How can you spot burnout?
I am working with people. It’s extremely important to me to be able to recognize if someone I am working with is getting closer or already in the burnout phase. I aim to catch it soon enough and help the individual with certain techniques.
If you can prevent or stop the burnout at an early phase you might keep a good employee, increase his/her productivity, prevent the decrease of the team’s morale, and prevent toxic behavior. Handling burnout is a win-win situation for both employers and employees.
What is burnout?
This is a relatively new term, the first time it appeared in 1974 by Herbert Freudenberger, in his book, Burnout: The High Cost of High Achievement. He said in his book, burnout is:
“the extinction of motivation or incentive, especially where one’s devotion to a cause or relationship fails to produce the desired results.”
So it is basically a severe stress condition that leads to physical, psychological, and emotional exhaustion.
It is important to be able to distinguish between fatigue and burnout. While fatigue physical or mental tiredness makes it hard to focus and concentrate, burnout makes it challenging to cope with stress. It can reach a state when the individual is not able to handle daily responsibilities anymore.
The scary thing is it does not go away when it is left untreated. It could lead to serious physical or psychological conditions like diabetes, heart disease, depression. The immune system gets weaker and the individual will be more receptive to sickness.
Physical illness can make psychological conditions even worse. That’s where it’s gets scary and if you are working with people it is your responsibility to recognize and act upon it.
Who can get burnout?
Basically anyone who is continuously exposed to a high level of stress. Ok, but what is a high level of stress? This is based on every individual, we all have different limits. There are other factors that could increase the chance of burnout, like personality. People with perfectionism or need to be in control have a greater chance to have burnout.
What are the signs of burnout?
Being cynical is the number one red flag for me. People view their jobs extremely stressful and frustrating. The start to act cynical about their work, working conditions, or coworkers. Maybe they emotionally distance themselves or the feel numb. This could lead to impatient behavior or becoming irritable easily.
There are physical symptoms, like frequent headaches, stomach aches, or intestine issues. If someone is complaining about headaches day after day, burnout could be the cause.
Emotional symptoms could be the lack of energy, lack of enthusiasm. People feeling drained, unable to cope to get their tasks done.
Reduced performance could be because of the burnout as well.
How to handle burnout?
As a manager, if you jump into fixing mode immediately could make things worse. The most important is to listen. Pay attention to people and their reactions.
Establish a psychologically safe environment, where it is OK to speak about the problems. Conduct one on one sessions frequently with everyone, where you establish a rapport and you create a safe helping environment.
Having the possibility to talk to someone about the problems without being judged could mean a world of difference. Often people need to being heard, recognized their effort or suffering.
Offer validation by saying “You’ve been working hard, I understand why you feel this way”. Invalidating why someone feels low can make everything worse.
Ask how can you help. Often people have exact action plans on how to make their situation better. They just need help and support to execute it.
A vacation may offer temporary relief, but a few days off won’t solve the burnout for the long term. Regularly scheduled breaks with daily renewal exercises could help.
In some cases changing positions within the company or even getting a new job is the solution.
As a manager it is you responsibility to handle your and your coworkers burnout. It is a severe condition which should be taken seriously. It doesn’t go away by itself and it could lead to serious health conditions.
