Burnout syndrome: prevention and management

Many of us are familiar with workplace burnout. The term “burnout ” was coined in 1974 by the American psychologist Herbert Freudenberger. He used it to describe the consequences of severe stress and high fatigue in “helping” professions. For the past 50 years, the medical community has argued about how to define it.

According to World Health Organization , Burn-out is included in the 11th Revision of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11) as an occupational phenomenon. It is?not?classified as a medical condition.

Occupational Burn-out is defined in ICD-11 as a syndrome resulting from chronic work-related stress and is characterized by three dimensions:

·??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 burnout feels like

Physical and mental exhaustion, a sense of dread about work, and frequent feelings of cynicism, anger, or irritability are key signs of burnout. Feeling like you can no longer do your job effectively may also signal burnout. If the stress feels never-ending and comes with feelings of emptiness, apathy, disengagement and hopelessness, it may be indicative of burnout.

Causes of burnout

?Work-related causes of burnout

·??A mismatch between the nature of the job and the job the person is actually doing

·??Feeling like you have little or no control over your work.

·??Lack of recognition or reward for good work.

·??Unclear or overly demanding job expectations.

·??Doing work that’s monotonous or unchallenging.

·??Working in a chaotic or high-pressure environment.

·??Pour team building or dysfunctional workplace dynamics.

·??Injustice or conflict between values.

Lifestyle causes of burnout

·??Working too much, without enough time for socializing or relaxing.

·??Lack of close, supportive relationships.

·??Taking on too many responsibilities, without enough help from others.

·??The need to be in control; reluctance to delegate to others.

·??Not getting enough sleep.

·??Personality traits.

·??Perfectionistic tendencies. High-achieving.

·??Pessimistic view of yourself and the world.

Handling job burnout

Maslach and Leiter postulated that occupational burnout occurs when there is a disconnection between the organization and the individual with regard to what they called the six areas of worklife: workload, control, reward, community, fairness, and values. Resolving these discrepancies requires integrated action on the part of both the individual and the organization. https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/10.1146/annurev.psych.52.1.397

?What you can do:

·?????????????????Be social: Social contact is nature’s antidote to stress and talking face to face with a good listener is one of the fastest ways to calm your nervous system and relieve stress. Reach out to those closest to you. Expand your social network. Be more sociable with your coworkers. Limit your contact with negative people. Connect with a cause or a community group that is personally meaningful to you.

?·?????????????????Develop Self-care strategies: Learn to say no. Setting clear boundaries between “work” and “life”. Take a daily break from technology. Set aside relaxation time. Start new activities. Make exercise a priority. Have a healthy diet. Get plenty of sleep. Try yoga, mindfulness meditation or a massage.

?·?????????????????Reframe the way you look at work: Try to find some value in your work. Try for work-life balance. Take regularly scheduled breaks and vacations from work. Make friends at work. Evaluate your options and discuss them with your supervisor. Learn time management technics and delegate.

?In any case, take care of yourself and seek support….

?What the company can do for you:

It is for the company’s best interest to invested in creating a healthier work environment. Low productivity, resentment, absenteeism, and turnover can be the result of burnout.

·?????????????????Monitor Workloads & Scheduling. Maintain optimum staffing. Fair distribution of job responsibilities and accountability. Ensure employees aren’t being tasked with unreasonable workloads or prolonged rigorous schedules. Set role expectations and structure jobs to make work more manageable and engaging. Make sure time pressures are reasonable and manage employees’ workload by prioritizing. Investing in the right software can help your employees complete tasks quicker with accuracy, enabling them to submit work before deadlines with minimum errors. Make sure employees have the necessary resources and skills to meet expectations. Encourage your team to take breaks.

·?????????????????Increase Control: Provide Autonomy. Provide them clear expectations for outcomes and boundaries and let them have a choice in what tasks to do, when to do them and how much time to spend on them. Give your employees the freedom to work the way they want within some broad guidelines. Give them the choice about where and when to work. You can set deadlines for tasks after consulting your employees. Increase the level of employee involvement in decision-making. Ask for employees' input and make them feel that their opinions and ideas are welcome and make a difference.

·?????????????????Create Goals and Career Paths: Create realistic and clear goals and expectations. Performance goals are communicated clearly to employees at the beginning of the year and reworked at appropriate intervals to meet business requirements. Design a plan for your employees to achieve their goals. Challenge your employees to grow in their career but don’t raise the bar too high. Give employees a path to advancement that doesn't necessarily require them to be a manager. Cultivate a sense of purpose among employees by clarifying the organization's mission and helping employees discover how their role and daily tasks contribute to fulfilling that mission.

