Managing Employee Burnout in the age of Covid-19

I was having lunch with a friend recently who confided in me that his department is experiencing unprecedented levels of turnover.  He speculated that employee burnout was one of the primary reasons.  That conversation got me thinking - we are 18+ months into this pandemic and working from home environment – what has the impact been on teams, what are the signs of employee burnout, and what can leaders do to help mitigate it?

Working from home certainly has its benefits – more flexibility, additional time available to spend with loved ones, and of course pajama days.  On the flip side though, we are always connected to our devices – the lines between work and home have blurred even more and there is no clear start or stop point for many of us. We end up working longer hours – on average 25% longer based on a Gallup study - and the work day doesn’t ever quite seem to end.  Added to this, is the anxiety many of us are feeling as companies consider bringing employees back on site.  It’s no wonder then, that many employees are experiencing burnout. 

What is burnout?  Burnout is defined as a chronic state of mental stress, exhaustion, and overwhelm often caused by the demands of the employee’s workload. 

A recent study by Indeed shows that employee burnout has only gotten worse over the last year: more than half (52%) of respondents are feeling burned out.  As a leader, this is alarming – we care about our employees’ health and based on a Gallup study, we now know that that employees who frequently experience burnout are 2.6x more likely to be actively seeking a different job.

What can you do as a leader:

1. Recognize the signs and stay vigilant so you can spot them early. Employees experiencing burnout often:

   1. become disengaged & detached from the team

   2. share that they are feeling exhausted and take frequent sick days

   3. become irritable & combatant

   4. are resistant to coaching and feedback

2. Listen with empathy. Stay in frequent contact with employees. Make it safe for people to share; a simple “tell me how you're doing" can get the ball rolling. If they share frustrations about their work, don't become defensive – you can acknowledge their emotions without having to agree.

3. Examine your own behavior – what are you modeling? Are you sending emails to your team members late at night or over weekends? Do you take time off for vacations and take breaks throughout the day? The behavior you model sets the tone for your team culture.

4. Encourage employees to unplug and set boundaries. Acknowledge that a fast paced, high productivity culture will demand as much of their time as they are willing to give so it is up to them to set and then enforce boundaries. Respect their boundaries.

5. Explore non-value add tasks – what can be taken off their plate? That weekly report that's been done for years - who would really miss it if your team stopped publishing it? Try it out for a couple of weeks and notice reactions.

If COVID-19 has taught us anything at all, it is that we are all in this together – we are one global community.  As leaders, we owe it to ourselves and our team members to prioritize our mental and emotional health.