21 Feb How To Help Employees Who Are Burned Out
Employee burnout is a big problem for managers and employees alike. Not only is it bad for the physical and mental health of the employee, but it leaves a gap in the workforce that the employer then has to fill.
When an employee is experiencing burnout, they will feel exhausted, and they will start to distance themselves from their work and even from their colleagues. This is true whether they enjoyed their job or not to begin with. Of course, the ultimate result of this is that productivity goes down.
It is crucial that employers and managers assist any employee suffering from burnout. Here are some ways it can be done.
Understand Mental Health
A good employer will have their employees’ best interests in mind when planning out work for each employee. They will need to ensure that every worker does the tasks they have the skills for. This not only means ensuring that their physical health is good enough to do the work they are being asked to do, but that their mental health is in good shape too.
Mental health issues are something that many people deal with, and they can be utterly debilitating. They can range from depression and anxiety to post-traumatic stress disorder and much more. Understanding more about mental health and the problems that poor mental health can cause will help you understand what your employees are potentially going through and make the workplace more conducive to good mental health.
Give Self-Care Rewards
People often like to work hard. They enjoy their work, they want to gain recognition, they want a promotion, and they want to be seen as a good worker. All of this can contribute to burnout if they cannot also mix that hard work with some downtime.
In order to ensure that your workers don’t work so hard that they suffer from burnout, it is a good idea to offer rewards. When someone has been working hard on a project or doing extra hours to finish a job, reward them with some self-care. They might gain an additional vacation day, or perhaps if the job is done exceptionally well, you could give them a spa voucher or similar. Ensuring they take time out is important.
You could also cut down on overtime so that your employees don’t continue to add extra hours to their working day when they should be taking the time to rest and relax. Not being able to have a good work-life balance is a big reason for burnout.
Don’t React Immediately
If you find that an employee who was once a good worker is starting to make mistakes, be less productive, or even take days off more and more, don’t react negatively right away. If you do, you might be reacting to something that cannot be helped – you might react to something related to burnout and not due to slacking or laziness. Instead of immediately giving punitive measures out to employees, speak to them. Find out what is happening in their lives or their work that is causing the problem. It could be something that you have the power to deal with. Maybe they are working too many hours, or they don’t have the correct medical device springs or other specialist equipment to do the job they’re meant to do, and it’s causing them stress. Ask before you take any action, and you might be able to solve the issue quickly.