Identifying and Preventing Burnout

Burnout occurs when workers are exhausted by their jobs either physically, emotionally, or both. It can be caused by long hours, an excessive workload, or the feeling of their effort not making a difference. Employee burnout tends to affect your best workers who are the most engaged. Not being proactive for signs of burnout can cause you to lose your most valuable employees – identify and prevent burnout with these tips:

Ways to Identify Burnout

• Change in Attitude

If the overall tone of the workplace starts to become more indifferent, cynical or outright negative, this is likely due to burnout. When once upbeat employees start to lose their positive attitudes, it may be the result of a buildup of significant stress, rather than a disciplinary issue, if their behavior is out of the ordinary for them.

• Decline in Productivity

Missed deadlines, lower performance, and a sharp reduction in being proactive or sharing ideas is a sign that employees are overworked, disengaged, or very likely both. When high-performing employees begin to be unable to keep up with their workloads, their motivation may also decline because their effort seems futile.

• Increase in Physical Illnesses

The stress from burnout can cause headaches, back pain, gastrointestinal pain, and chronic fatigue. It also can lower the immune system and make employees more susceptible to succumbing to illnesses. If you notice higher levels of absenteeism and healthcare expenses, it could be burnout.

Ways to Prevent Burnout:

• Open Dialogue

It’s essential to sit down and have conversations with your employees who show signs of burnout to get their perspectives and simply ask about their changes in behavior in a nonaccusatory manner. This gives you the opportunity to learn what’s going on before it’s too late and demonstrates that you care.

• Set Limits

Ensure that your employees aren’t self-inflicting burnout through misguided assumptions about your expectations. Help them prioritize their tasks, encourage them to take breaks/days off, and communicate your expectations about what constitutes a high performance so they don’t overwork themselves because they think that’s what you want.

• Monitor Workloads

When assigning tasks, ensure that you and your team are on the same page regarding estimated completion time, deadlines, and how it will fit in with other current responsibilities.  This prevents you from inadvertently assigning unrealistic workloads that cause burnout.

Maintain proper staffing levels by working with the experienced staffing firm Professional Alternatives. Since 1998, we have been serving Houston employers throughout a variety of industries with their staffing needs. We provide direct hire placement, as well as temporary or temp-to-hire staffing. Contact us today to learn more about our employer services.