Behind every successful business, there is a number of employees that devote their time, skills and efforts to its development. Human resources are the greatest treasure of every industry. Unfortunately, nowadays people face too many difficulties at work which lead to stress and further burnout.
What is employee burnout? Employee burnout is a serious damage to a person’s mental and physical health. It may be caused by various factors a person deals with at work.
The point is to understand what a great danger is hidden behind those words, as well as detect employee burnout in-time and prevent it as soon as possible. We dedicate this article to the comprehensive research on this topic and useful tips on how to prevent employee burnout in your company.
Reasons For Employee Burnout And How To Detect It
Let’s start with the reasons that cause employee burnout.
It is a common question why people burn out at work. We believe that some of our readers enjoy their work conditions and do not even imagine how it feels to fight with such a trouble. Without any doubts, there is another part of our readers that have already fought through these difficulties and understand the seriousness of this problem pretty well.
There are 3 main reasons for employee burnout:
- continuous stress at work;
- high level of pressure;
- responsibilities that either do not match the specialist’s skills or require too much overtime.
However, as the real-life experience shows, there are a lot of other reasons for burnout. Usually, stress is associated with working with people. Additionally, employee burnout may be caused by problematic management and frequent conflicts between colleagues. Sometimes, a person does not even notice that there is a problem in the company. Then, unexpectedly, it reaches the mark “Too Much”, and an employee burns out.
Every worker, as well as every manager or director, needs to be aware of the serious circumstances of burnout:
- depression;
- hypertension;
- chronic pain and diseases;
- heart attacks etc.
Burnout can lead to terrible situations. So, how can you find out whether your employee is reaching burnout?
- Exhaustion
Coming to the verge of burnout, a person feels exhausted. So, if you notice obvious physical and mental exhaustion, your employee may be close to the crisis.
- Lack of Engagement
In order to save oneself from stress, a person tries to get rid of any tasks and work activities. In a nutshell, a worker loses interest in everything related to the job responsibilities.
- Days Off
A person that is close to professional burnout can hardly get out of bed in the morning. Additionally, she or he is so demotivated that the number of days off in the calendar increases.
- Isolation
This point may be close to disengagement. An employee tries to keep a safe distance from the colleagues. A person avoids live and friendly communication with co-workers trying hard to keep oneself safe.
- Emotional Excess
Employee burnout has another considerable feature. Approaching burnout, a person overreacts to criticism, as well as to any other situation or issue.
There are some exceptional situations when the signs of employee burnout are not so obvious. However, a short personal conversation may reveal whether this person is on the verge of burnout.
Be aware of the next 5 phrases that may be indicators of the upcoming burnout:
- “I will never learn this”;
- “No one likes me here”;
- “I am not good at this”;
- “I am working on it more than 50 hours a week”;
- “I am ready for failure”.
Having revealed this problem in time, you have a chance to save your colleague.
5 Ways To Prevent Employee Burnout
The best way to solve the problem is to prevent it. So, we gathered 5 best ways to prevent employee burnout:
- Build A Dialogue
In most cases, burnout starts because of lack of communication. Listen to the employees carefully and make sure they know about your attention. Only by building a dialogue based on trust can you prevent the disaster. A small amount of your time can save someone’s career, as well as your project.
- Celebrate Wins
Big corporation success is built with the help of small wins of each employee. People you work with make a contribution to the development of your business every single day. Let them know you appreciate all the little things they do. Encourage them, enhance their confidence, and make them feel proud of what they do for the company.
- Improve The Work Schedule
First of all, make sure your co-workers do not work 24/7. Even if it sounds great, it demonstrates the issues inside your company and builds a straight way to the burnout. Second of all, take into account your staff preferences. Some people feel productive early in the morning; others work better after 5 PM. The point is to analyze the most important business hours and build a work schedule in a way that is convenient for all parties involved.
- Let Them Do What They Love
In order to reach the best results, one needs to love the job. Without any positive feelings, it is not possible to develop a great product and a company in general. Get to know your staff and find out what role they would like to play in the company. Inspire them by providing other job opportunities. Organize corporative training and let them switch from one position to another seamlessly. Satisfaction of the worker impacts the product.
- Add Some Fun
It is not that difficult to build lovely work conditions. A casual smile, funny emojis in the work chat, short after-work parties make a difference. Even if it seems like they mean nothing, they do mean a lot. Team buildings and spending time together empower team spirit as well. If workers love coming to the office, no burnout will hurt them.
The Final Thoughts
Employee burnout is a dangerous thing caused by an overload of work and continuous stress. If you follow simple tips, it is easy to prevent it and build a stronger team of professionals that love what they do.
