Some of the clients I coach, work hard and long hours living in the future with the goal of enjoying better days when they retire. The stress of the long hours, the lack of downtime and proper recovery though may well prevent many from enjoying their retired years which could be plagued with illnesses and physical handicaps due to the lack of fitness and care during the younger years.
Our world, our society has an easy way of constructing our reality and since Covid19 cruelly run through our health and livelihood, the subliminal messages of “you are lucky to have a job when so many are jobless “are constantly thrown at employees. While this may lead to gratitude and a positive cognitive dissonance, it also leads to resigning oneself that it’s the only job one can get, and one must give her whole.
A high job demand, role overload and stress lead toburnout.Burnout can lead to many mental and physical ailments such as cardiovascular disease and depression ((Melamed et. al, 2006)
So what causes burnout?
According to Conservation of Resources Theory (Hobfoll, 1989, 2001) our resources are both psychological and material and we seek to add, and protect, our resources; we invest in order to overcome the threats of losing those resources. In the current context, the threats can be job loss, not maintaining a work standard that the organisation has set, the isolation from the office, work colleagues and supervisors when the work is carried out remotely.
Burnout can be caused by role overload, role ambiguity, role complexity, perception of inequity, leadership, family-work conflict. The length and scope of this article cannot cover all variables that may cause burnout and may be addressed in future posts.
The pandemic and other economic crisis will come and pass or become part of life. How do you want to be remembered? As a good example of leadership which will help you attract talent in the future, or as someone who treats their employees right only in booming economic times?
Although we are in the midst of the 4thRevolution, the Digital Revolution, the argument that artificial intelligence can replace most of our jobs can be a little farfetched and may still belong to science fiction; we are nowhere near that type of technological advancement (O’Neill,2019). Robots are not rational consumers to keep the capitalist economies going hence humans could never be entirely replaced. Treating our employees well will be a legacy remembered. The war for talent will return.
What can Organisations do to limit the damage to employees mental and physical effects of burnout?
1.Provide the right kind of autonomy to your employees.
I emphasise on the “right kind” of autonomy as given too much or the wrong kind can also lead to stress and burnout. Autonomy is normally viewed as having a positive impact on well- being. So why would it be the cause of more burnout?
For example, giving full autonomy to an employee to complete a project without the right resources such as communication, appropriate time to complete it, support and skill development can increase the level of stress and consequently the burnout.
Burnout could also be caused by professional stagnation and working for too long in the same role without personal development (Kegan and Lahey) so providing the employee with job variety is as important as the skills development to achieve those roles.
2.Invest in support and improvement of the organisational leadership.
There has been much research into how leadership influences employee’s well-being. It can act as a buffer against job stress or as a stressor in itself.
Invest in leadership programs, development programs and employ external consultants and coaches to work with your internal consultants to identify if there is any problematic leadership and how to develop them.
Tools like 360 feedback and Team Connect 360 can provide a lot of information on what employees think of the existent leadership.
For instance, transformational leadership can have a positive influence on well-being while laisse faire and transactional leadership may have a negative influence and it may lead to attrition (Stahl and Fisicaro).
Organisations should invest more resources in strengthening leader-subordinate relationships through socialising, work play (Glynn & Webster,1992), and a culture of a two-way communication channels.
One of my clients wanted to leave the company and the entire team followed suit when the leader, who was one of the best at his job in technical terms, was missing leadership skills and used to have anger explosions every day in his office with a different team member. My client who was also in a leadership position found himself burnt out from trying to repair all the damage that this executive was causing while he was also in the fire line everyday with the unpredictable mood swings.
3.Allow employees flexible time and set a culture of a time limit on employees answering their emails when they are off duty.
With more people working from home, the pressure of being available 24/7 greatly increased. For employees with families or any other type of circumstances discuss one to one the working hours that suit them and your organisation. Set clear guidelines on which emails represent a priority to be answered outside office hours and on which days, if the employee is working on a specific project. This will help the employee to switch off from work and keep the phone on only on the days and times required. Encourage them to set a different ring tone for work calls so they do not anxiously answer every call that comes in.
Set standards on productivity, quality and work achieved rather than the hours put in which will motivate the employees to give their best and set a personal schedule where they can work more productively.
What can employees do to reduce the possibility of burnout?
1.Practice mindfulness.
One of the biggest problems identified by a recent study sponsored by Harvard University, is the lack of mindfulness. With all the distractions around us and our attention required in several places at the same time, leaders and employees’ attention becomes more and more scattered with energy being drained and productivity reduced.
Start by taking a free assessment on HBR.org “How mindful are you?”
Mindfulness cannot be achieved by just doing a morning breathing exercise. One needs to stop multitasking and focusing on one thing at the time and by being present with the task at hand.
2.Learn how to prioritise effectively.
Robin Sharma, the author of “The Monk who sold his Ferrari” speaks of the 90-90-90 rule where you need to spend the first 90 min of your morning at work on the most important project while your mind is still fresh. Do not squander your energy on menial tasks; assign those for later in the day when you do not need all your resources and can work on automaticity mode.
Speak to your colleagues and have a meeting with your leader to discuss burnout and working hours if working from home and priority of work, phone calls and emails-use just one channel of communication for emergencies rather than joggling between devices for the same issue.
3.Engage in recreational activities and get enough recovery downtime including adequate sleep.
Many studies discuss the role of psychological detachment (Sonnentag and Fritz, 2015) in recovery which what really means is having time after work to completely detach from work and recover.
Being unable to detach, interferes with your sleep which than goes into a damaging cycle and physical and mental burnout.
Practice sleep hygiene and keep a notepad next to your bed and write things down at night when your mind starts worrying about the next day tasks; this may free your mind and allow yourself a good night sleep.
Engage into recovery activities like a sport that you like, personal growth, volunteer activities or spiritual activities. During the lockdown some of these may be harder to achieve but many can still be done virtually. Some advocate that spiritual activities have been found to be related to the highest mental and physical recovery and detachment (Stachowski et. al, 2019). You need to find your own best recovery activity suited to your own lifestyle and personality.
