Feel the burn?

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Feel the burn?

Sunday, 18 July 2021 | Seema Rekha

Feel the burn?

Employee burnout is the result of employees exhausting their emotional and physical energy in an unhealthy manner. It has a negative impact on both personal and professional life, writes Seema Rekha

Sharanya (name changed), is known for her blended approach, process & people. She has been handling many key accounts single handedly ranging from 2000 to 12000 FTE. She forecast problems well in advance and build a solution framework beforehand. Highly organised and resilient at work, she has been valued, recognised, highly paid, loves the purpose but faced a major onset of burnout.Consistently for 19 months. She broke down and shattered.

Given the world we live in, it is usual for most employees to encounter many burnouts. The outbreak of the epidemic has only made matters worse for everyone. Employees suffer from violations of personal boundaries, long working hours, exhausting weekends, and corporate pressure to “float the boat” in addition to stress, anxiety and emotional triggers.

Burnouts are caused by a variety of circumstances, including people struggling to keep their jobs while balancing their personal life as well as corporate roles. They are growing more concerned by the day as they juggle multiple responsibilities and strive to stay on top of the game. With the ambience turning toxic and the pandemic affecting adversely, employees are facing pressing issues, especially relating to their emotional and energy-concerning wellbeing. This is typically how it plays out gradually, catching employees off guard and creating an intense impact that can only be handled with the correct kind of approach.

Talking digits & data

According to Indeed, in 2021, roughly 52 percent of employees will be burnt out. The graph has risen significantly from the 43% who reacted in the same way in Indeed’s pre-pandemic poll. Prior to the pandemic, Millennials had reached their saturation point and were draining their emotional wellbeing, of over 53 percent of them experiencing burnout, followed by Gen-Z, who increased the amount from 47 percent in 2020 to 58 percent in 2021. The boomer generation, identified as those born between the 1940s and 1960s, is witnessing a 7% spike in burnout. Burnout among the baby-boomer generation has increased significantly, from 24% in 2020 to 31% this year. Burnout rates have soared among Generation X, soaring from 40% to 54%, a 14 percent growth.

According to the majority of people, Covid-19 has raised burnout rates and made life more difficult. This opinion is shared by more than 80% of those who work for labels.

This is the time for us, as a community, to respond to the call for help and put in place measures to minimise burnout rates and make professional mental health a priority in order to avert future disasters.

Factors influencing employee burnouts & the risks associated

Lack of control over the immediate surroundings, depleted mental resources, dysfunctional workplace relationships, work-life imbalance, inefficient management delegating, imprecise job objectives, personal motivation, and many other factors influence burnout and the dangers associated with it.

Due to a lack of awareness of and about counselling services, all of these factors contribute to burnout and the loss of a company’s finest personnel. Employees feel powerless and disorganized, which leads to dissatisfaction. It jeopardises their well-being and emotional attachments to their workplace, as well as their commitment to their jobs and the excitement that fuels their aspirations.

Industry leaders must step up and alter the traditional structure to understand the pattern that leads to burnout and to address the concerns about creating a healthy workplace. Only by strategising a new system can the heart of the poisonous work-constitution be dismantled and replaced. The path to a healthy present and a prosperous future is to create a new work culture that is fundamentally focused on wellness and intended to prevent burnout.

Warding off burnout

It is critical for businesses to take steps toward collective growth and to put out a strong front in favour of their personnel. There are two primary indicators that may be used as the foundation for a modern and healthy workplace culture. The new method will nourishingly  engage more professionals and strengthen their resolve to stay and develop ambitiously in their particular organisations, serving as the ingredients for success and a guardian fee for the employees. The following are two useful measures:

  • Ensuring the efficacy and efficiency of wellness programmes in an organisation
  • Establishing close relationships with teams in order to understand and heighten their intrinsic drive

The CXO suite is where the ‘c’ of culture begins. It flows from top to bottom like water. As business executives, we’ve long believed that establishing connections may be difficult for huge organisations. Organisations with 10 to 50 people, on the other hand, have certain connectivity problems. It’s past time for the hierarchy to be cleansed of mental superiority and oriented toward blending in with all employees, regardless of rank.

Before beginning customer outreach or pursuing external objectives, all organisations must match their spirit with their workers and be on the same page, regardless of their size or position. Employees will perform more efficiently if there is harmony at the heart of the workplace, as well as a healthy atmosphere.

