slow down and shut off my mind for a bit. Immediate insights: My final nap during this very, very interesting experiment is absolutely refreshing. Many of us feel exhausted on Friday afternoons, with that edge of burnout carrying into the weekend.

While most of my experiment revolved around naps during the workday, the underlying foundation of Hersey’s mission is not for all of us to shut down and sneak in a snooze, but rather truly rest and reflect during those chaotic hours in which we are toiling away as part of our professional personas. Replace any of the above naps with 45 or 60 minutes of self-reflection or mindfulness, and the result will be the same: some semblance of a solution to burnout in an era when it’s just too, too common. We are all very likely to open our laptops during non-work hours, so there shouldn’t be an issue with grabbing some rest or reflection (or just some quiet non-work time) during the business day.

Let’s Not Ignore Worker Burnout

Business Leadership Talent by Christopher J. Dwyer on 08/09/2021

In late spring 2004, I graduated from Suffolk University with a degree in print journalism. In-between traversing between temporary accounting and finance gigs, I knocked on the doors of every local newspaper in the North Shore area above Boston. Some editors gave me a firm “no” while others offered poorly-paid freelance opportunities to write an article or two week per week. I eventually stumbled into a newspaper office in a larger Boston suburb and spent 45 minutes with the owner and publisher chatting about newspaper layout, local politics, the Red Sox, and more. When he found out that I could write, edit, and design (a “three-tool player” in the world of journalism, a rarity), he hired me on the spot.

During my first couple of weeks, I thought I landed a dream job…right out of college. I was covering political issues, police budget cuts, school committee meetings, and so much more. During my second or third week as “designer version” of my role, when I had to put together nearly 50 pages of ads, stories, features, pictures, etc. using Microsoft Publisher, the owner saw me yawn and rub my eyes. “You’ll do great in this industry, kid,” he said. “As long as you don’t get tired, you’ll be fine.” I thought he was joking, so I smiled. And less than a year later, I left the industry for good.

I clocked more 18-hours days than I could remember. I once worked 28 straight hours because a co-worker up and quit during an argument with the owner. In order to attend a Red Sox game (during their magical 2004 season, no less!), I had to make up the work when the game was over (at 10:30pm). When those same Red Sox won the World Series for the first time in 86 years, I wasn’t at home celebrating; I was in front of a desktop computer putting together my second of three newspapers that evening. At the age of 22, I was burnt out, unhappy, and regretting having a dream that involved writing for a newspaper.

Nearly 17 years later, the very problem of worker burnout is unfortunately all too-common.

Business professionals are facing an epidemic on top of a pandemic: extreme burnout and work fatigue. Eighteen months of combating an increased workload on top of managing remote learning, an extreme lack of social interaction, and a rollercoaster ride of anxiety during the worst public health crisis our our lifetime. Some industries (such as healthcare and human medicine, veterinary medicine, light industrial, etc.) have experienced such an increased level of work that employees are facing the worst burnout issues of their careers. Staff shortages have been to blame for the majority of burnout cases, as businesses are often forced to “do more with less” in a period of continued uncertainty. And, within sectors that have experienced “boom” times over the past year, there has been a greater demand for products and services, resulting in organizations placing even more pressure on their workforce to perform.

In addition, workers that have moved to fully remote or hybrid models still routinely face a “blurring” of work and life balance, with care for children and their homes (on top of an additional workload) contributing to late nights on the computer, extended time on mission-critical projects, and work on the weekends. Worker responsibilities have surged, as well, as businesses seek to align staff shortfalls with the existing workforce.

Unlike pre-pandemic times (when burnout was still very much an issue), employees facing the epidemic of burnout now also have to contend with additional social, political, and health issues that are all comprise the world that is 2021. And it’s so much more than simple “stress,” too: mental anguish stemming from a workplace environment (and YES, a home office counts!) can have significant ramifications on business professionals, including irritability, physical illnesses, mental health issues, waning productivity, and, worst of all, a constant questioning of if the position/role (or, even worse, the career itself) is worthwhile.

Here at the Future of Work Exchange, we’ve talked at-length about the value and impact of flexibility and empathy in how executives manage their workforce. Business leaders can extend these concepts to ensure that they address the core issues behind worker burnout and improve overall work-life balance. To start, organizations must:

Institute deeper communication between managers and staff. Workers aren’t always willing or able to give away information in a conversational setting with managers, and, managers shouldn’t be playing coy with their workforce’s emotions. Open up the proper channels of communication and get right to the issues at hand: leaders asking if their employees how they feeling and allowing them to freely discuss the physical and mental impacts that all avenues of work are having on their work-life balance. Communication may seem like a gigantic obstacle, but more often than not, once the gates of discussion are open, both sides will begin truly understand the perspectives of what is occurring from a burnout perspective.
Provide a more flexible system of paid time off, vacation, and mental health support. Scroll through LinkedIn on any given day and you’ll read about various companies taking a progressive approach to workforce management, whether it’s offering extended time off, additional benefits for fully-remote workers, and services/offerings for mental health support. No worker that’s currently clocking 60-hour weeks will turn down an opportunity to develop a better plan for vacation or time off. Although workers with mental health issues may be hesitant at first, once they feel comfortable taking advantage of such benefits, they should utilize whatever the enterprise offers for mental health support.
Consider a dramatic short-term shift in the overall workplace structure. The long-vaunted “four-day workweek” has been effective for some businesses over the past several years, however, not all organizations could shift to this model and be successful from a productivity perspective. With that said, though, running such a dramatic short-term experiment could reveal so much about its longer-term success a viable option…quite simply: if you haven’t tried, how do you know it won’t work? Now is the perfect time to move to a four-day workweek, especially with many return-to-office plans on hold due to the continued impact of the Delta variant of the coronavirus. If a two-month experiment reveals that workers are happier, more productive, and better engaged with their roles and with each other, then it’s an experiment worth conducting.
Develop a direct line of collaboration regarding upskilling and reskilling opportunities. Although not a front-and-center issue when it comes to worker burnout, there is sometimes a hidden root cause: a misalignment between a worker’s total skillset and the work they are performing within a stressful or demanding environment. It’s not so easy juggling a career with an anxious home life in what was supposed to be the waning months of a pandemic but has now turned into a horrifying repeat of the early months of 2021. Managers must institute a direct line of communication about career paths and “where” workers want to be in the future. If there is an opportunity to undergo training for a different unit or department, there’s no better time than now to kickstart that initiative before burnout gets worse. The last thing executives want to experience is another period like this past spring, which were the largest on record regarding worker resignations across the United States. Existing experience and expertise is always going to be an incredible benefit, even if the long-term fit between the worker and his or her current role isn’t set up for long-term success. Employers must give these workers the opportunity to leverage their unique talents and apply those skillsets to other facets of the greater business.