Burnout is a serious problem in the business environment, and if you are not careful, it can have profound effects on operations, productivity, and profitability in the long term. If you suspect that your employees are experiencing symptoms of burnout, you need to act on these symptoms and implement policies to protect your team from… well, themselves.
What Leads to Burnout?
There are many reasons why burnout can surface, including the following:
Too Much Work
Employees who have too much work to do will inevitably find themselves overwhelmed and burnt out. Not only can it affect how well a team works, but it can also have negative influences on health and wellness. According to the World Health Organization, long working hours contributed to 745,000 deaths in 2016 through a variety of factors. This is clearly a problem, so if you can identify employees suffering from it, then you should do all you can to prevent it.
Lack of Workplace Recognition
Even if compensation is adequate for your employees, they still want some workplace recognition in other forms, such as congratulatory messages and the appreciation of both management and peers. Otherwise, what is there to motivate them?
Lack of Control
People enjoy what they can control and don’t enjoy what they cannot; the same can be said for work. If employees feel like they have no say in their work, they can quickly lose motivation. Micromanagement and restriction simply for the sake of oversight can be disastrous, especially when it causes your team to burn out. Ask yourself how you might feel being managed in this way and you’ll see what we mean.
Unfair Treatment
If there are clear discrepancies in how different employees are treated, or even perceived ones, then there is a very real possibility of it developing further into burnout. When bias and discrimination are involved, this is doubly so, and you should do everything you can to eliminate it.
Poor Workplace Relationships
Again, let’s flip perspectives and take a look at how you might feel if you had to spend hours out of your day working with strangers or people who you simply do not enjoy being around. Your employees certainly don’t enjoy this, and while the case can be made that work doesn’t need to be enjoyable, this isn’t a narrative that is conducive to productivity and motivation.
What Can You Do to Minimize the Frequency of Burnout?
Here are some ideas to minimize burnout and help your employees regain the motivation to push forward.
Know the Signs
First, you’ll need to know when to admit that your team is experiencing symptoms of burnout. If they have issues concentrating, are increasingly more irritable at work, complaining about aches and pains, or having trouble sleeping, or are feeling like they have accomplished nothing, they might be experiencing signs of burnout.
Identify Where It Comes From
Identifying warning signs is not the same as addressing where burnout comes from. If you want to eliminate burnout for good, finding what’s causing it will be paramount. Whether it is work concerns, health concerns, family drama, or otherwise, you need to find out if it’s internal and something that you can control. If it’s not, then perhaps you can still find ways to resolve the problem in a more indirect fashion.
Give Your Team Back Control
If the burnout comes from work-related issues, consider ways you can directly influence it. If you give your team some autonomy in their day-to-day tasks, you might be able to alleviate some of the pressure your team feels to perform as expected.
We Can Help Your Team Make the Most of Their Time
If you are ready to eradicate burnout in the workplace, we bet that a good starting point is to implement hardware and software solutions designed to make employees’ lives easier and more productive. To get started with these automated solutions and managed services, reach out to us at (610) 683-6883.