In 2024, Is Burnout the New Baseline?

For this edition of the newsletter I'm asking, have we normalized burnout? Is this our new baseline? And, if so, what can we do to fix it?

One executive said to me recently. ?“I don’t know if we should still be talking about burnout – it feels like it’s just so 2020”,

I was floored. But I probed a bit further.?

“Why? Any strategies for how you solved it at your company?”

?“It’s more like our people are just tired of talking about stress – they want to start looking forward to the future.”

I said, “You’re absolutely right. People are tired of talking about stress. But I bet they’re more tired of feeling stress."

The Battle Wages On

I'd love to put burnout in the rear view – a distant memory along with the lockdowns and drive-by birthdays. Unfortunately, burnout is on the rise - on track to be our worst year yet.

Global research by Cigna found 97 percent of 18-24 year old workers reported feelings of burnout while 87 percent of twenty-five to thirty-four-year-olds said they feel stressed.

Sectors like non-profit and healthcare are stretched. The State of Nonprofits 2024 report found that 95 percent of all leaders surveyed cited burnout as “a top concern for most nonprofit leaders, with half feeling more concerned about their own burnout than this time last year.”

According to the 2024 Physician Compensation Report , 81 percent of US doctors say they’re overworked and 30 percent of doctors are considering early retirement. Another study by AMN Healthcare found one third of nurses are “extremely likely to change jobs this year”. This amount of attrition would be disastrous for the healthcare system.

?Burnout seems to be the baseline stress level at work these days. The crisis increased workloads, meetings went up 5X in just over two years and the Great Reshuffle left everyone feeling overwhelmed. However, without any recovery time and no real downshifting, we’ve added AI anxiety and FOBO (fear of becoming obsolete), global uncertainty from polycrisis, increased loneliness from virtual work and on the flip side, feeling a lack of autonomy from failed return to office (RTO) mandates.

So, what can leaders and individuals do about it?

Rebuilding a Well-Being Baseline

First, we need to accept that burnout is still very much alive and well in our organizations. It is not “so 2020” which means reengaging the hard conversations. Start by asking your employees to name specific stressors so you can target your efforts. My leadership philosophy is rooted in empathy and active listening. Gather real-time data using a variety of tools and methods.

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But we also need to address all the basic hygiene issues like:

• Unmanageable workloads. #quietpromotion is a fast-growing trend. It means an employee has been promoted to take on all of the responsibilities of a more senior employee but no one knows about it, there is no new title or salary increase.
• Lack of autonomy to make decisions – like micromanagement or rigid workplace policies.
• A lack of recognition and rewards, whether financial or non-financial.
• Poor relationships with colleagues, isolation, or a lack of support.
• Perceived unfairness in the workplace, whether through favouritism, bias, or inequitable treatment.
• A misalignment between an employee’s values and the values of the organization.
• Lack of rest and recovery time between workdays, whether due to long hours or the inability to disconnect from work.

After tackling some of these basic hygiene issues, now leaders can focus on optimizing wellbeing. Here are a few novel ideas to consider:

1. Wellness Sabbaticals

After a period of service, employees can take extended breaks that focus specifically on personal well-being. This allows employees to recharge and return to work rejuvenated. It also protects time for self-care which reduces the risk of corporate care-washing.

2. Reduce Meeting Fatigue

Quit over-meeting cold turkey. Shopify for example took roughly 90 percent of their meetings for eight weeks and saved employees 320,000 hours. After the experiment, they figured out which meetings to ditch and which ones to keep. Make lunch meetings obsolete – instead prioritize eating lunch together at least once a week. Even virtual teams can practice stepping away from their desks to eat lunch. ?

3. Nature Integration

Create spaces within the office that incorporate natural elements such as indoor gardens, living walls, or outdoor workspaces. Build outdoor spaces for meeting and collaborating that can be tech free.

4. Personal Growth Allowance

Provide a personal growth allowance that employees can use for activities outside of work that promote life satisfaction. Maybe it’s in support of a hobby or academic courses, fitness programs, or creative projects. This acknowledges the importance of personal – not just professional development.

5. Workplace Social Responsibility Initiatives

Encourage employees to participate in social responsibility initiatives, such as volunteering or community service projects. According to research from the Oxford Well-being Research Center, most workplace well-being initiatives don't work. However, altruism is a standout. They found that it fosters a sense of purpose and fulfillment, increases belonging and positively impacts mental health.

6. Peer Support Networks

Establish peer support networks where employees can connect and share experiences related to well-being. These networks can provide mutual support, reduce feelings of isolation, and foster a sense of community.?

By starting with a hygiene check-up – reassessing and addressing the root causes of chronic stress – we can prevent burnout. When basic needs are met, then we can start to optimize. That is when we move from battling chronic stress to increasing motivation and engagement and shift the baseline from burnout to well-being. It's then that we create the kind of work culture that everyone wants and everyone wins.

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