I thought it would be one way or the other—either you are burned out and checked out or you’re engaged and feel like your work is manageable and fulfilling. But it turns out there is an additional option: exhausted and burned out but still locked into your position.
A post by HR Brew on Fortune explores this phenomenon: “Despite feeling burned out, workers were also, confoundingly, engaged at work, with 88 percent of respondents to DHR Global’s survey reporting being ‘very’ or ‘extremely’ engaged. While only 23 percent of global respondents to a Gallup survey said they were engaged with their work in 2023 (the most recent year of data collection), that was the highest rate since the firm started tracking the metric in 2012.”
Burned Out but Engaged = Unintentionally Careless
When employees are committed to their jobs, but exhausted due to burnout, the chances of errors and poor performance increase.
The burned-out employee is engaged, and as such, still cares about their job. However, the burnout may mean exhaustion at such a high level that doing conscientious work is impossible.
AI Can Help Relieve Feelings of Burnout
Artificial intelligence (AI) can be a great solution for the employee who cares about their job but is overwhelmed by their responsibilities. There may be administrative functions, or other repetitive tasks, that an AI system could handle. Or an AI system could be used to shorten tasks such as correspondence and the drafting of communications to colleagues and customers.
Many are still wary of AI, so your managers could offer AI as a trial solution to ease employees’ burdens. “Tom, I wanted to ask you to participate in an experiment we’re conducting to see how much AI can help relieve our employees from feelings of being overwhelmed. You have never complained, and your work is as stellar as ever, but your workload is significant. What do you think of using AI to assist with the following tasks?”
An employee skeptical of AI may soon change their tune when they see how much easier their work life is with it, and how much more they can focus on the most meaningful parts of their job. That’s what happened to me. I now consider AI an invaluable work partner.
Give Access to Those Doing Similar Work
An employee’s best resources can be those at the company doing the same type of work, but these employees often are kept isolated from one another.
What if, instead of sitting with their work group, employees were grouped in the office according to what they do? For example, instead of sitting with the publication they work for, all art directors at a publishing company would sit together. And all entry-level staff writers would sit together, as would all editors-in-chief.
All these people are working on different assignments, for different business units, but all are doing the same kind of work. They can quickly turn to a peer to ask what to do when stumped. They will get answers to their questions faster and also can vent their frustrations with people who understand exactly what they are going through.
Create Improvement Forums
One thing that can add to feelings of exhaustion is futility. You may care about your work, but you notice ongoing problems with no solutions. For example, the same problem may keep cropping up in a product or service a company sells. The account manager who sells that product or service may have to field the same complaints and do the same troubleshooting repeatedly.
What if that account manager had a forum they participated in every quarter with others in their same job role and with decision-makers and executive planners in their organization? In other words, they would have the opportunity to let those in control of the company’s products and services know about frequent problems. Those decision-makers then would have the information—and perhaps proposed solutions from the account managers—to make improvements.
The employee, who formerly felt burned out and repeatedly experienced the same problems, would have the satisfaction of working toward better products and services.
When employees are given the opportunity to feel they are making an impact, they may find a surge of energy they can tap into.
Have you, or your company’s managers, noticed a pattern of employees who are overwhelmed and yet still committed to their jobs? What is the best way to relieve these employees, so they do an even better job for your company and customers?