Article: Here's what to do about employee burnout at work

Employee Engagement

Here's what to do about employee burnout at work

What is the role of the employee, HR and the business?
Here's what to do about employee burnout at work

The two words that best describe work environment in today’s day and age are “fast-paced” and “dynamic.” And the need to cope up and adapt to this ever-changing environment is making stress and anxiety an inevitable part of our lives. Stress and anxiety in small doses can be ignored, but in some cases, it begins to mount up and slowly turns into daily phenomena. The by-product of chronic stress at the workplace, which in turn leads to mental and physical exhaustion, anger, bitterness, and inefficiency can be characterized as Employee Burnout.

Burnout is often confused with stress. But apart from being a by-product of chronic stress,  burnout can be caused due to a number of factors and they can  range from

•    Being under compensated
•    Depressing work conditions
•    Lack of opportunities to grow
•    Monotonous and repetitive work
•    Unfairness at workplace
•    No work-life balance
•     Disturbance in one’s personal life

A burnt out employee often experiences some unpleasant symptoms in him/her. Here are a few behaviors they display

•    Being irritable, impatient, exhausted, de-motivated to even being frustrated.
•    Lack of concentration and also tend to become unmindful.
•    Negativity and bitterness towards work, co-workers, and workplaces.
•    A major drop in the work performance of the employee.
•    Employees may change their eating and sleeping habits. This, in turn, impacts their physical health.

A burnout hits an employee mentally, emotionally, socially, physically and at even at a personal level. And any employee can fall prey to its evil traps. But a lot can be done if each employee takes these preventive measures,

•    Create daily priority lists to manage work more efficiently and effectively.
•    If you are dissatisfied with your job profile, ask for more suitable options within the organization by expressing your concerns with the manager.
•    If you are an overachiever at work and feel burnt-out, then learn to Relax and review your work with your manager.
•    If you tend to get anxious, then practice deep breathing and meditation on a daily basis. This will help to calm those nerves.
•    Unwind yourself, take vacations with loved ones.
•    Maintain a good work-life balance.
•    Raise your voice against unfair or unethical practices
•    Involve yourself in physical activities like running, dancing, gym, etc.
•    Regularly interact with your teammates
•    Take small but regular breaks at work

It’s not just the employee’s actions that result in an employee burnout.  Any effective technique to revive an employee from this state would call for efforts at all levels, starting from the manager, the HR Department to The C –Suite or the Organization itself.

•    Managers

    - Need to be fair and approachable
    - Need to allocate work effectively, keeping in mind the strengths of each employee
    - Must encourage team building activities,
    - Deal with each burnout situation individually,
    - Provide  training when required
    - Be supportive

•    The HR Department

    - Needs to organize employee engagement activities to help employees unwind
    - Needs to treat every employee’s concern with complete fairness
    - Train managers to deal with burnout situations.
    - Provide fair and competitive compensation
    - Enforce employee friendly policies

•    The C-Suite business leader

    - Serve as a role model for work-life balance
    - Regularly review employee health and wellness measures as a business imperative
    - Encourage and inspire employees to take a vacation
    - Foster an organizational culture that prioritizes employee care

A happy organization is a sign of happy employees. The health of the organization is determined by the health of its employees. And an organization that works as one unit can re-energize and re-awaken the lost zest in its worn-out employees.

 

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Topics: Employee Engagement, Corporate Wellness Programs

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