Working 9 am to 5 pm, doing the same tasks, and following the same routine, every day is enough to make you feel exhausted, especially if your job is highly demanding. No matter how good you are at your job, pushing yourself to do better and achieve more can lead to burnout.
Most people are stuck between work and home, with little or no time for extracurricular activities. They don't have the time to do what they enjoy, which could be anything; hiking, clubbing, camping, etc. When you're following a monotonous life and constantly pushing yourself to live up to the expectations at work, you'll suffer from burnout sooner than later.
When that happens, you'll observe your performance and enthusiasm decline. You won't feel like working, and it'll only be half-hearted when you do work. You'll feel more anxious and stressed, which will affect your physical and mental well-being.
Employee burnout is real. If your employees suffer from employee burnout, your business will get affected down the lane. Your business outcomes depend on how well your employees are performing, and when their productivity takes a dive, so will your business.
This makes it critically important for employers to ensure their employees aren't going towards burnout. It's your responsibility, as an employer, to break the employee burnout cycle.
Read this blog post to know which strategies you can employ to prevent your employees from feeling burned out.
Consequences of Employee Burnout
We know that the productivity and efficiency of an employee decrease when they experience burnout, but that's not the only consequence. Employee burnout has more severe consequences than you can ever imagine.
Let's go through what can happen if your employees are experiencing burnout.
Decreased Productivity and Efficiency
Employee burnout's first and most obvious consequence is decreased productivity and efficiency. Employee burnout isn't only associated with work-related exhaustion, but it's also linked to emotional exhaustion that can make the employee feel like they're good for nothing and their sense of self-worth takes a massive blow.
When that happens, the employee may lose interest in their job, which will result in a lack of concentration, procrastination, reduced productivity, poor temperament, and irritability. You certainly can't expect someone to work with full dedication and to the best of their potential if they aren't in the right place physically, emotionally, and psychologically.
High Turnover Rate
Employee burnout results in a high turnover rate. When an employee experiences burnout, they often give up on their jobs. Not everyone is strong enough to continue working when they don't feel like it. Employee burnout harms the mental well-being of an individual more than you can ever imagine. When a person suffers from burnout, they generally become irritable, which often affects their personal relations and life.
This can cost a company thousands of dollars. Every time an employee quits, the company has to invest about 16 to 213% of the employee's salary in finding a suitable replacement. Not to mention the work that gets affected due to an employee leaving.
Poor Employee Retention
When an employee leaves, the burden on the remaining workforce is automatically increased. Someone has to take up the tasks the employee left behind. Usually, the best-performing employees are given extra responsibilities. In an effort to meet the employer's expectations, these best-performing employees get burned out, and as a result, they quit too. Employee burnout starts a chain reaction; one employee leaves, the other gets overburdened and quits, then another employee gets overburdened, and the chain goes on.
Serious Effects on the Health
An employee who feels burned out is under a lot of stress. Employee burnout can take a toll on an employee's physical and mental health. Work-related stress can lead to serious health complications like anxiety and can even lead to much longer-lasting health problems like heart conditions. Employees who feel burned out are at a higher risk of engaging in unhealthy habits like drinking and smoking to cope up with the stress, which puts them the face of developing serious health complications.
How to Break Employee Burnout
You're highly mistaken if you think none of your employees are experiencing employee burnout. There will be employees working on your premises that feel burned out. If you don't do something to break the burnout cycle, you're not only putting your employee's well-being at risk but you're also putting your business at risk too.
However, you can employ some strategies that can help you break the cycle of employee burnout.
Offer Flexibility
One of the biggest reasons why an employee may feel burned out is the lack of choice. They have got to show up to work even if they don't feel like getting up in the morning and driving to work. When an employee comes to work with this attitude, their efficiency will be visibly low. One way to prevent employee burnout is to offer as much flexibility as you can.
Allow your employees to work from home. This would mean that on days the employee doesn't feel like going to work, they can relax at home and work. It would also save the time they would have otherwise spent commuting. They can use that time to do something they've wanted to do for a long time, like watch a movie, or go for a jog.
When a person is able to do the little things they enjoy, it'll automatically make them feel good, and the chances of them experiencing burnout will be significantly reduced.
Design an Innovative and Collaborative Workplace
The traditional cubicle office design is one of the many contributing factors to employee burnout. Employees don't get to interact with coworkers. Many employers don't like it when their employees hang out. They expect their employees to just work.
One of the most effective strategies to break the employee burnout cycle is to revamp your office design and make it more interactive and collaborative. Allow the employees to interact, collaborate, and have fun. The more relaxed your employees are, the better they'll be able to perform at work.
Incorporate activity rooms where employees can relax and unwind. Make sure you've got a dedicated lunch room where your employees can have meals with their coworkers and talk for a while. All of this would ensure the mental well-being of your employees and keep them from feeling burned out at work.
Work on Providing a Comfortable Work Environment
You may have heard many people complain about constant back pain and headaches after work. While work-related stress is partly to blame, the uncomfortable work conditions are the major reason for the most common work-related health complaints.
Not many workplaces have ergonomic equipment in place, which puts the employees at risk of developing posture-related health complications. The employees feel fatigued and exhausted and get burned out sooner.
However, you can protect your employees from work-related fatigue and burnout by investing in ergonomic furniture like standing desks and ergonomic chairs like the Sit2Go 2-in-1 Fitness Chair Eco. Ergonomic furniture ensures that the employees are provided with comfortable work conditions in the office. When they're comfortable, they'll be able to work with more dedication and commitment, and that will be reflected in their work.
Make Your Employees Feel Valued
Most companies simply inform their employees of any changes in policies or work plans. They don't consider the fact that they may not have all employees on the same page as them. When something is imposed on employees, they automatically feel resentful, and when they're made to work in such conditions, employee burnout is inevitable.
One of the best strategies to break the employee burnout cycle is to communicate with them. Talk to them about the challenges they face at work, and what they expect from their employer, and discuss the possible solutions to existing problems.
This will make your employees feel like they're an important part of an organization, and they'll be more than willing to go the extra mile to get things done without feeling exhausted or frustrated.
Closing Word
Always remember that if an employee isn't performing as well as they should, it might not be because they aren't capable of the job, but it could be due to the fact that they're experiencing burnout. Instead of putting them under stress by telling them how poorly they're performing, talk to them about what's causing a drop in their performance.
Sometimes, all it takes is a two-way conversation to make your employee feel better. Simply telling them that they can do better and you're available to facilitate them in every way possible can do wonders!
Employee burnout is real, but it can be prevented, and that's what you should try to do!
