Tip of the Week: How to Address Burgeoning Burnout

Workplace burnout has been discussed quite a bit in the last year—which in and of itself seems funny, considering how relatively little time many people spent in the workplace this past year or so. However, just because the conventional workplace was altered doesn’t mean that the potential to experience burnout has been at all.

Let’s go through how you can better identify the signs of burnout amongst your team members and in yourself so that it can be addressed.

Understanding Burnout

While most people have likely experienced the impacts of burnout firsthand, many may not grasp the full range of truly feeling burnt out. Sure, a feeling of extreme tiredness (both physically and emotionally) is one of the most recognizable symptoms of burnout, but there’s more to it than that. Burnout also involves feelings of apathy and cynicism, defaulting to the path of least resistance and minimum efforts, paired with self-blame and diminished confidence.

These three components all tie together to create a fairly toxic condition in today’s workers that should be avoided if at all possible, and if it can’t be, promptly addressed and resolved.

Identifying Burnout

Make sure that you’re taking an inventory of your employees, as well as your own mental state. Taking a few moments throughout the workday to check in with yourself and evaluate what engages you and what disengages you can teach you some valuable things. With a sensation of losing control understandably prevalent as of late with many people, it is important that any causes of stress are identified and minimized as much as possible.

Establishing a routine or ritual of some kind can help you and your team to regain this control to some degree, potentially reducing the potency of any burned-out feelings.

Easing Back from Burnout

Finally, it’s important that you and your team know and respect the value to be had in stepping back occasionally—especially during those times that it seems like time is the last thing you can “waste.”

As much of a miracle as human cognition is, the little engine that is our brain has its limits. It just isn’t built to be firing on all cylinders all the time, so trying to force that isn’t going to work out in the long run. Taking a few moments of rest, or even a personal day every once in a while, can provide the brain with the respite it needs to stay at the top of its game.

There are also other ways that you can help prevent burnout on an organizational level, like incentivizing collaboration and adopting a supportive work environment that doesn’t overtax a team.

BNMC can help in that regard. We can provide you and your team with the solutions necessary to collaborate and cultivate the kind of teamwork and support that can help stave off burnout. To learn more about what we can offer you, reach out to us at (978) 482-2020.