As of May 2019 ‘burnout’ is included in the 11th Revision of the International Classification of Diseases as an occupational phenomenon by the World Health Organization (WHO). It is not classified as a medical condition but a syndrome arising as a result of constant workplace stress that has not been managed well. It is said quite often that a certain degree of anxiety or stress may be beneficial for results. But in the long run, such perpetual stress may lead to burnout at workplace and could potentially lead to employee’s poor performance and low morale.
With deadlines to meet, clients with their specific demands and a work environment that may not be the dream job for most people, it is understandable for employees to suffer from stress and fatigue at the workplace. In a report published in the Economic Times, as many as 22% of respondents to the ‘India Employee Survey’ by an HR tech startup felt that their productivity is low due to stress and the excessive amount of work, and most of the respondents said they suffered from workplace depression.
Burnout may be identified by three key symptoms. They are:
(i) physical and mental exhaustion
(ii) cynicism
(iii) ineffectiveness
These three symptoms are interrelated and could be expressed in varying degrees. While exhaustion inhibits the cognitive and physical ability, ineffectiveness refers to instances where an employee feels detached and careless about the work. Simultaneously, the feeling of incompetency could also crop up, further amplifying the instances of cynicism and exhaustion. Employees displaying burnout symptoms could have contagious effects on other team members and negatively impact the firm’s productivity and work culture. Therefore, for the benefit of the employees and organization, proactive and preemptive steps to identify and address the stressor elements, leading to burnout at workplace, become vital.
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Identification of Stressors
The first stage to tackle the issue of burnout at workplace is to identify the employees or managers displaying or complaining about the symptoms of burnout. While identifying the employees suffering from burnout symptoms could be easy, pinpointing the cause is tricky, as many visible and latent variables could be involved in the process. There could be multiple reasons related to an individual’s work style or to the managerial practices at the workplace. One tends to get tempted to attribute the burnout to individual’s resilience, and specifically to one’s style of work such as working overtime, multitasking, leading to poor food habits, taking fewer breaks, a mind-set, proving self-worth, or for that matter authoritative nature, etc.
The design and demands of work itself is vital in pushing them in such a self-destructive behavior. Many multinational organization’s leadership and managerial style, as also there in house rules and policies could be equally important in determining the well-being or burnout of the employees. Let’s take for instance, unjust leadership or work culture, staff crunch, conflict among colleagues, unrealistic deadlines or targets could well become key causes for stress and burnout among the employees.
The managers or team leaders could play a vital role in seeking regular feedback and probe the cases of potential burnout among the team members. At an individual level, self-care related to food and sleeping habits, exercise, social connections, meditation or practicing mindfulness could help in overcoming the work-related stress and anxiety. However, if more and more number of employees identify themselves with symptoms of burnout, it could be a signal for the need to review and tweak the design of work itself. The four points for effectively handling the issues of burnout at workplace levels are:
1. Management that listens
Wide array of tools are available at the management’s disposal to understand the employee’s concerns and work sentiments. For instance, direct meetings with superiors, speak-out program, suggestion committee, open-door policy can raise red flags before it’s too late. There should be internal formal and informal communication channels where issues related to work stress and burnout could be discussed for the workforce. Identification of the stressors involved could be done using a quick pulse survey or open grievance communication channel which will go a long way in early. However, learning or listening about grievances or anxiety about work is only half of the story, as willingness to act on the issues raised, in an emphatic manner, is still at the discretion of the organization.
2. Realistic goals and expectations
Some organizations like to place unrealistic expectations and keep the employees under tremendous pressure to work for long hours. In the name of multitasking, an employee could be loaded with too many tasks leading to poor concentration and exhaustion. Employees are usually overloaded with work and this should be resisted. The culture of setting limits on workload, after assessing the collective capacity should be encouraged. During the meetings, managers can often ask what additional support could be extended from the organization to achieve the envisioned goals. At times the management can even allow the teams to set or choose their individual or collective goals.
3. Redesigning the breaks
At work every day taking small breaks are common, but sufficient thought should be given to the idea of having some relatively low workload periods during which the employees could work at a relaxed pace. A work design like such, more breathing space is availed to the employees during which they may be recharged for even more critical tasks. The analogy given is that of ‘not sprinting a marathon’ and by giving intermittent relaxed periods, the employees are expected to regain momentum to engage in short sprints (i.e. short-term, intensive goals). The resources required to fulfill the task should be carefully evaluated and enough flexibility in choosing the work style and break time could be given to the employees.
4. Work culture
An organization should keep a watch for toxic work culture and managerial practices. Bad leadership, internal conflicts amongst colleagues and micromanagement issues can be unfavorable for both employees and the organization’s performance. Instances of incivility and conflict should be actively discouraged and replaced with compassion and mutual respect. A strong peer support system will go a long way in ascertaining the well being of the employees.
Individual employees need to identify the stressors that are the causes of burnout and is a signal for them to establish a mechanism to deal with the current chain of work-related events. Perhaps even more important is the intervention of the organization in designing the work system that not only identifies burnout at workplace but also establishes an apparatus to suitably address them.
References:
- ‘Job burnout: How to spot it and take action’- By Mayo Clinic Staff
- ‘India Employee Survey’- The Economic Times Mumbai
- ‘Tackling the issue of ‘Burnout’ in organizations’- By Prof. Randhir Kumar 7th September 2019
