Top Causes of Workplace Burnout AND How to Fix it Starting with Leadership!

Dr. T went LIVE on August 30 to encourage you to look at the root causes of burnout in yourself and your organization to identify where you can make changes for longevity in health and in business.?

Read about the Top Causes of Workplace Burnout and How to Fix it Below

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#1: Burnout is an indicator of dysfunction, not a sign of weakness

On the surface, burnout looks like: mental exhaustion, cynicism, and reduced efficacy (looks like laziness). But below the surface lies an endlessly stacked workload, low choice with no voice, and an unsupportive or disconnected culture. Burned out workers are unable to bring their strengths and talents to their role, not because they are weak, but because their work is not being managed appropriately. Leaders must recognize their role in creating an environment that is sustainable to workers to prevent losses in knowledge and experience.?

#2: The top 6 causes of burnout are also the path to healing

-High Workload: For your organizations to succeed, you need your people to put out high quality work. But high quality work requires high quality effort, a finite resource. Optimal workloads ebb and flow to create periods of high demand followed by periods of recovery, or lower demand. Check that your people aren’t constantly operating at a high workload because you can be near certain that if they are, the work isn’t reaching its full potential.

-Values Misalignment: When your people have to make a tradeoff between what they want to do and what they have to do, this creates a mismatch between company and individual values, which contributes to burnout. Find ways to use your peoples intrinsic strengths and goals to benefit the organization.

-Low Control: Your people need a say in how they structure their day, how they manage their workload, and when they work if possible. Give them a voice and a choice to improve engagement and productivity at work.

-Fairness, respect and openness: How do YOU show up when you feel the odds are stacked against you and people don’t respect you? Probably not optimally. Create a space where your people can honestly share feedback, and connect on a human-level rather than just about project status. Learn your peoples family members, personal interests, and share your own so you all remember what’s collectively important

-Lack of Reward and Recognition: Nobody wants to feel like the work that they do isn’t appreciated. Nor are they likely to take pride in work that isn’t seen. Create a system, either formal, or informal, to reward efforts made by your people and recognize their contributions to the team.? These two incentives can buffer burnout in a workplace.

-Work Environment: For a quick assessment: ask yourself: what’s happening at lunch? Are your people sitting with their heads down buried in their phones in silence? Or are they laughing while shooting hoops or taking a walk outside with a coworker? A supportive and connected workplace can make the difference between keeping or losing a good employee to another opportunity.?

#3: Addressing burnout starts with YOU, the leader, first.

It may be surprising that 70% of workers say that their manager affects their mental health as much as their significant other. And it is much less surprising that suboptimal mental health affects focus, motivation, problem solving abilities, and our ability to access flow states in our work. Your own physical health and emotional intelligence affects how you show up at work, how much creativity and problem solving ability you bring to the table, and how calmly you handle conflict.?

Whether you want to believe it or not, YOU are a part of the dinner table conversation at many homes. So we challenge you to ask yourself if your people are grateful to have you as their leader? Do they WANT to do good work for you and the company? Or are they anxiously waiting for your replacement or the next opportunity to pop up? Are YOU causing work burnout? Or helping to fix and prevent it?

In a sobering statistic, 87% of organization executives know that wellbeing is an important part of company growth, but only 30% have a plan for how to get there.?

We founded Movement Rx to help companies and leaders like you make your health your business. We know that when YOU and your leaders show up for your people in a healthy way, your organization’s culture changes, your people are physically healthier, less burned out, they’re more productive, and they stick with the company.??

We ensure that we meet your people where they are at, and show them the most actionable steps to make the change for their own health and wellbeing AND that of your organization.?

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References:

1. Monica Hanson, Co-Founder and Director ACT at Stanford CCARE class on Burnout and Resilience
2. Article in Forbes