In today’s world people struggle from different inconvenience’s. Managers and Leaders often hear as reason for resignation workload, unhealthy work environment, lack of work-life balance etc.
The last 3 years companies, universities and research centers have distributed tons on researches in the above-mentioned areas. Analyzes were done, conclusions made, and solutions implemented.
In a Harvard study, published in the beginning of 2018 researchers come out with the thesis that the workload increases very fast and newcomers or a newly promoted managers and leaders often fail to achieve results because they very fast fell into the burnout trap.
Working hard is not a nice to do, but a necessary condition for a successful employee, manager or leader, but working hard the smart way can save people from burning out and giving up the new challenge or opportunity they take on.
Managers, Business Leaders and HR often talk about burnout and often seem very surprised when a person comes out with the statement: “I am exhausted and burned out. I don’t want to work here anymore and I quit.”
After a notice for resignation comes out the 3 groups of people, mentioned above start asking themselves: What went wrong? Why couldn’t we recognize it earlier? What can we do now to change this and convince the person to stay (especially if this person is a high potential employee)?
Unfortunately, there is no way to pursuit a burned-out employee to stay. People who came out with this decision to resign is taken long before they communicate it in an official form to you.
But there are distinctive characteristics of a person with burnout that can help Managers, Business Leaders and HR to recognize this mental and physical condition and try to find ways to change the situation. Down you will see a brief list of behaviors to explore for if you have doubts about an employee mental and physical wellness:
- Look for unhealthy criticism
There is nothing wrong if an employee criticizes another during meetings or day to day activity. But when you see an employee criticizing aggressively another employee or focus harming other employee personality by using inappropriate language and/or negative wording. When observing it take attention, be proactive and try to go deep to find the reasons why this happens.
- Look for inefficacy
There is nothing wrong if an employee slows down result achievement. But if you see a constant model in different situations and there is no business reason for that, you should explore what has caused it. You can start by digging deep in each different situation. After collecting all the information you need analyze it and prepare for a conversation with the employee to clear what causes this inefficacy.
- Look for emotional disbalance
The most common sign of a burnout can be found in employee’s behavior. People feeling burned out are not likely to respond positively to others positive feelings and reactions. When lacking emotional balance people suffering from the burnout syndrome often feel ambivalent (they show both sides happiness and sadness in a very extreme way). These employees often cannot explain why they feel the way they are at the moment, what is the cause of their condition and what can change that.
- Notice exhaustion
Employees who have burnout syndrome often declare exhaustion. They share information that they can’t sleep, because of high level of internal stress, they complain about workload even if their responsibilities are not so stressing, they talk about exhaustion and need for break often then others during the day. They consume a lot of refreshing drinks or medicines for boosting energy without any real effect. All this makes them look passive in the eyes of their co-employees and inefficient for their line managers.
IN CONCLUSION:
Nowadays burnout is more powerful source of destruction then more of the known diseases. If you want to save your employees from it, you must take attention on how they feel, how they look, how they behave. And what you see can help you to save your employee from their path out of the company and your company from losing critical for the business treasures.
The Human place 