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While the coronavirus pandemic has set the new norms for a remote working culture, it has also aggravated a phenomenon called the ‘’employee burnout” which seems to be growing by the day owing to the face of uncertainty faced by employees worldwide.
Since the outbreak of the pandemic, 75% of people say they feel more socially isolated, 67% of people report a higher level of stress, 57% are feeling greater anxiety, and 53% say they feel more emotionally exhausted, according to the global study of over 2,700 employees across more than 10 industries undertaken by Qualtrics and SAP during March and April 2020.
To combat employee burnout, companies and employees together need to understand it in detail and must address it to maintain a healthy workspace.
What is employee burnout?
According to the WHO, Burnout is a syndrome conceptualised as resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed. It is characterised by three dimensions: what causes employee burnout, how to measure employee burnout, employee burnout symptoms and how to prevent
- 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
- Reduced professional efficacy.
What are the symptoms of employee burnout?
- Low morale leading to further distress
- Exhaustion with the workload
- Disengagement with the team
- Frustration towards work
- Reduced job satisfaction
What causes employee burnout?
1. Multitasking: The remote culture has brought with it many boons; however, employees are increasingly feeling the pressure to juggle tasks. One minute you are working on Task A, and the next minute, another Task B is requiring you to draft an email. This leads to an increase in the average time taken to complete both tasks.
A Microsoft study found that it takes people an average of 15 minutes to return to an important project after an e-mail interruption.
2. High engagement with work: You may think that if you are passionate enough, burnout might not affect you. On the contrary, it can affect even those who are constantly working, as they enjoy doing what they do, they tend to engage much more with the work, failing to draw the line, resulting in exhaustion at some point.
3. Work culture: A poor work culture where the employees feel unappreciated and unheard in the workspace is one of the top causes of employee burnout. The lack of a feedback loop in the organisation worsens the situation.
4. Long working hours: The absence of a clearly stated schedule/work hours and excessive workload thereby increase the number of hours to be put in for work. This does not just affect mental health but also leads to physical issues for the employees, such as lower back pain, headaches from sitting in one place for a long time.
How to prevent employee burnout
As an employee:
1. Take breaks: Working on the same tasks for hours can get tiring; one way to effectively prevent it is to take short breaks from work throughout the day. The short breaks could mean getting involved in creative activities such as writing, reading, listening to music, painting, or even watching something on YouTube. This will help you have a fresh mind while resuming work.
2. Have a routine: Having a routine with time slots allotted for work and leisure activities helps maintain a good work-life balance, ensuring a good approach to work for the following day. Maintaining this routine at all times and identifying the top priorities for the day is key to having a good routine.
3. Exercise: Including exercises in your break times is as essential for you mentally as it is physically. If you cannot go to the gym, try home workouts, yoga, or simply a 10-minute meditation, all of which are freely available on the web, thanks to YouTube. This will ensure you thrive in productivity when you are back at your desk.
Read: Health tips for busy executives
4. Creating a dedicated workspace: A desk at home is now by default your workspace station. Imagine taking breaks while still sitting at your desk with all the work-related papers right in front of you. Is that a good break from work? Not really. Even though you are not using your computer, you are still in that mind space. Consider stepping away from that room, transitioning your mind from a workplace setting to a home scenario.
As an employer:
1. Provide a positive work culture: In such stressful times, employees look towards their employers to be supportive of the workload, and most importantly to be heard. As employers, one can always adapt to feedback from their employees to gauge their views, reward and acknowledge them directly to boost their morale, while taking time to suggest constructive criticism to those who couldn’t do well.
2. Foster team collaboration: Building a culture to encourage team collaboration has never been so important. Effective team collaboration helps the remote team members engage among themselves in a productive way. For some practical tools and means to improve collaboration and well-being within the geographically dispersed teams read our blog here.
3. Team building: Fun and creative team building activities, such as quizzes, virtual games, are something every employee looks forward to. They help bring coordination as well as a positive wave of emotions to the employees, helping in dealing with stress. Having a fun environment with supportive people around goes a long way in employee retention, too.
4. Set clear expectations: Once the employer has outlined the roles and responsibilities, the employees will understand the priorities for each and work on them accordingly. Setting reasonable and realistic expectations, along with including the team members in the process, ensures a level of clarity which avoids miscommunication and overwork.
5. Educate the team about employee burnout: Your employees might not know the available resources about mental health guides. Conducting a webinar regularly on the strategies to be used for a healthy and positive workspace, employee assistance programs, virtual counselling service,s or therapy sessions are some of the ways employers can help educate their employees about workplace burnout while proactively creating a safe space for employees to open up about their issues.
6. Focus on learning: While performance goals are just as important, making your employees learn new skills through virtual training programs or certifications gets them excited about upskilling. Promoting learning as a tool is an effective way of preventing burnout as it brings the employees and managers together to discuss and contribute to the overall team’s skills. This also helps them to review how the team grows.
At the end of the day, it’s the responsibility of both the employers to be supportive of their team, as well as the employees’ ability to engage and come out stronger.
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