In today’s competitive and stressful working environment, employee burnout has become a prevalent problem in the work culture.
As a business owner or a manager, You might get some weird symptoms of your employees getting burned out. It is a serious and concerning issue in various businesses and organizations.
Ignoring this issue may lead to a decrease in productivity and negatively affect your business performance. Employees developed such issues with intense work pressure and an unhealthy working environment.
In this comprehensive blog, We will delve into the causes, symptoms, and signs of employee burnout. And we will share some tips on how to prevent such issues from occurring in your business and organization.
What Is Employee Burnout?
Employee burnout manifests as both mental and physical exhaustion resulting from prolonged exposure to high levels of work-related stress. It may occur due to too much work burden or when they cannot deliver the required performance. This could be very frustrating for employees, as it can also affect their work efficiency.
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Primary Factors Behind Employee Burnout
Although many reasons can lead to burnout, these are the most common causes of employee fatigue-
Intense workload
Workload and pressure are some of the underlying factors contributing to burnout. Employees’ heavy workload can cause distress and affect mental stability.
Lack of control
Employees with less control over their work and lack of patience may develop such a state of mind. They get tired too early and hence affect their work.
Poor work-life balance
Employees need to maintain a proper work-life balance. Most of the employees are unable to balance their professional and personal life. The challenge often arises due to overtime work and excess pressure, creating a scarcity of personal time and energy.
It is important to recognize the value of personal space and establish clear boundaries between professional and personal life.
Lack of recognition
Sometimes, your employees need recognition for their efforts. They feel undervalued and neglected if they don’t get recognition or credit for their work.
Unclear Expectations
Employees may be ambiguous about their roles and responsibilities. They might be confused and uncertain about the satisfactory standard of work and worry about if they couldn’t meet the expectations.
These were some concerning reasons for employee burnout. Let’s endeavor to pinpoint the symptoms your employees may be showing you.
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Signs Of Employee Burnout
Employees suffering from employee burnout may face severe symptoms. These are the prevalent symptoms and signs observed concerning their performance, health, and behavior.
Health and Behavioral Challenges
Burnouts first target the employees’ health. These are some alarming health symptoms your employees may have.
Physical symptoms
Burnouts can negatively affect physical health. It comes with some physical challenges and symptoms. An employee may have headaches, cardiac arrest, and gastrointestinal issues.
Mental symptoms
Your employees may suffer from various mental health challenges like depression, anxiety, and insomnia.
Social isolation
Employees suffering from burnout may avoid social interaction and work-related events. They may tend to isolate themselves from their colleagues and team members.
Reduced performance
Burnout can cause employees to lose focus and patience and increase the possibility of error. It may reduce employees’ performance and overall productivity.
High turnover rate
An increase in mass resignation or turnover rate can also be a positive sign of burnout in an organization. Employees don’t want to work with those companies and organizations that don’t care about their mental health.
Loose motivation
Reduced interest, motivation, and engagement in work can also be indicators that you may notice in your office or organization. Your employees may feel lethargic and won’t work with the flow.
Negative feedback
Uptick complaints, grievances, or negative feedback are underlying issues that can contribute to burnout.
Lacking team spirit
Burnout may affect individuals as well as teams. It can demotivate teams and lower their morale, affecting teams’ performance and output.
Inconsistent attendance
Employees may take more sick leaves and become inconsistent at work. It signals one of the symptoms of burnout.
These were some serious and concerning signs to identify to take the necessary steps. Proactively recognizing and identifying signs of burnout can prevent your organization from significant losses.
We discuss some symptoms and signs. We will share and suggest some solutions for you to apply to your team and organization.
Employee Burnout Solutions To Cope With This Issue
Maintaining a healthy working environment can solve your major problems. These are some necessary steps you can take to help you prevent employee burnout.
Promote work-life balance
Maintaining a work-life balance is crucial for employees’ health and consistent performance. Encourage flexible working hours, promote vacations, and approve some leaves so the employees may return refreshed and motivated. Allow breaks to maintain while working and allow remote work.
Open communication
Sometimes, communication gaps may also contribute to the issue. Due to the toxic corporate culture, employees become uncomfortable asking for assistance or support. Open communication fosters a healthy working environment that allows employees to express their concerns and pinpoint the factors contributing to burnout.
- Train managers to cooperate with employees and identify their problems and weaknesses.
- Set clear targets and goals that can be achievable in the given timeframe.
Encourage recognition
Your deserving employees need appreciation and applause for their work. Publish monthly performance reports with the core objective of appreciating the employees’ efforts.
Appreciating them would motivate them and be dedicated to your organization. Award them with incentives and rewards for the best-performing employees. Reward them with perks to achieve the targets.
Provide resources for stress management
Organize stress management workshops, offer counseling services, and promote healthy physical activities to foster a healthy working environment.
- Offer EAP (employee assistance program) – EAPs are programs conducted by companies through experts to assist their employees in overcoming their personal or professional loads.
- Promote fitness activities like yoga and gymming for physical and mental health.
Avoid micromanagement
Micromanagement involves total control over the employee and strict and excessive supervision. Often, it’s frustrating for employees to get directed in every aspect of the task. Avoid micromanagement to prevent employee burnout.
To avoid micromanagement, you can adopt employee monitoring software like EmpMonitor. We will discuss how it can help you cope with such issues.
How EmpMonitors help you in preventing burnouts?
EmpMonitor is an advanced monitoring and tracking software to monitor employee engagement, employee activity working hours, active hours, idol hours, and productive/unproductive hours. It also assists you in managing your remote workforce to foster trust between employees and the organization.
It comes with many advanced features. Here are some features –
Track website usage – EmpMonitor provides an option to track website visits and app usage to pinpoint where your employees spend their time. It helps you to track their activities and provide resources to help them overcome the obstacles.
Screenshots – It allows you to capture automated screenshots to track workflow. By analyzing screenshots, managers can identify and notice the patterns of overwork. It enables the employer to monitor their screens to know if they need assistance.
Data security – It empowers you to monitor and track keystrokes, ensuring the security of your confidential files. Using this tool, you can avoid security threats and prevent data theft.
Reports – Visualize employee engagement and perform a flawless team analysis with graphic-rich analytical reports & automated timesheets. With these valuable insights, managers can inform the employees to improve in a particular task. It is much easier to read such reports and identify the strengths and weaknesses of an employee. This way, you can encourage them to work on it.
You can adapt EmpMonitor to avoid micromanagement and employee burnout.
Conclusion
With an evolving market and fierce competition, organizations often impose significant pressure on employees to achieve productivity and peak performance, which may lead to employee burnout and fatigue.
Observe your employee’s behavior, performance, and attendance to identify symptoms and signs. Your employees may exhibit some signs that can indicate potential issues. These can be life-threatening if not resolved immediately.
EmpMonitor is advanced employee tracking software to manage your employees with a data-driven approach. It informs you about your employees’ productive/non-productive, active, and idol hours.
While acquiring exponential growth is crucial, it should not come with the expense of compromising your employees’ mental and physical health.
