Is it “only burnout”? This usually suggests you just need to pace yourself, pet your dog, have sit-down dinners with your family and walk more. People just need to take better care of themselves, right?
No, the employers need to remove the stressful demands. It’s a simple fact and it’s not new, but the pandemic makes it more critical to our health and ability to do good work.
Olga Khazan wrote about this in March in The Atlantic. Her article, “Only Your Boss Can Cure Your Burnout,” stakes out a situation that blames the victims of burnout – which makes it appear that the victims may be suffering from clinical depression – instead of leaders and management who can actually do something about it.
“…burnout is a work problem. Though wellness influencers might suggest various life hacks to help push through pandemic torpor, actual burnout experts say that tips and tricks are not the best way to treat the condition. Instead, they say, burnout is a problem created by the workplace, and changes to the workplace are the best way to fix it.”– Olga Khazan, “Only Your Boss Can Cure Your Burnout,” The Atlantic
The demands of business will be what they are, but they don’t have to be cruel. A kinder workplace can be achieved that will lift unreasonable burdens from workers and probably improve their performance.
Leaders need to shoulder the burden of rethinking how their organizations work. It takes compassion and creativity. Here are some ways to start.
Tips to curb burnout in your company
- First, as a baseline, have managers audit how they have their teams deployed and realistically appraise volume and deadlines.
- Schedule “workload triage” sessions – use these to both prioritize tasks and help employees balance their individual deliverables. Look for overload.
- Small talk – we can’t stress this enough. Allow time on meeting agendas to hear what’s going on in people’s lives. And be aware of what you don’t hear from individuals. If someone is reticent, they might be struggling. Follow up one-on-one to find out.
- Maintain inclusive teams – the more a team approach is promoted, the more people will feel supported. Facilitate a way that members back each other up and trade workload as needed. “Phil’s overloaded, can someone take the monthly report?”
- Validation, appreciation and gratitude – continually acknowledge the trying circumstances, call out successes and continually thank people for “hanging in there.”
- Have occasional family times on video conferences where participants can introduce children, pets or a personal project.
In short, if you’re seeing burnout due to work stress, act to relieve it. Then, gradually “turn the ship” toward a kinder workplace model through your facilitation and own example.
People may be better than we think at taking care of themselves. Instead of shaming employees for not relaxing, quality-timing and exercising enough, it’s time for the company to give them their lives back.