Tag Archives: stress

Burnout: what is it and what can managers do to prevent it?

Dr Halley Pontes standing in front of a building, smiling.Dr Halley Pontes, Lecturer in Organizational Psychology,
explains why we are all burnt out and what managers can do to support employee wellbeing.

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, people’s lives have been profoundly transformed, particularly in relation to how they go about their work. With many restrictions in place to mitigate the spread of the virus, people found themselves in a different setting where often times working from home means ‘living at work’ due to the increasingly blurred lines between work and home life. To further compound this issue, such unprecedented changes brought about high levels of uncertainty and psychiatric disorders (e.g., depression, anxiety, stress, and insomnia), all contributing to decreased levels of wellbeing (Liu et al., 2021). In the UK, about 822,000 workers suffered from work-related stress, depression, or anxiety in 2020/21, with an estimated 54% of these workers reporting that these symptoms were either caused or made worse by the pandemic (Health and Safety Executive, 2021).

During these unprecedented times, an increasingly prominent problem is the increased risk of ‘burnout’ among employees. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), burnout is a syndrome that results from chronic workplace stress that employees are not able to effectively manage. Burnout comprises the following three main dimensions:

  1. feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion’
  2. increased mental distance from one’s job, or feelings of negativism or cynicism related to one’s job’
  3. a sense of ineffectiveness and lack of accomplishment’.

Burnout is particularly relevant to organisations and teams as it refers specifically to the occupational context. As such, managers have the responsibility to promote employee mental health and wellbeing by understanding the issue of burnout while proactively adopting solutions that may help mitigate its risks, especially during periods of greater vulnerability such as during the pandemic.

How to recognise the key signs of burnout in your team

According to Mental Health UK, in March 2021, 1 in 5 UK workers felt ‘unable’ to cope with pressure and stress levels at work. Because burnout can drastically impair a person’s wellbeing, it is important to identify its key symptoms as early as possible. To this end, attentive managers and leaders should look out for the following common signs of burnout among their team members:

  • Feeling tired or drained most of the time
  • Feeling helpless, trapped, and/or defeated
  • Feeling detached or alone in the world
  • A cynical or negative outlook
  • Self-doubt
  • Procrastinating and taking longer to get tasks done
  • Feeling overwhelmed.

A study conducted by Ericson-Lidman and Strandberg (2007) investigating co-workers’ perceptions of signs preceding a burnout episode found that the following signs are observed prior to their colleagues experiencing burnout:

  • Struggling to manage alone (e.g., stretching to do things well alone)
  • Showing self-sacrifice (e.g., pushing to the limit)
  • Struggling to achieve unattainable goals (e.g., appearing weighed down by heavy demands)
  • Becoming distanced and isolated (e.g., withdrawing from co-workers/work)
  • Showing signs of falling apart (e.g., sleep disturbances).

What can managers do to prevent burnout?

Although most of the time the onus for reducing burnout risk is on the side of the employee, managers can do several things to help in terms of burnout prevention and mitigation. First and foremost, it is important to communicate with employees in a clear way about the support that might be available in the organisation for work-related stress, while educating them about how they can recognise and manage high levels of stress and decreasing wellbeing before things become too unmanageable. In addition to adequate communication, managers can encourage the adoption of several habits that can foster wellbeing and potentially reduce burnout:

  • Allowing regular breaks: this is key to helping employees get much-needed recovery time so that they do not push themselves to their breaking point.
  • Developing a wellbeing mind: every person is different, as such, employees will experience stress differently. Here, managers should get to know how employees think about wellbeing so that they can help them better cope with challenging times.
  • Fulfilling social needs: developing strong social ties is key to improving mental health. Managers should challenge employees to connect with each other in several ways and facilitate regular online and/or in-person events that promotes social cohesion and social support.
  • Developing a sense of purpose: helping employees identify their purpose is paramount. Managers should connect employees’ roles to the mission and values of the organisation, reinforcing the idea that every role matters.

