Burnout impacts employee wellbeing and team performance. Discover its causes and how managers can address it using strengths-based strategies.
As a manager, you might notice members of your team who, despite their dedication and effort, are showing signs of exhaustion and feeling unfulfilled. This could be employee burnout, a common yet often overlooked challenge that impacts not only individuals but team dynamics and overall productivity. Recognising the root causes and early symptoms of burnout in your team can be game-changing. By understanding what burnout truly means, learning how to spot it, and taking steps to address it, you can create a more supportive, engaged, and resilient workplace. Let’s explore how you can identify and support employees experiencing burnout.
1. Understanding Employee Burnout
What is Employee Burnout?
Employee burnout isn’t just an individual challenge; it's a prolonged response to chronic workplace stressors that can significantly impact team performance. For managers, understanding burnout means recognising the signs of exhaustion, disengagement, and inefficiency within your team.
Burnout typically manifests in three ways:
- Exhaustion: Team members feeling emotionally, physically, and mentally drained.
- Cynicism: Negative attitudes towards work or colleagues.
- Inefficacy: A reduced sense of personal or professional accomplishment.
Burnout isn't something that resolves with a weekend off. It requires a proactive apporach to address the root causes and prevent it from escalating. By recognising the patterns od burnout early, you as a manager can take meaningful action to support your team.
Signs and Symptoms
Identifying burnout in your team can be challenging, as it often mimics other performance issues. Look for these signs among your employees:
- Emotional: Feeling apathy or being trapped.
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Behavioural: Increased absenteeism, reduced productivity, or disengagement.
- Physical: Complaints about sleep disturbances, frequent headaches, or other stress-related issues.
According to Gallup, 23% of employees feel burned out very often or always. Early intervention is crucial to maintaining morale and productivity.
Key Insight: Burnout often impacts employees beyond the workplace, leading to wirthdrawl from hobbies and social activities, making it a pervasive challenge.
Why It Matters
Burnout harms more than individual employees—it damages the wider organisation. Left unaddressed, it leads to lower morale, higher turnover, and decreased productivity, which can be financially and culturally costly.
Burnout impacts:
- On Individuals: Mental health issues, job dissatisfaction, and strained relationships.
- On Teams: Increased absenteeism, reduced collaboration, and lower engagement.
- On Businesses: Increased absenteeism, reduced productivity, and staff turnover.
As a manager, addressing burnout in your team creates a healthier work environment. This can boost productivity and employee satisfaction, benefiting everyone involved.
Actionable Advice: Addressing the root causes of burnout with candid discussions and potential policy changes can pave the way for a more supportive work culture.
2. Main Causes of Employee Burnout
Excessive Workload
An excessive workload can overwhelm employees, leaving them feeling perpetually behind and reducing their effectiveness. If your team frequently works overtime or struggles to meet deadlines, burnout can quickly set in.
What you can do:
- Leverage individual strengths: Identify and assign tasks that align with each team member's unique strengths. When employees work within their areas of expertise and passion, they’re more engaged and efficient.
- Encourage collaboration: Pair team members with complementary strengths to share the workload effectively and foster a sense of teamwork. This approach not only distributes tasks more equitably but also enhances innovation and problem-solving.
- Redefine priorities: Regularly review workloads and adjust priorities in team check-ins. Focus on high-value tasks that align with your team's collective strengths and organisational goals, allowing employees to feel purposeful and empowered.
- Provide autonomy: Trust employees to approach their work in ways that play to their strengths. Giving them ownership over their tasks can reduce stress and increase satisfaction.
Pro-tip: Introduce team discussions to identify individual strengths. This not only helps in task allocation but also fosters a deeper understanding of each team member's capabilities.
By focusing on a strengths-based approach, you can help your team manage workloads more effectively while keeping them engaged and motivated.
Lack of Support
Employees without adequate support often feel isolated and overwhelmed. Burnout can arise when team members don’t have the guidance or resources they need to succeed.
What you can do:
- Schedule regular one-on-ones to listen to employees’ concerns.
- Provide training opportunities, to upskill and motivate your team.
