How to Prevent Employee Burnout:

What is burnout?

Burnout results when individuals experience increasing amounts of negative stress. Stress itself is a neutral event, and it is up to the employee to interpret the stress as either being helpful (positive) or unhelpful (negative). For example, you can have two employees each with the same job assignment and deadline, and each interpret the stress associated with the deadline differently. The employee who sees the stress positively feels motivated, energized, and excited. He or she is motivated to put in the extra work and hours to do their best work. They feel a strong sense of accomplishment when they are done. The employee who interprets the stress as negative, feels instantly overwhelmed, irritable, and starts to worry. They most likely put in the same amount of work into the project, but it is done out of fear and obligation and not out of purpose and meaning. At the end of the project, he or she will feel drained and not energized for the next project. Put enough of these projects (negative stresses) together and you have an employee heading for burnout.

Why should you care about if an employee is burned out or not?

1.) The employees most likely to develop burnout are your best employees. Your superstar employees are more likely to feel burnout because they usually put more of themselves into their job, spend more time at work, and take work more seriously and personal. An employee that does not take their work personally will not likely experience burnout. Burnt out employees are employees that care, and only caring employees are going to experience burnout.

2.) The superstar employee who is burnt out is likely to be the last to see it. Furthermore, before they correct the problem, they will likely do all the wrong things to try to correct it themselves. They might increase the amount of time they spend at work, become more personally involved in their work, and increase their amount of effort they put into their job. Their methods of coping are likely to only make the problem worse and not better because they are attempting to outperform their stress. For example, a sales person that attempts to sell more product each month is likely to be heading for burnout when they do not realize that other aspects of their job might be just as important as their sales numbers. Employees who attempt to outperform their stress usually end up feeling discouraged and quit at some point. When this occurs, the employer has lost one of their best employees.

3.) Employees who report experiencing a high level of stress are three times more likely to suffer from frequent illness. The experience of burnout is a stressful event in and of itself, so an employee who is burnt out has not only the original stress to deal with but also the stress of being burnt out.

4.) Burnout is a relatively easy problem to resolve. It usually does not require formal counseling, medication, or a trip to the family doctor. It is also possible to recover from a mild case of burnout within a day, or at the most a few days. If your employee has not resolved their burnout within a week or two they may not be experiencing burnout at all, but a case of depression. Clinical depression can mimic the symptoms of burnout, but clinical depression will also be with the person when they are at home and burnout usually is a workplace problem.

How can I help an employee who is experiencing burnout?

1.) You can create an atmosphere that promotes employee health. One that emphasizes balance along with competition. A local company, that a friend of mine worked for, rented out a movie theater once a month so all their employees could watch as many movies as they wanted to for a day. Their employees went back to work feeling cared about and more energetic. Your company may not need to rent a movie theater; the point is, a good way to burn off stress and to re-energize employees is with fun and laughter.  In fact, it can be the best way.

2.) Create job diversity for employees that must perform repetitive tasks. This is not only good for the employee but also for the company to have their employees crossed trained. That way if one employee must take an extended leave, others are there that know how to perform their duties.

3.) Keep employees involved. One way to decrease burnout is to increase the amount of control that an employee has in their work. An employee that feels they have a choice in what they are doing, even if it is a small choice, is more likely to feel better about what they are doing. Think of where small choices can be added to an employee’s day.

4.) Allow employees to chat at work. Chatting about non-work related events is one way in which employees can decrease and prevent burnout at work.

5.) Lastly, make sure you are not trying to do too much with too little. It is okay to ask your employees to give 110% occasionally but not every day. So make sure that your company is staffed appropriately, provides competitive personal leave and vacation benefits, and that you remember to recognize and reward employees for their accomplishments and contributions.

Preventing and Ridding Yourself of Burnout:

Now here is the good news:

You are probably not burnt out due to your work or boss directly, but you are experiencing burnout by how you are coping with both the negative and positive stress in your job. Since you can rarely escape stress, it is extremely important to learn how to change the stress that you feel into either a neutral or positive force in your life.


Here are some suggestions on how you can change stress into a positive or neutral experience:

1.) One way to change stress is to change the way in which we interpret any stressful event. We change how we interpret an event by changing how we think about the event. Instead of saying, “I can’t do this, it won’t work out.” It is better to say, “I will break this project down into small steps and talk with my boss later to negotiate more time.” Even slightly changing how we “choose” to evaluate an event, will greatly decrease the amount of burnout we feel. Try to eliminate words and phrases such as, “hate,” “can’t stand it,” “no way,” etc...etc... Make a list of those negative words or phrases that you most often use, then flag them each time they are said, and replace them with a more neutral word or phase.

2.) Work to have fun at work. You do not need to throw a party, but you can have fun by talking with a co-worker, listening to music, and by just increasing those tasks that you do enjoy at work. Attempt to complete tasks that you do not enjoy right away, so you don’t think about them all day long. If you honestly cannot find anything you enjoy about your work, you might not be experiencing burnout at all, but a true feeling of needing a new job.

3.) Work to create job diversity for yourself. If you go in the same door every day, sit at the same desk, and start the day off with the same phone calls, is a routine that can easily lead to boredom. Add some job diversity to your day; for example, ask to change your start time, redecorate your cube, and ask to take on new job tasks. Do not ask to take on additional busy work, but ask to take on a new assignment you think you will enjoy.

4.) Realize that one reason that you are burned out is because you are a creative person whose creativity is not being used. So, be creative. Wear a unique necktie or outfit so you get some positive comments from co-workers. Be creative by looking at the work you are doing and think about how to modify it or improve it. Take these ideas to your supervisor and tell them that they will increase productivity or save the company money.

5.) Ask for some control in your job. If you need permission to take control, ask you employer to take a risk by allowing you to take control over your job for one week to see if production increases. If they will not allow complete control, ask for control only over one small aspect of your job. Then slowly ask for more and more until you have as much as you want.

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