58% of remote workers say they feel burned out. Although remote work has its pros, we can’t deny the fact that it can easily lead to burnout. What is workplace burnout, and why is it increasing with remote work? How does burnout negatively impact employers and employees? And how can HR teams easily decrease remote burnout? We answer all of your questions.
What is workplace burnout?
All employees face workplace stress—but not every employee has the tools to manage it well. Burnout is improperly managed, chronic workplace stress. When remote employees are feeling burnt out, they will:
– Feel tired and drained
– See negative changes in their sleeping and eating habits
– Experience headaches and muscle aches
– Get sick more often and more easily
– Feel negative mental health impacts (for example, anxiety or depression)
– Be more likely to skip work, fail to meet deadlines, and produce lower quality work
– Be overall less collaborative, more argumentative, and less attentive
Now that you understand how a burnt-out employee feels, it’s important to know the different types of burnout. Each type of burnout is caused by a different stressor. Knowing the reason behind the burnout can help you mitigate the problem. Here are the six types of burnout:
– Deadline: When deadlines are too tight and hard to meet. To meet the ever-challenging deadlines, employees might work longer hours or more intense hours.
– Culture: When a group of workers is exhausted—they often feed off each other’s exhaustion and complaints.
– Personal: When one individual on the team is feeling burnt out. Unfortunately, over time, personal burnout can trickle into the group, causing cultural burnout.
– Passion: When someone’s workplace focus becomes overwhelming. For example, an employee may suffer from perfectionism, get bored doing the same tasks repeatedly, or feel isolated.
– Skill: When an individual faces skill deficiencies or excesses in their role. An employee facing this type of burnout is lacking diversified tasks at work and role mobility.
– Alignment: When someone is discontented with the way something is versus the way it was intended to be (for example, their actual role versus their job description).
Now that we know all about burnout, why does it matter?
Employee burnout costs your bottom line
No employer wants their workforce to feel anxious, depressed, and negative. But let’s dive even further into understanding why is burnout a serious issue for businesses.
According to Gallup, “Burned-out employees are 63% more likely to take a sick day and 2.6 times as likely to be actively seeking a different job.” Absenteeism costs U.S. companies billions of dollars each year, and turnover can cost 1.5-2 times the employee’s salary. Plus, employee turnover can have a domino effect called “turnover contagion,” when other key members of your workforce quit too.
The fact is that employees who are burnt out are negatively impacting your bottom line. And your remote workers are more likely than not to feel burnt out.
Why is burnout increasing with remote work?
58% of employees want to work remotely full-time, and 39% want a hybrid role. That means overall, 97% of employees desire remote work of some kind.
Although many employees prefer remote work, it can leave employees feeling burnt out. Here’s why:
– It’s harder for remote workers to separate their work and living spaces. When your workplace is your home, it can be tempting to keep working after the workday ends. The long hours add up.
– Home distractions can negatively impact remote workers during their day.
– Remote workers miss the social aspects of in-person work, such as simply catching up with their coworkers.
– Burnt out employees are harder for managers to spot when the workforce is remote—meaning employees aren’t getting support when they need it.
Due to the challenge of catching remote burnout, it’s important to address remote issues even before they arise.
How to address remote employee burnout
As employers and HR teams, we need to take initiative so that we can facilitate proper stress management among our workforce. Here are four easy ways to help employees avoid remote work burnout:
– Offer increased workplace flexibility. 58% of workers say offering more flexibility in their workday would be the best way that employers can support them.
– Pay attention to employees, and have managers ask how they can support them. Every employee is different, and so are their individual support needs. Managers should have regular one-on-one meetings with employees to discuss burnout and support.
– Start a conversation about workplace burnout. 56% of employees say their HR departments have not encouraged conversations about burnout. Encourage transparency, openness, and supportiveness.
– Promote mental health benefits. 91% of employees believe a company’s culture should support mental health. By crafting effective mental health benefits messaging, you can drive employee engagement with your benefits (so they actually know about it and use it).
Starting a conversation about burnout and promoting mental health benefits is easier said than done. LearnYour Benefits is here to make the process easier with our intuitive software. Using our platform, you can use videos and year-round campaigns to increase employee awareness, understanding, and engagement with mental health benefits.
Want to learn more? Schedule a brief 20-minute demo with us today.
