Burnout is often described as ‘a prolonged response to long-term emotional and interpersonal stressors on the job’ and has been a recognised problem in the workplace for decades. Most of us will have either felt the effects of what we generally refer to as burnout or recognised it in a colleague. You may well even know someone for whom the problem became so bad they took sick time to recover or even left their jobs.
Burnout is the direct result of job-related pressures. The toll it takes on the sufferer cannot be underestimated. Even if you could put aside the human cost, the effect on a business in terms of productivity can be devastating. The good news is that teams (and their managers) can be a vital part of the process when it comes to dealing with it.
Recognising the symptoms
The first step in encouraging a team to respond well to potential burnout is to ensure they all recognise the signs in themselves and others. A team member suffering from burnout will display some or all of these symptoms:
- Reduced interaction with others
- Feeling drained physically and emotionally
- Lacking energy
- Increased cynicism about the workplace
- Negativity about tasks – both at work and at home
- Unable to separate work and home life
- Some people also experience physical symptoms such as aches and pains and increased likelihood of everyday illness and stomach related problems
It is important to build a workplace where these symptoms are recognised and responded to. They do not appear overnight, which means there is time to alleviate and even stop them reaching the critical mass point, but only if they are recognised in the first place.
Team members must be team players
When the team members are not pulling in the same direction or do not understand their role within it, efficiency will almost inevitable drop. This can also be a signifier that it is becoming a toxic environment rather than a supportive one. Unfair treatment, higher than reasonable workloads, and unreasonable time pressures are all major triggers of this toxicity. These problems are also all prone to either going unnoticed or being accepted as ‘part of the job’ rather than seen for what they are. Training a team to recognise them and creating an environment where these issues can be raised by either the sufferer or those around them will really help. Encouraging a ‘team first’ mentality coupled with clear goals will raise inclusiveness, dissipate any developing conflict, and therefore reduce the potential for burnout.
Managing the team to tackle burnout
Sorry managers, but albeit unwittingly and with the best of intentions, you are sometimes a part of the process that contributes to burnout problems. Managers need to really invest in tackling not just the workload and time pressure factors but the wider management of the team. Avoid bad communication, confrontation, and micromanagement. Instead, offer support when needed and the autonomy to perform well. Recognising achievement and offering feedback in a developmental way will also encourage a team mentality. It is also important that everyone in the team is crystal clear on their role and what is expected of them.
All this should include team managers. You are just as prone to burnout as your teams, but when leaders experience burnout, they tend to push it down the line. Many teams will be able to tell you about the pressured manager that ‘took it out’ on them. Managers looking to avoid this scenario often benefit from knowing themselves and their teams better through DiSC profiling. Understanding how you behave creates a better management technique when dealing with others, and understanding your team members’ styles and what motivates them helps with managing them effectively – again, helping prevent stress and burnout for everyone. There is more information on the benefits of Everything DiSC Management on our website, and there is a sample management profile you can take a look at too.
Contact us to discuss how we can help because now is a great time to be thinking about teams and burnout prevention. As the year closes and a new one starts, everyone tends to look to a better tomorrow, and this is particularly true after such an unsettled time. Burnout is better prevented than cured, so with great teams who feel they are all in it together, the burnout problem may never develop in the first place.
