Season 2 Finale - Episode 12: Burning-Out Blows
One of the worst things a business can do is burn out employees. While there are many cascading negative effects of burnout, there are times when you and your team need to burn the midnight oil. Still, if you or your team are going into work tired from the day before, you can bet that it’s going to slowly eat away at your market position, profitability and company culture. In our final episode of Season 2 and of our Employee Shenanigans series, we address employee burnout and how we managed a near-coup d’etat of our business.
Background Story
It’s Dave! I’m back!
As we’ve mentioned before, we generally made folks leave by 5pm. I would literally go around to desks or zoom call people telling them to stop working and “live their lives”. While this did strike a healthy balance between work and personal life, it was also a deal we were striking with staff.
The could go consistently at 5pm with the understanding that we had a “get out of jail free card” if we needed it. We barely used it, but then the pandemic hit and we had to execute a significant pivot to get our business back on track.
Covid itself was obviously a drain. And we launched a few covid-specific products, but the real biggie that weighed on everyone was vaccine passports - a new module on the platform. Customers went from not needing it, to a huge percentage of them needing it, in a 3 week span. It was mayhem. It came with costs.
I could feel a coup brewing. This wasn’t what the employees had signed up for. I was feeling the stress too. We fought - like, big fights - because the workload had basically doubled for our ops team. I got in the trenches. I fought side by side with them. I lead by example. I was available. Exceptional times call for Exceptional Measures.
But I definitely wasn’t perfect. I needed to have an open mind and take the concerns of my people seriously from the get-go.
Outline
Managing Burnout : It can and will happen to your team. You need to be on top of it.
Proactive and Reactive Strategies: We cover a few ways to get ahead of or react to an ongoing burnout situation.
It’ll happen at the worst time: People burn out in a few different situation, but an obvious one is when there’s too much work. They’re overloaded and freaking out - chances are you are too.
Busted Myths
Our myth for this episode ties back to some of the themes of this season. Recall Episode 8 in our last series - employees are not going to be as bought in as you. It’s a myth to think that you created a team that is immune to burnout. No matter who they are or how you’ve trained them, they’re human.
Learnings
Deloitte conducted an external marketplace survey of 1,000 full-time, U.S. employed corporate professionals to understand the causes and impact of employee burnout, as well as the programs employees value most, and how organizations can do a better job of providing them. They found that a whopping 77% of professionals have experienced burnout at their current job. That’s a huge percentage. Other studies aren’t quite as high, but aren’t far off. Burnout will come for you and your team.
The fun (terrible) thing about burnout too, is that it generally comes at what is perceived as a crucial time for your business. People don’t get burned out when they have time to recharge - but when the poop hits the fan, when those extra hours are needed - is when this starts to get out of control.
You can be proactive or reactive. Either case requires empathy.
Proactive: Respect Employees’ personal lives. Functionally, gear elements of your culture that celebrate personal life. Manage Expectations. And if they have to work late, clearly communicate why, what’s at stake, and how long (or often) you expect to need them to work. They’re literally putting in more effort - they deserve transparency.
Reactive - it’s harder. You’re in hell trying to get through and suddenly an “HR issue” pops up. Your initial reaction will probably be like “gah, I don’t have time for this.” You do. It’s important. Without them, you’re toast.
Reactive: Take them seriously, understand their experience of burnout, identify the root cause of the burnout, consider short and long term solutions, and create a monitoring plan. Listen - to - your - people!
Summary
Burnout is brutal. It affects most businesses and will come for yours.
It will happen when things are the most crazy. That will feel tough.
It’s best to be proactive. Invest in people to see trouble coming
Be reactive when you need to - Treat them seriously, understand and listen, find the root cause, consider short and long term plans, and monitor the success of those plans.
Listen, listen, listen.
Data And References
When Your Employee Tells You They’re Burned Out
by Noémie Le Pertel
Harvard Business Review - May 10, 2023
https://hbr.org/2023/05/when-your-employee-tells-you-theyre-burned-out