Herbert Freudenberger, a psychologist, was the first to use the term burnout in 1974. The term burnout is often seen as a medical condition, but the reality is that it is a psychological syndrome.
What is burnout?
Burnout is a state of physical, emotional, and mental exhaustion, doubt, and pessimism. It can destroy employee productivity, affect their mental well-being, and destroy their career.
The World Health Organization defines burnout as “a syndrome conceptualized as resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed.”
It was in 2019 when the World Health Organisation declared burnout an occupational phenomenon in the 11th revision of the International Classification of Diseases. The reason behind such a significant declaration was the constant pressure to address the concern.
With the rising economic pressures, it is imperative to cater to the growing concern of burnout at work. But burnout doesn’t necessarily mean you need to hunt for a new job. While some of you may think you need to do a flip on your career, there are always better and well-thought solutions.
Let’s help you tackle your burnout and prevent it from being a huge block to your purpose. Additionally, the blog will introduce tips hiring managers (and employees) can adopt to help everyone in an organization maintain work-life balance and mental well-being.
How can Employees Deal with Burnout?
#1. Pay Attention to What and When You Feel
Start identifying your emotions because they constitute a major part of burnout. Monitor your feelings and check for them when they arise, lest resentment and frustration should follow you.
The best way is to talk to yourself and seek answers to questions such as:
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What am I feeling now?
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Why am I feeling this way?
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Is someone’s actions affecting me?
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How can I cope?
#2. Release Your Stress
Letting stress buildup within you can lead to an explosion (not literally!) but will lead to emotional outbursts. Find a way to vent out that is disrupting your mental peace and has the capacity to destroy your career.
Everyone is unique, and so are their ways of releasing their stress. However, the most common ways to let the pressure out are:
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Talking to a friend or a family member your trust.
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Going out for a walk and spending alone time.
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Playing your favourite sport.
#3. Build Healthy Relationships with Co-workers
Make it easier for yourself to ask for help by developing healthy relationships with your colleagues. Not only will you be able to share good times with them, but it will also give you access to shared resources and a sense of community.
Consider doing the following:
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Identify like-minded people and interact with them daily.
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Stay away from negative people but don’t disrespect them.
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Talk to your seniors, express your interest in interacting with the team’s brilliant & intellectual minds, and seek their assistance.
#4. Stick to a Work Schedule
Undoubtedly, work possesses the potential to keep you sane throughout life. Nonetheless, it can also affect your health and mental well-being if you stretch yourself and make your life revolve only around work. Instead, try setting and sticking to a work schedule that leaves you enough time to focus on other activities..
Try the below-mentioned tricks:
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Log out all the work email accounts and communication platforms from your personal devices.
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Be an early riser and reach your workplace ten minutes before the scheduled time.
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Don’t discuss or let office-related issues disturb your family time.
#5. Find Ways to Make Work More Fun
You can take charge of making your work life fun and interesting. However, we do not mean to indulge in fun activities in a way that starts affecting your work productivity. Ask your manager to incorporate fun yet mind-boggling activities that can make you learn and unwind simultaneously.
You can take up a few ideas:
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Finding creative slogans to define your team’s mission
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Sharing the best & worst work-life experiences.
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Bringing up innovative ideas to fuel your department’s growth.
How Can Hiring Managers Deal with Burnout?
#1. Provide Employees with Recovery Time
Remember! Your employees are humans first and have personal lives too. Seeing your employees push themselves daily to handle the pressure or meet deadlines is a warning sign for you. Therefore, you must provide recovery time.
But before that, ensure the respective managers meet the team member in person and get to the problem’s root cause. Also, checking on employees should be a regular activity.
#2. Extend Social Support
The old proverb “United we stand. Divided we fall” supports the prevention of burnout and educates hiring managers to foster community among employees, powering team support and letting employees connect. This will help employees seek guidance to battle workplace burnout.
Additionally, managers can schedule weekly team lunches or plan activities that bring the team together.
RELATED READ: How Can Employee Engagement Benefit the Company?
#3. Connect Employees to the Organisation
Help employees connect to their purpose and make their work life meaningful. People who relate to their role in the organisation feel more connected to the company and its purpose.
Managers can build a connection between the organisation and its workforce. On top of that, shed light on how each employee contributes to organisational success and why their role matters.
Why should Companies Worry About Employee Burnout?
The facts here will justify the reasons why there is a need for companies to take employee burnout seriously. Employees who experience burnout are:
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63% more likely to take sick leave
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13% less confident in their performance
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2.6 times more aggressive in hunting for a new job
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23% more likely to visit an emergency room
Bottom Line
With burnout reaching its pinnacle in today’s corporate world, is it possible to hope for better? Of course, it is. Burnout is preventable. It requires good organisational hygiene, better data, more timely and relevant questions, smarter (more micro) budgeting, and ensuring that your well-being strategy includes wellness offerings.
The employees, hiring managers, and organisations need to understand the severity of dissatisfaction with work before taking steps to curb it. Watch for symptoms and detect them in yourself and your coworkers. Across the globe, employers can play a key role in improving people’s health in several ways. With collaboration and shared commitment, employers can make a meaningful difference in their employees’ lives and their communities.
FAQs
1. What are the five symptoms of burnout?
The five symptoms of burnout are Excessive stress, Anger & frustration, Detachment, Loss of energy and Lack of motivation.
2. What is the best way to recover from burnout?
The best way to recover from burnout is the combined efforts of employees, managers & hiring managers, and the organisation.
Employees must identify their feelings towards work, talk to their seniors or vent out in a comfortable way. They should also stick to a work schedule and make work fun.
Managers and hiring managers must give them time to recover if they feel a person is experiencing burnout. Moreover, they must extend social support and make them feel valued.
Lastly, organisations should take measures to cope with burnout and create policies that support their efforts.
3. What is the major cause of workplace burnout?
The major cause of workplace burnout is a heavy workload and excessively long work hours. These reasons frustrate people as they have less time to devote to themselves and their families.
