Burnout: Health, Performance and Turnover

Burnout is defined as mismanaged stress. In the workplace, the ownership is a combination of leadership and the individual. We can't control how someone responds to stress factors, but we can support them as they attempt to reduce their triggers and reactions. We each own our thoughts, words and actions. Individuals and leaders with a high emotional intelligence can affectively lean into the individual and cultural needs to improve employee health, performance, and to reduce turnover.

Individual Needs

It truly begins with self-care. All 4 aspects of health are important for consideration: physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual. It's easy to think that one is doing fine by going along with status quo. But the status quo isn't necessarily healthy and happy. There's a lot of coping in the world today: caffeine to stay alert and active, sugar to satisfy cravings, eating rich foods from convenient sources to minimize time, and the 24/7 access to work through advanced technical means. The pandemic began a lifestyle shift back to health and happiness, but we're seeing the swing back into overworked, overcommitted, and under nourished individuals that bleed into the workforce.

• Physical health indications: poor sleep, chronic fatigue, cardiovascular disease factors, and an increased risk of stroke.
• Mental health indications: anxiety, depression, and even suicide
• Emotional health indications: feelings of resentment, cynicism, helplessness, and hopelessness.
• Spiritual health indications: detachment from self and/or one's purpose/mission in life

All areas of life are brought into the workplace, whether it's realized or not. The energy (or lack there of) life experiences reside within and are apparent in who we are, how we act, and how we perform.

Performance

The pandemic helped us step back and take a look at what's important in life. Connections, a sense of community, health, and life purpose were re-emphasized. We broke the cycle for a bit to make sense of what matters. Today, our means of communicating and working have changed, but these core needs still have high priority.

Performance suffers when one's needs are not being met. This takes into consideration both the needs of the employee and the entire organization. I like to look at this two ways: one as a mismatch and two as perceived incompatibility. A clear mismatch of the job requirements and one's skill set is unfortunate. Organizations go through great means to ensure that the individual meets the job needs at the time of recruitment and training. But miscommunication happens. A mismatch also happens when the culture isn't a good fit for the individual. Sometimes this can be individual-to-individual conflict or the overall values and habits of the community. Also common, when a person is numb to their core values or puts a higher priority on other factors when selecting a career. Mismatches are unfortunate.

Perceived incompatibility is apparent when an individual believes that their work effort is not being appreciated and/or compensated fairly. Neglected, this leads to the burnout symptoms listed earlier. The health of the individual suffers which leads to performance decline which can trickle throughout the entire organization. Here again self care as well as emotional intelligence within teams and leadership can address this situation, whether it's personal or cultural.

Turnover

There are various statistics on employee turnover, but I saw recently quoted that turnover costs an organization 1.5 - 2 times the employee's salary or on average, $1,500 - $2,000 per hourly employee. Consider the time and energy it takes to recruit, train, and onboard a new employee. Think about the wisdom that walks out the door when an employee or leader leaves, and the energy it takes to rebuild that expertise.

So if excessive commitments, unhealthy lifestyle habits, and mismatched needs continue, modifications are necessary. If the obstacles are not addressed at the core, the employee leaves the organization, either voluntarily or compulsory. Addressing the needs at the heart of the matter saves time, money, and even one's life. Employee assistance programs, wellness programs, and personal lifestyle goals and actions are opportunities for support and growth. Professional coaches and therapists can also provide guidance. I invite organizations to have resources identified and readily available for employee assistance and growth. This helps the employee and the entire organization. I encourage everyone to assess their own self-care.

Emotional intelligence utilized to build awareness and handle interpersonal relationships is a quality skill and highly sought after as we become more informed on its significance. Empathy and other soft skills in emotional understanding and discernment can improve the health and happiness of the organization, upgrade performance, and minimize turnover. It can mold and/or shift an organization for the better. Organizations are celebrating the inclusion of these soft skills into historically hard skill-dominant environments.

What's the health of your organization? How's your own self-care? As we immerse ourselves into the holiday season, I invite you to get clear on your personal and professional needs and keep yourself a priority. It's quite easy to get lost in the shuffle.

Dr. Jennifer Culver?is a Nationally Board Certified Health and Wellness Coach, a Certified Functional Medicine Health Coach, an Associate Certified Coach through the International Coach Federation, and holds a PhD in Holistic Life Coaching. She's also an Experienced Yoga Instructor and Mindfulness Coach. Dr. Culver spent 15 years in corporate leadership roles and knows stress, commitment, and corporate culture.

To view upcoming virtual workshops offered by Dr. Culver, click here.

To schedule a virtual 1:1 with Dr. Culver to review your specific lifestyle and risk factors,?contact me?now.