CleanPix Blog

We’ve all felt it before…

The feeling that there’s just not enough hours in the day and we’re drowning in a sea of uncompleted tasks and ever growing to-do lists.

Unfortunately, these feelings are often just a part of life and nearly unavoidable in the workplace. But what happens when common stress becomes something more serious?

The Truth About Burnout

Burnout can affect anyone in any job or industry. In fact, some of your employees or coworkers may be experiencing symptoms of it right now.

As a leader at your company, whether you’re the CEO or an entry-level supervisor, it’s imperative that you’re able to recognize the signs of burnout in those who work under you and help remedy the situation before it escalates into a serious problem.

What Exactly is Burnout?

Defined as:

“Exhaustion of physical or emotional strength or motivation usually as a result of prolonged stress or frustration.”

The term was first used by psychologist Herbert Freudenberger in 1974. Today, according to The American Institute of Stress, over a quarter of the U.S. workforce says they’ve experienced the symptoms.

It’s important to note that while many people believe stress and burnout to be interchangeable terms, they are different.

Stress is the feeling of “too much” – too much to do, too much pressure, etc. But burnout is characterized by feelings of “not enough” or emptiness. Those affected become emotionally exhausted, cynical and feel a loss of purpose and motivation. In extreme cases, they may even begin to feel a loss of hope.

Recognizing The Symptoms

Burnout is often hard to recognize because it happens over time. But according to Psychology Today, there are noticeable symptoms:

• Chronic Fatigue: This is more than a lack of energy, but a feeling of complete physical and mental exhaustion, sometimes accompanied by feelings of dread.
• Depression: Symptoms of depression can range from occasional feelings of sadness at the beginning, to severely low self-esteem and feelings of being trapped.
• Anger: What may start as occasional irritability can quickly escalate into unprovoked rage leading to loud arguments and outbursts
• Detachment: This is the desire for isolation and can manifest itself in the workplace as tardiness, calling in sick without cause, or completely neglecting duties all together.
• A Lack of Focus: An inability to focus, a shortened attention span, or frequent forgetfulness are possible symptoms.
• Physical Conditions: Chest pain, heart palpitations, shortness of breath, or headaches can be indications as well. If any of your employees are experiencing such symptoms, they should be assessed by their doctor.

9 Steps To Reduce Staff Burnout

Now that we know what burnout looks like, what can we do to prevent it in the workplace?

Now that we know what burnout looks like, what can we do to prevent it in the workplace?

1. Discover The Cause

First, you need to learn and understand what’s causing burnout in your employee(s). Are they feeling overworked and under appreciated? Perhaps they don’t feel challenged by their duties or fairly compensated for the effort they put in.

Sometimes the cause is found in areas unrelated to the workplace. For example, tension in the home due to relationships, poor health of family members or continual financial struggles can lead to symptoms that may begin to seep into their job.

Encourage openness with your employees and in your workplace. The people who work for you should feel comfortable telling you what’s causing a dip in their productivity without the fear of rebuke or dismissal. Promote trust by allowing employees to be open about their mental, physical and emotional states.

2. Be Realistic

You need to have realistic expectations. Even for superstar employees, there’s a limit to how much can be done in a single work day. And asking your employees to consistently put in overtime is not only unfair, but a sure path to severe mental fatigue.

Having realistic expectations is important to the health of your workplace and employees, but that in itself isn’t enough.

You also need to make sure that each employee clearly understand what you expect of them. If you don’t make this abundantly clear, they may think you expect more of them than you do and overwork themselves in order to please you and preserve their job.

3. Rest

Related to our last point, do NOT require or expect employees to work in their off time. If you’re the founder of your company, you’ve poured so much of yourself into building your business: your time, energy, money. It may be hard to imagine life outside of the office. But all work and no play can be quite unhealthy.

Encourage your employees to relax and pursue other interests in their off time. Support their individual dreams and goals. And while you’re at it, take some time off yourself! Hard work doesn’t mean constant work.

4. Working Environment

The atmosphere you create is very important. Do your employees enjoy coming to work? Do they feel appreciated? If they don’t, their mental and emotional states may be at risk.

By creating an environment that fosters fun, creativity and community, you’ll also help develop a company culture of hard work and productivity. Happy employees work harder and get more done.

This should go without saying, but don’t micromanage your employees and NEVER guilt them into anything! They should feel free to accomplish their work without “the boss” hounding them or making them feel guilty for taking breaks.

5. Remember Your Why

Another way to combat burnout in the workplace is to constantly reiterate to your team why you all do what you do. Remind your team of their passion for your product and customers and that the work they do is important.

Also, tell your team where you see the business in 3, 5, 10 years. Sharing your vision(s) with your employees not only helps them feel ownership of the project, but also gives them purpose.

6. Celebrate

People get burned out when they feel like they aren’t getting any closer to their goals. By celebrating even the small wins, you and your team will taste success along the way and it will help propel you to the next goal.

This doesn’t necessarily mean you need to throw a party every time you get a new client or customer. But taking a moment to recognize success, big or small, will help your team feel productive and keep them motivated to achieve even greater things.

7. Education:
Teach your employees how to do their work well and provide them with the tools to succeed. Do they need to be educated on how your company handles specific scenarios? Is there a new software that will help your team secure more clients in less time?

Ensure your employees have the necessary resources so they can best accomplish the work that’s required of them. Repeated failure or mediocre work, especially when the employee feels helpless to correct it, will certainly take a toll on their mental and emotional health.

8. Team Building

A strong team is essential to your company’s success and employees that enjoy being around each other are much more likely to do their best work and steer clear of burnout.

To help foster friendships between employees, consider a company retreat, signing you and your team up for a softball league, participating in local bike races, trying to escape the room or even just a night out on the town for dinner.

Building deeper relationships helps ensure your employees have more invested in the company than just a paycheck.

9. Be Mindful

Keep an eye on those who work for you. If you start to see signs of burnout, have an open, honest discussion and work to remedy the situation immediately. It’s a lot less expensive to take care of your current employees than to find new ones.

Also, by educating your employees on the most common symptoms (the ones we talked about earlier) they’ll be able to help diagnose themselves.

Reduce Staff Burnout

Burnout is increasingly common in the workplace and steps need to be taken to ensure a happy and productive workforce.

A company is only as good as its employees, so treat them with respect and create a positive working environment they can succeed in and enjoy coming to every day.

By being vigilant and aware of common burnout symptoms, you’ll increase employee loyalty and improve your business.