Recognizing Burnout: Signs, Symptoms, and Strategies for Prevention
May is Mental Health Awareness Month, an initiative designed to promote the importance of mental well-being. Mental Health Awareness Month provides your business with an opportunity to educate workers about burnout and continue to do so past May. By capitalizing on this opportunity, you can help your employees identify the signs and symptoms of employee burnout and address them in their early stages. Plus, you can explain what your employees can do to protect against burnout, so they can feel and perform their best at work and outside of it.
At PrideStaff, we want to help you and your employees make the most of Mental Health Awareness Month and beyond. As part of our efforts, we’re answering some of the most common questions about employee burnout.
What Is Burnout?
Burnout refers to a syndrome in which an employee is dealing with chronic stress and struggles to manage it. In this situation, the worker may feel physically and mentally exhausted and negative or cynical about their job. These issues and similar ones may hamper a worker’s ability to perform their best.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has called burnout an “international phenomenon.” This may be due to the fact that this issue affects employees and businesses around the world but frequently goes undetected or unaddressed. If workers and businesses are unaware of the problem or choose to ignore it is unlikely to go away. In the long run, the issue continuously disrupts workers and businesses, making it impossible for both groups to thrive.
What Are the Signs of Burnout?
Common signs that an employee is burned out include:
- Exhaustion
- Frequently absent
- Increasingly sensitive to feedback
- Lack of interest in work
- Less productive
If you notice a worker displaying these or other signs of burnout, you may want to discuss them with the employee. Together, you and your worker can explore ways to combat burnout before it leads to symptoms that affect their physical and mental health long into the future.
What Are Burnout Symptoms?
The symptoms of burnout may affect an employee’s physical and mental well-being. They include:
- Depression
- Difficulty concentrating
- Gastrointestinal problems
- Headaches
- Insomnia
Burnout symptoms range in terms of severity and can escalate quickly. After an employee can identify their symptoms, they may be able to figure out why they are happening in the first place. From here, they can take steps to safely and effectively manage their symptoms.
Why Does Burnout Happen?
According to Mayo Clinic, there’s no surefire cause of job burnout. Some experts say the issue may be related to depression. Alternatively, burnout may actually increase a worker’s risk of experiencing depression symptoms. There may be personality traits that make some employees more susceptible to burnout than others. Past work experiences and other factors may also lead to burnout symptoms.
In addition, there are several risk factors that have been linked to workplace burnout. These include:
- Lack of Control: An employee may feel overwhelmed due to their lack of control over their schedule, assignments, and other aspects of their work.
- No Work-Life Balance: When a worker doesn’t have enough time to break away from the hustle and bustle of their job, they may be prone to burnout.
- Work Conflicts: If an employee doesn’t get along with their peers, they may feel like their colleagues are against them, which may result in burnout symptoms.
You can’t change the fact that job burnout exists. However, you can provide tools and resources to help your employees guard against this issue.
Is Burnout Preventable?
There are strategies that your employees may use to prevent burnout, including:
1. Identify and Respond to Stress
The symptoms of stress can vary from employee to employee. Some workers may clench their teeth and appear tense when they feel stressed out. Others may be prone to headaches and other symptoms that make it difficult to remain productive.
By teaching your employees about the signs of stress, you can help them remain calm, cool, and collected. For example, if a worker understands when they are feeling stressed out, they may be able to respond appropriately. At this point, the employee may be able to take a few deep breaths or a short break to calm down. When the worker returns to the task at hand, they’ll be well equipped to give 100%.
You can also do things to make your workplace less stressful and more engaging for your employees. For instance, you can recognize and praise your employees for a job well done. On top of that, you can provide professional development opportunities. With these things and many others, you can provide a work environment where employees feel great. This may help your workers maximize their productivity and avoid burnout.
2. Establish Boundaries
Your workers may have no idea what you want out of them. This uncertainty can make an employee worry about their job. It may reach a point where the worker feels like nothing they do is good enough. Or, a worker may become disinterested in their work, to the point where they don’t care if they keep their job.
To help your workers stay on track, meet with them regularly. You can host weekly one-on-one meetings with each member of your team. These meetings allow you to check in with your employees, see how they’re doing, and provide feedback. They also allow you to address your employees’ concerns and questions and make sure they have everything they need to succeed.
Along with meeting with workers, help your employees manage their workloads. If a worker is falling behind, find out why. You and your worker can brainstorm ways to address the problem. Next, you can support your employees at a time when they may need it the most.
3. Promote a Healthy Work-Life Balance
If your employees work more than anything else, they may suffer the consequences. It’s important for your workers to feel good about their jobs. At the same time, work should not affect a person’s ability to engage with family and friends, have fun, and enjoy their life to the fullest extent.
You can help your workers establish a healthy work-life balance by encouraging them to take time away from their jobs. As an example, you can keep workers up to date about your business’ vacation policy. Let employees use their paid time off (PTO). If a worker hasn’t used their PTO, remind them it’s still available.
There are also many perks that you can offer to help workers develop a healthy work-life balance. Your company may provide a flexible schedule or remote work opportunities to employees. These may help you keep your employees happy. They may help your company attract top talent moving forward, too.
4. Prioritize Self-Care
Self-care is a difference-maker relative to work burnout. If your employees take care of themselves, they may be more likely to avoid stress. Over time, workers can develop self-care habits that deliver big returns.
You can create a culture of self-care that resonates across your company. This involves doing things like providing workers with a designated space away from their desks where they can enjoy their breaks and encouraging employees to stay offline at the end of their shifts. These things and many others show your workers you want them to take time for themselves. Your employees can use this time to relax and rejuvenate their bodies and minds. This may help them focus on themselves, so they can do what they feel is best to cope with stress.
When it comes to self-care, be proactive. Educate your workers about self-care best practices and encourage them to speak up if they feel they need more time to care for themselves. By engaging with and listening to your workers, you can foster a culture of self-care. In the future, this culture may help your company stand out to a wide range of job candidates.
5. Create a Support Network
Supporting your workers can help your company boost employee engagement and improve your business’ culture, according to research. With a support network in place, your employees can access burnout prevention tools and resources. These may help your workers avoid getting burned out and give them the support they need to become vital contributors to your team.
Inclusive leadership may help your business foster a support network across your workforce. Your inclusive leaders can connect with workers and make sure they feel supported. If a worker has an issue, they can bring it up to their manager. This creates an opportunity for a manager to support their worker. And the manager can continue to collaborate with this employee to ensure they feel fully supported moving forward.
Get feedback from your employees to ensure they are able to get the support they need when they need it. You can use employee questionnaires and surveys to learn from your workers. These assessments allow you to check the pulse of your workforce. You can then find ways to support your workers before burnout symptoms develop or get any worse.
What Can You Do to Stop Burnout?
Our burnout tips for employers may help you keep workers from getting burned out. If you believe a worker is experiencing burnout, do not wait any longer to help this employee. You can discuss your concerns with the worker and provide them with tools and resources to help them cope with their symptoms. You may also encourage the employee to meet with a doctor, who may be able to diagnose and treat these symptoms.
With a clear understanding of the ways to avoid burnout, you may be able to re-energize your workforce. It may take weeks or months before you see the results of your burnout prevention efforts. Regardless, it is beneficial to stay the course. When you do, your employees can perform at peak levels. And your company may be able to retain its workers for many years to come.
Want to Add Top Talent to Your Team?
At PrideStaff, we offer burnout prevention and hiring tips, access to national recruiters, and much more. Our team is here to help you identify and hire quality job candidates. To get started, contact us today.