?·?????????????????Promote Work/Life Balance: Set clear boundaries and expectations for working after hours or at home, time off, and availability. Allow time for exercise, family, and self-care. Encourage Employees to use vacation time. Promote a flexible work environment. Design work environment so that employees have spaces for both gathering and getting away from the buzz. Cultivate supportive relationships between colleagues. Encourage Non-work Activities like walking, watching TV, napping, etc. or other relaxing activities like yoga.

·?????????????????Promote well-being:?Make well being part of company’s culture. Incorporating wellness activities into the workday. Make it clear to all that mental health is not a taboo. Encourage honest conversations about it. Conduct regular mood assessments. Company well-being needs to be measured continually. Offer Employee Assistance Programs.?Encourage team connectivity; schedule weekly meetings or plan team-building initiatives, whether offline or online. Gallup's research has found five essential elements that differentiate thriving lives from those that are struggling or suffering.

·?????????????????Communicate with your employees: Educate managers about burnout and make them responsible for addressing it. Hold regular 1:1 meetings. Focus on the positives before communicating the negatives. Foster trust and transparency. Be an active listener. Get employees to actively provide feedback and ask for help when necessary. Incorporate burnout-related conversations into meetings and gatherings and discuss them with team members on an ongoing basis. Make your employees feel that you care about them “as people” by investing in them through awareness, time, and attention.

?·?????????????????Show Appreciation: Make appreciation a part of your company culture. Give recognition/praise for important dates. Recognise employees for their effort and contribution. Let your team know how much you value their work. You can use perks like:

Awards and bonuses.

Free lunch coupons.

Gift Cards

Discounted vacation coupons.

More paid leaves.

More days of remote work.

Encourage employees to leave an hour early after a particularly stressful day.

Verbal acknowledgment of their performance.

In any case keep it consistent and always be aware

?Understanding the causes and current state of employee burnout can help leaders develop strategies to prevent it and help workers feel supported. Employee burnout is a problem during stable times let alone during stressful times. A combined person and organization directed interventions leed to significant positive changes in burnout.

?When you look at some of the employee burnout statistics today, it’s easy to see why this is a major challenge for organizations and more up to date than ever.?

·?????????????????75% of workers have experienced burnout, with 40% saying they’ve experienced burnout specifically during the pandemic. (FlexJobs )

·?????????????????67% of all workers believe burnout has worsened over the course of the pandemic. (Indeed )

·?????????????????36% of employees said their organization isn’t doing anything to help with employee burnout. (Eagle Hill Consulting )

·?????????????????37% of employed respondents say they are currently working longer hours than usual since the pandemic started. (FlexJobs )

·?????????????????Sixty-one percent of remote workers and 53% of on-site workers now find it?more?difficult to “unplug” from work during off-hours. (Indeed )

·?????????????????Burned-out employees are 63% more likely to take a sick day and 2.6 times as likely to be actively seeking a different job. (Gallup )

·?????????????????Depression costs the U.S. $51 billion in absenteeism and lost productivity alone. (Mental Health America )

·?????????????????56% went so far as to say that their HR departments did not encourage conversations about burnout. (FlexJobs )

·?????????????????Prior to the pandemic, just 5% of employed workers and 7% of unemployed workers said their mental health was poor or very poor. Now, 18% of employed and 27% of unemployed workers say they are struggling with mental health issues. (FlexJobs )

·?????????????????More than three-quarters (76%) of respondents agree that workplace stress affects their mental health. (FlexJobs )

·?????????????????56% of workers listed having flexibility in their workday as the top way their workplace could better support them. Encouraging time off and offering mental health days were tied for second and third at 43%. And 28% felt that increased PTO and better health insurance were the next best ways to provide support. (FlexJobs )

·?????????????????Burned-out employees are 23% more likely to visit the emergency room.?(Gallup )

·?????????????????Only 60% of workers can strongly agree that they know what is expected of them at work. (Gallup )

·?????????????????Managers are just as likely, if not slightly more so, to suffer frequent or constant burnout than individual contributors (26% of managers vs. 24% of individual contributors). (Gallup )

·?????????????????Workplace stress is estimated to cost the U.S. economy more than $500 billion dollars, and each year, 550 million workdays are lost due to stress on the job. (APA )

·?????????????????52% of all workers are feeling burned out, up +9% from a pre-COVID survey. (Indeed )

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