Unique problems call for unique solutions

Taking a call as a group is only the first step in addressing the iceberg’s tip. However, it is critical that we recognize that everyone is a unique personality with their own set of characteristics that contribute to their burnout. This, too, need a one-of-a-kind answer.

Samit (name changed), a new hire, in the same positive environment outburst his anger at his manager for not informing him in advance and he cannot handle the sudden influx of work. His manager sat with him for a good 10 minutes, and helped him identify his core problem. Samit felt excluded as he is new in the system and other more new hires joined a week back so they bonded well and Samit felt left out. Samit needed to be included.

Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs) are designed to take a more personalised approach and adapt responses to each individual employee in order to empathise with them and address their issues (EAP).

Most businesses and workers underestimate the benefits that various Employee Assistance Programs may provide to society. As a result, the use of EAP services has grown from.01 percent to 2%, yet it is still underutilised.

Mental and emotional tiredness are unavoidable in today’s workplace; according to a new study, individuals with significant degrees of burnout require assistance in fundamentally upskilling their working circumstances. Despite the fact that businesses have implemented extensive well-being programmes for company success and protection, the shift to resilience has been ineffectual. It’s time for businesses to unzip the kimono of wellness solutions, and digitally fueled initiatives are leading the charge right now. Employee happiness boosts productivity, thus investing in such solutions is critical for a company’s long-term success and competitive advantage.

The process of streamlining a methodical wellness programme begins with recognising the gaps that require a silver lining. A wellness consultant is recommended, who conducts a thorough need analysis, which may be accomplished by easy evaluations that plan out wellness solutions that satisfy human capital requirements. It is becoming increasingly vital for us to comprehend the programmes’ broad impact and align ourselves with new methods designed to have a good influence.

Quick fixes and first-aid

It may take some time for the programmes, expanded approaches, and structure to take shape; nevertheless, tiny but effective steps must be taken first. One approach to avoid burnout is to keep a first-aid kit on hand.

Practicing mindfulness and raising the self-care quotient in an organisation are two techniques that may be used to minimise burnout. Many organisations utilise a 20-minute workout three times a day as part of their mindfulness programme. The goal is to unwind with coworkers and friends. It also encourages employees to plan their workdays around when they feel most productive and to take a break when their output begins to dwindle.

Another fast cure for resolving workplace disputes and practising well-being is for employees to follow the wellness regimen. The beginning of it all is planning. It necessitates devoting the first 10 minutes of the morning to planning and prioritising, as well as delegating and inducting the team. Employees must understand that time is a finite resource as a group in order to share it effectively.

This is followed by mental mapping, which will enlist the stressor in greater detail; it may be a customer, a certain team member, a teenager, a specific type of job, monetary concerns, or any other entity. To de-personify and re-look at the problem, the focus should be on outlining all viable answers and methods for the scenario. This will make solutions much more obvious and preserve thought transparency, which will aid mental reorganisation of difficulties and potential answers.

The next step is to admit that you’re confused and seek assistance. Self-awareness is crucial in this process because it allows you to see a pattern of stress-related behaviour and seek help when it’s needed. The wellness programme will also encourage the development of boundaries; the goal is to avoid being available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The next step is to practise ‘pause’ throughout the day — a minute of conscious breathing could be helpful.

Furthermore, creating a conscious connection with one’s family and team may boost overall productivity by allowing employees to talk about and express their true feelings and weaknesses.

The “right” way

The organisations would come to a halt if they were forced to address the question of “what is the best approach to deal with employee burnout?” In reality, everyone and everyone would be perplexed since, while the inquiry may be grammatically correct, it is not the correct question.

There is no “right” approach since well-being, particularly emotional and mental well-being, is subjective. What one person finds appealing may be repulsive to another. As a result, it makes sense to use a customised method to deal with the issue that affects the masses, which will be determined based on the company’s genre and employee requirements (pointing to the personality type of the workers).

Employee assistance programmes, when combined with a wellness regimen and counselling sessions on a need-to-know basis, can help to minimise employee burnout and boost overall productivity for both the individual employee and the company. Every company’s joint objective, on the other hand, should be to achieve collective growth without jeopardising anyone’s health.

The writer is a Business/Leadership Coach, Management Consultant, and Social Entrepreneur

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