For leaders or individuals in managing positions, try the following practical tips to support your team members:

  1. Empower the team to switch off when they’re not at work (e.g. agreeing not to send emails or messages outside working hours and being clear that colleagues are not expected to respond in their free time).
  2. Set the team a challenge to see if they can take a break outside each day. This is particularly important for getting natural light in the UK in the winter months, even if it’s just a 10-minute walk around the block.
  3. Encourage the team to use their annual leave entitlement (ensuring that the team has robust handover and cover arrangements so people feel reassured to take time off with confidence that their colleagues will handle anything urgent).

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Managing our mental health in an uncertain world: tips for employers and individuals in the return to the workplace

In recognition of World Mental Health Day 2021, we asked academics from our Department of Organizational Psychology to share practical advice for mental wellbeing as people make the transition back to the workplace.

If there is one thing that is certain well into the second year of the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s that certainty is no more.

Looking back to Spring 2020, when the UK imposed its first lockdown, there was a clear message for workers: work from home if you can, otherwise continue to go to work.

Now, the situation is rather less clear-cut, and the uncertainty surrounding how organisations and individuals will return (or not) to former ways of working can be a source of considerable anxiety and stress.

As World Mental Health Day 2021 approaches on Sunday 10 October, we spoke to Dr Kevin Teoh and Dr Jo Yarker from our Department of Organizational Psychology to learn more about how we can look after our mental health as we navigate this period of transition.

Why is this a particularly difficult time for people’s mental health?

“What the research has shown is that people are really depleted,” explains Dr Jo Yarker, Reader in Occupational Psychology. “All of these extra demands have been on us in terms of home demands, working in different ways and having to think about the way we do things that we used to take for granted. This has taken up a lot of energy, so many people are going back into this transition from a depleted state. We also haven’t had holidays and the opportunity to restore in the same way.”

For Dr Kevin Teoh, Senior Lecturer in Organisational Psychology, it is difficult for individuals to take care of the ‘ABC’s of mental wellbeing in the current climate: “As individuals, we need autonomy, belonging and competence to support out mental wellbeing,” he explains. “In other words, we need freedom and control over how we do things, the chance to connect with other people and to feel like we can get things done. Everything that’s going on in the world right now is hitting these areas; we’ve lost a lot of freedom, we aren’t connecting with each other physically and some people who have been made redundant or were on furlough may be asking if they can get through this. A lot of workers will be struggling to meet at least one or two of these needs right now.”

What can employers do to support positive mental health in the transition back to work?

For both Kevin and Jo, mental health at work is a collective responsibility. As Jo explains, “Often employers have been going through the same challenges as their workers, but they’ve had to put a brave face on it and pretend they know what to do. So that’s really hard.”

Jo recommends using an IGLOO model, where Individuals, the Group around them, Leaders, the Organisation and Our wider society take shared responsibility for mental health support. “It needs to be the whole system working and communicating together so there’s a shared understanding and shared expectation”, she explains.

Kevin encourages employers to think about how they can support individuals’ autonomy, belonging and competence: “Employers could facilitate a conversation to find out what their teams and individual employees want and involve them in the process. There also needs to be opportunities for employees to connect, be that formally via a mentoring process or more informally. As for competence, what resources and training do employees need to work remotely or return to the office, and how can they be supported to continue to develop?”

What can individuals do to take care of their mental health?

Individuals alone might not be able to shift company policy, but Jo and Kevin are keen to point out that, regardless of your work environment, there are things we can do to take care of ourselves.

“Ask yourself whether you are looking after yourself – are you putting boundaries in place? Are you investing time in your social networks? Are you receiving feedback from somebody at work?” says Jo. “Identify the gaps in your armoury of support and take steps to build them or find out how you could get support from work to build them.”

In addition, supporting mental health at work does not need to begin and end at work, as Kevin explains: “We can be purposeful in how we manage our mental health, so I might gain control over how much I exercise or how much news I consume. I could call a friend to feel a sense of belonging and take up a new skill like learning a language or musical instrument to feel more competent.

“We have to recognise that there are lots of things that we cannot control, but rather than be swept away with that, what’s one thing that I could do today, or this week, that would be a step towards more positive mental health?”

The Department of Organizational Psychology has published more detailed guidance on managing our wellbeing in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Read the guide online.

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