Burnout is a state of physical or emotional exhaustion that also involves a sense of reduced accomplishment and loss of personal identity. Due to factors such as recognition (or lack thereof), workload, and safety, nearly one third of Canadians are feeling burned out at work because they are not engaged.
Last week I kicked off a team huddle by asking folks how they’re feeling about worklife – creating a safe space for folks to share how they’re feeling is a good practice for every leader and it was both easy and authentic for me to share that I was struggling (this has been a better week). Empathizing, one of my colleagues asked a pretty profound question: “what comes after burnout?”
Because this is where we are right now.
Figuratively and literally, the world is on fire right. Nearly 30% of Canadian employees plan to look for a new job in the next few months – folks are looking for greener pastures because they are languishing at their current organization with no hopes of career progression and/or they want more flexibility with work from anywhere options.
Our team generated a few ideas about what might come next for organizations that don’t address what’s written above (and ones that meet people where they’re at:
- More burnout! Gross, this is unsustainable and humans cannot tolerate much more of this, which is why so many employees are looking for the next gig (many Canadians are ready to leave their existing job without one lined up).
- The zombification of worklife! Also known as presenteeism, folks will show up at work and that’s about it (The Conference Board of Canada estimates that this behaviour costs Canadian organizations over $16 billion per year).
- Regeneration! Obviously this is the right approach, albeit the hardest one, to take – organizations that legitimately invest in peoples’ wellbeing with flexibility, time away, supportive benefits, and manageable workloads (not pizza and foosball) will help their workforces build positively towards our new normal.
Burnout not only sucks, but in today’s worklife context it is almost unavoidable – how leaders respond when it happens for the people we serve signals where we stand when it comes to mitigating the massive risks of workplace and community burnout.
What interventions are you making to regenerate your employees and reduce burnout?