Preventing burn-out in your organisation

10 Sept

Burn-out is prevalent in UK workplaces, with as many as 91% of adults in the UK experiencing high or extreme levels of pressure or stress at some point in the past year, and one in four (24%) feeling ‘unable to manage stress and pressure in the workplace’ (Mental Health UK). Let's re-frame burn-out from the feelings a person has to the structural and systemic changes that leaders can effect for sustainable change and burn-out prevention in our organisations.

“Burn-out” is a process that results in a person feeling and experiencing a range of symptoms. It’s often talked about it in work contexts and the World Health Organisation (WHO) describes it as an ‘occupational phenomenon’. It occurs when a person is under chronic or long-term exposure to stress and constant pressure.

Burn-out is different for everyone because we are all unique, but it is defined by an experience of demand that outstrips supply within our personal capacity and reserves over a prolonged period.

Burn-out can impact a person’s mental and physical health and lead to anxiety, depression and other conditions, so within organisations, burn-out must be taken very seriously.

But let’s consider re-framing burn-out for a moment.

"Burn-out" focuses on a process happening to an individual - on a person's feelings:

🔥 being in a state of mental, physical, emotional exhaustion.

It is a gradual process of continually dipping into and depleting personal reserves of energy, emotion and effort.

As leaders we can practice burn-out prevention within our organisations and address the structural and systemic issues resulting in 'burning' occurring.

Symptoms include physical, emotional and behavioural*:

Physical symptoms

Feeling tired or exhausted most of the time
Reoccurring insomnia and sleep disturbances
Frequent headaches
Muscle or joint pain
Gastrointestinal problems, such as feeling sick or loss of appetite
Frequent illness due to lowered immunity
High blood pressure
Issues breathing

Emotional symptoms

Feeling helpless, trapped, and/or defeated
Self-doubt, feeling a failure or worthless
Feeling detached and alone in the world
Feeling overwhelmed
Feeling demotivated, having a cynical/negative outlook
Lacking sense of satisfaction and achievement
Loss of interest and enjoyment
Persistent feelings of dread, worry and anxiety

Behavioural symptoms

Procrastinating and taking longer to complete things
Difficulty concentrating
Decreased output and productivity
Becoming isolated and withdrawing from people, responsibilities etc
Reliant on food, drugs or alcohol to cope
Irritable and short-tempered, likely to have outbursts and take frustrations out on others
Increased tardiness, being late for work and/or higher absenteeism

Why should we be concerned about burn-out in work?

Burnout isn’t something which goes away on its own. If ignored or left untreated it could worsen and lead to chronic physical and mental health conditions such as heart disease or depression.

Mental Health UK suggests: “The working arena has changed, but it appears the tactics to support colleagues haven’t changed dramatically.” In fact, their research in The Burn-Out Report found that nearly half of workers (49%) said their employer doesn’t have a plan to spot the signs of chronic stress and prevent burnout in the workplace, while just 29% of people knew what plans their employers had in place.

Furthermore, they discovered that one in four (24%) felt ‘unable to manage stress and pressure in the workplace’, with one in five working adults (20%) needing to take time off work due to poor mental health caused by pressure or stress in the past year.

As prevalent as it is, burnout is often misunderstood, stigmatised, and costly both to employees’ health and wellbeing, and employers’ productivity.

Where can leaders and managers start?

MHUK has the following advice:

Leadership and managers should provide:

a strategy, policy, or plan for employee mental health to prevent chronic stress or burnout
regular assessments of workplace stressors and burnout risks
their employees with a Wellbeing Plan to identify when and how to support employees
regular check in with employees to discuss workload and challenges
confidential access to resources such as counselling services or Employee Assistance Programmes (EAP’s)
robust policies and procedures to address workplace bullying and harassment
training sessions to help employees and managers understand the importance of good mental health
acknowledgement of employees’ hard work.

Managers should promote:

open communication between employees and management
regular breaks and a healthy work-life balance
a culture of care and collaboration, encouraging team-building activities and social interactions.

Managers should avoid and discourage:

stigmatising language around mental health and mental illness
unreasonable workloads and deadlines, review and redistribute tasks if necessary
the use of excessive overtime.