“Well, that’s a situation we’re all facing.”
“We’re all working hard.”
“None of us has additional support.”
These are just a few inept comments heard throughout organizations when an employee expresses feelings of burnout.
Do Your Managers Know How to Respond?
In the age of worker of burnout, ensuring managers know how to receive expressions of burnout from employees is essential. According to a new study from Moodle: “Younger generations are facing significantly higher rates of burnout, with 81 percent of 18- to 24-year-olds and 83 percent of 25- to 34-year-olds reporting burnout, compared to just 49 percent of those age 55 and older. The top reasons for burnout across all age groups include:
- Feeling stressed because they feel they have more work to complete than time to do it (24 percent).
- A perception of a poor economy that is impacting their well-being at work (20 percent).
- Feeling stressed because they’re taking on too much work due to labor shortages in their industry (19 percent).”
The Same Amount of Work Is Not the Same for Everyone
Not everyone reacts or copes the same with an equal amount of work. That doesn’t mean that the person who doesn’t tolerate an equally high amount of work is of lesser value. The quality of their work or qualities such as their ability to think creative or make new business connections can be equally valuable.
As an efficient, yet reflective, person who is capable of creative thinking and idea generation, I have found that my workload capacity is not as high as those who are not reflective. It takes time to think, so if you find yourself naturally pausing throughout the day to reflect, you’re not going to get as much done as a person who rarely troubles to think about what just happened in their day or what’s going to happen tomorrow.
The compulsion to reflect can be seen as a liability, leading to over-thinking and neurosis and cutting into productivity. But it also can be seen as a strength, enabling the reflective person to notice potential problems and opportunities that their less thoughtful colleagues may miss.
So when a reflective, sensitive person someone who is less sensitive and less thoughtful that they are overwhelmed, it’s easy for that other person to minimize the reflective person’s experience. Minimizing their feelings is the wrong approach to take, obviously, as it risks pushing the person deeper into burnout or alienating them, so that they just give up and start looking for a new job.
Lower Level of Support Contributes to Burnout
It’s rich when a person with a vast support network—including spouse, children, parents, and a large group of friends nearby—lectures a person who is comparatively alone in the world that “we’re all working hard.”
“True,” the less-supported colleague thinks to themselves. “But you have someone cooking your dinner when you get home, helping you run errands, helping you fix things that break down in your home, and many other people no more than a 10-minute drive away to lend a hand or emotional support.”
The two colleagues have an equal amount of work, but one has what amounts to multiple personal assistants while the other is mostly handling all of life’s challenges—inside and outside of work—on their own.
A Better Approach
Rather than defensively comparing the burned-out employee’s workload to that of others in the department, managers could be trained to ask questions to look for potential solutions.
“I’m sorry you’re experiencing that,” the well-trained manager would respond. “Take me through a typical work week, day by day, and I’ll see if we can find places where we can lighten the load or extend deadlines.”
A rethinking of department roles also can be a solution. A savvy manager should be able to recognize an employee who is more capable of deep thinking and analysis, but not as capable of managing a super-heavy workload. If the employee regularly demonstrates that they have good insights to share, they may be a prime candidate for a planning- or leadership-based position. They still will have deliverables (you never want to create a position with no deliverables), but, as part of the plan, they will have fewer deliverables than those in the department who are more capable of churning out a high volume of work.
Productivity can be looked at in many ways. Counting the number of widgets produced is just one way. You never want to risk losing a valuable employee by overwhelming them with a workload that is unreasonable for them.
Are your organization’s managers trained to have conversations about burnout with their employees?