- Foster a culture of collaboration and mentorship to build stronger support networks.
Pro-Tip: Create a buddy system within your team to encourage peer support and collaboration.
Unclear Job Expectations
Unclear expectations lead to confusion, frustration, and burnout. When employees are unsure of their roles or priorities, it’s harder for them to feel effective and engaged.
What you can do:
- Clearly define roles and responsibilities for each team member.
- Set measurable goals and outcomes to provide a clear roadmap for success.
- Provide regular feedback to ensure alignment and address gaps early.
Pro-Tip: During performance reviews, document job expectations in a way that highlights and aligns with each employee’s strengths. This ensures clarity on their role while empowering them to excel in areas where they naturally thrive, fostering greater engagement and productivity.
Toxic Work Environment
A toxic work environment, marked by negativity or lack of trust, is a major contributor to burnout. Employees in such environments often feel demotivated and stressed.
What you can do:
- Promote open communication and constructive feedback within your team.
- Encourage team-building activities to strengthen relationships.
- Address conflicts promptly and transparently to prevent negativity from escalating.
Pro-Tip: Introduce regular team-building sessions that focus on recognising and leveraging individual and collective strengths. By celebrating what each team member brings to the table, you can foster trust, enhance collaboration, and create a more cohesive, strengths-oriented team dynamic.
Lack of Work-Life Balance
A poor work-life balance leaves employees feeling overworked and unable to recharge. Constant connectivity through emails and messages can blur the boundaries between work and personal life.
What you can do:
- Set clear expectations around work hours and discourage after-hours communication.
- Promote the use of annual leave to ensure employees take time to rest.
- Offer flexible working arrangements to accommodate personal needs.
Pro-Tip: Introduce “no meeting” days to allow employees uninterrupted time to focus and manage their workloads.
3. Preventing and Managing Burnout
Creating a Supportive Culture
As a manager, you play a critical role in creating a culture that prevents burnout. Proactively support your team by:
- Holding regular check-ins to discuss workload and wellbeing.
- Encouraging peer-to-peer recognition to build morale.
- Organising workshops where employees can openly discuss challenges and brainstorm solutions.
Pro-Tip: Maintain an open-door policy to make it easier for employees to share concerns.
Setting Clear Expectations
Clarity is key to avoiding burnout. Employees perform better when they understand what’s expected of them.
- Clearly communicate goals and priorities during team meetings.
- Regularly revisit and adjust objectives as needed.
- Provide constructive feedback to help employees stay on track.
Pro-Tip: Use performance management tools to ensure transparency and alignment across the team.
Encouraging Work-Life Balance
Work-life balance is essential for preventing burnout. As a manager, lead by example and encourage your team to prioritise their wellbeing.
- Advocate for flexible working options, such as remote work or flexible hours.
- Promote the use of annual leave and discourage overwork.
- Implement technology solutions to limit after-hours communication.
Pro-Tip: Designate no-meeting days to give employees time to focus uninterrupted, enhancing productivity and allowing employees to manage their time better.
Recognising and Rewarding Efforts
Acknowledgement is key in alleviating burnout. Recognising efforts uplifts spirits and boosts workplace morale. Implement a multi-faceted reward system that includes both monetary and non-monetary incentives tailored to individual preferences. As such, these rewards should align with your company's values and goals, rewarding not just outcomes but also the effort and growth exhibited by employees.
For a meaningful shift, incorporate consistent feedback opportunities where employees can both receive and give praise. Furthermore, leaders can make a significant impact by writing personal thank-you notes recognising team effort, or featuring employee achievements in company newsletters.
Pro-tip: Include a public appreciation programme during monthly meetings to spotlight outstanding contributions, reinforcing positive behaviour across your team.
A workplace adept at recognising efforts encourages an environment of support and motivation. Your employees benefit from transparent expectations, balanced work-life integration, and continuous recognition. Head to our thoughts on unlocking the potentially crucial role of people management to craft an environment where burnout is significantly reduced and productivity thrives.
Explore further how Strengthify’s strengths-based framework can embolden your team to reduce stress and improve overall organisational performance.