Not enough life support: How to avoid worker burnout in 2021

Authored by Pete Brown 

Joint Global Leader, People and Organisation, PwC UK

In 2018, PwC collaborated with Lynda Gratton, Professor of Management Practice at London Business School and released a report called Secure your future people experience: Five imperatives for action which focused on how companies can tackle worker burnout and boost vitality.  

Since then, with the onslaught of the COVID-19 pandemic and the mass transition to remote working, more people than ever before are now continually connected to work. Whether it’s email notifications on your phone, work instant messaging groups or video calls, technology has enabled people to ‘always be on’. The findings and recommendations discussed then are even more relevant today as organisations navigate their way through a global pandemic and an irreversibly changed world of work. Organisations need to help their people avoid worker burnout, when the risk of it is higher than ever. 

Beware of the superachievers 

In April of this year, when PwC surveyed Chief Financial Officers around the world, nearly half (45%) expected productivity loss. By June, that number had reduced to just 26%, with three-quarters of executives judging the forced experiment a success, contrary to the expectations of many. However data from PwC’s Perform Plus Platform has suggested that productivity has been propped up by a cohort of superachievers (around one-third of the total sample), which has disguised a fall in productivity on average among the rest.

Many workers have worked harder and longer than before the pandemic — perhaps because they have benefited from fewer distractions, or have fed off the adrenaline of the crisis. Overwork has become a symbol of status and success in many corporations but it is a story of diminishing returns and not a new challenge. In 2016, productivity in the United States rose by just 1% annually, despite employees working more hours. Current productivity levels may become unsustainable and so the challenge for leaders is to find ways to tackle performance. 

PwC’s recent CEO Panel Survey found that 61 percent of those asked have conducted wellness programmes since the start of the pandemic. This focus on well-being, both during the crisis and in the future, makes sense. Fundamentally changing the way people work requires their buy-in and trust. And becoming more virtual and flexible requires that companies focus on their employees’ well-being in new and creative ways to help them mitigate stress and prevent burnout. So how can they do that? Here are some suggestions that have made a difference to our own people from around our global network of PwC firms. 

Build in more periods of recovery 

There is considerable evidence that work performance plunges when people toil for extended periods without a break. 

With the absence of recovery periods in corporations dramatically preventing people from building their vitality, seeing unused vacation days to indicate that a company could be heading for burnout is a useful metric. Frequent, scheduled, mandatory vacation is something managers must actively monitor and encourage. Understanding and addressing the obstacles employees face in taking their time off is vital and putting processes in place to ensure people don’t come back to an overwhelming workload should also be managed.

Be purposeful about short breaks during the workday 

Balancing work activity with brief moments of detachment from tasks can promote greater energy, mental clarity, creativity and focus, ultimately growing workers’ capacity for resilience throughout the course of the workday. 

Research shows that we naturally function in what are known as ultradian cycles, periods of high-frequency brain activity (about 90 minutes) followed by lower-frequency brain activity (about 20 minutes). Employees should, therefore, be encouraged to take a recharging break every 90 minutes, especially when using technology, which makes the brain overly active. 

Let employees choose when and where they work 

The freedom to choose when and where to work is a growing priority for people struggling to fulfill the many roles they play within and outside work. In June 2020 more than half (52%) of the CFOs PwC surveyed indicated they will make remote work a permanent option. These findings correspond with the 75% of CFOs who say the increased flexibility developed during the crisis is a factor that will make their organisation stronger over the long term. To sustain these gains, company leaders will need to consider the tools, behaviours and incentives that will enable employees to be productive, collaborative and creative — and invest in areas that will have the most impact. 

But companies should lay out clear rules that establish the times when people must be available – either physically or online – and enable people to have ‘protected time off’ during which colleagues must respect their need for recuperation. This can be aided by having people work flexibly but in a synchronous way, whether that because of timezones or working patterns. 

Provide an ecosystem of workspace 

While many people are feeling the benefits of remote working and more flexibility in where and when work gets done, it is not for everyone, and the office is certainly not dead. As organisations plan for the return to the office, they need to be thinking not only about workplace safety measures and reconfiguring work sites to promote distancing, but also how they can create a workplace to promote well-being. 

The best work environments reflect the natural rhythm of collaboration: people need to focus alone to process information, come together as a group to build on their ideas, then break apart to take the next steps. Studies indicate that many people who worked in offices primarily pre-Covid-19 spent anywhere from 35% to 55% of their time in meetings. It is important to give people the opportunity to combine coming into work with working outside the office. 

Enable vital connections 

Organisations play an important role in enabling social connectedness and building more resilient workforces that are better able to withstand change and disruption. New models of working may create flexibility, but they can also reduce opportunities for interactions and relationships. Overcoming this challenge requires organisations to rethink the way they help people build connections. Indeed 52% of CFOs in June 2020 said they plan to improve the remote working experience. The winners in this new virtual world will be those organisations that successfully navigate the specific challenges of managing remote teams

The way forward 

The way we work is changing at an unprecedented pace. But this can make it more difficult to create and sustain a winning people experience. Yet the shifts can also provide the catalyst for overcoming the stresses and frustrations of the past, and developing an environment that fosters agility, wellness and innovation. Leading organisations recognise the value of their people experience and are taking the initiative rather than simply reacting to change. Those companies that don’t act now risk losing prized talent and failing to attract the very people they need to adapt and compete. This is an opportunity not to be missed.

For further thoughts from me on employee well-being, I recently wrote an article for strategy+business magazine, with my colleague Bhushan Sethi, you can read it here. 

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