What does burnout look like compared with a busy stretch?
Burnout looks different from a busy stretch mainly in how long the strain lasts and how people relate to their work while they're under it. In a busy period, people are tired and pressed for time, but they usually still care about the work, can see when the pressure will end, and recover with rest. The World Health Organization's three dimensions of burnout describe what tends to look different:
- Exhaustion that doesn't lift. People stay depleted after the deadline passes or after time off.
- Distance from the job. People who used to be engaged become withdrawn, negative, or cynical about their work, their team, or the organization.
- A sense of reduced effectiveness. People begin to doubt that they're doing their job well or that their effort makes any difference.
Some changes may show up in behavior as well. Gallup reports that burned-out employees are 63 percent more likely to take a sick day and 2.6 times as likely to be actively looking for a different job, and that they typically have lower confidence in their own performance (Wigert and Agrawal, 2018). These are patterns across many employees, not a checklist for diagnosing one person, so treat them as reasons to ask rather than as answers.
How do we find out whether our employees are burned out?
You find out whether your employees are burned out by asking them, carefully, and by combining what they tell you with the information you already have. A short confidential survey, small group conversations, or one-on-one conversations can each work, depending on the size of your organization and how comfortable people are speaking openly. The U.S. Surgeon General's framework for workplace wellbeing notes that leaders can use surveys and other validated tools to measure wellbeing, and a tool is only as useful as the purpose behind it.
Asking about wellbeing respectfully takes some design:
- Say why you're asking and what you plan to do with the answers.
- Protect people's answers. Report results for groups large enough that no one can be identified, and consider whether someone other than a supervisor should do the asking.
- Ask about the work, not only the person. Questions about workload, expectations, support, and recovery time tell you what to change, while questions about individual coping alone don't.
- Look at the answers by group. Compare departments, shifts, roles, and length of service.
Records you already keep can add to the picture: overtime, unused vacation time, sick days, last-minute schedule changes, and turnover by team. They can show where people are stretched, but they can't tell you why, which is why they work best alongside what employees say. How do I find out what my employees actually need? covers asking so that people answer candidly.
What should we do if it looks like burnout?
If it looks like burnout, the next step is understanding what is producing it, because the remedy depends on the cause. Workload, unclear expectations, a lack of support from a supervisor, unfair treatment, and constant time pressure each call for different changes, and the cause may differ from one team to another.
Tell employees what you heard and what you plan to do, including what can't change yet and why. If you've already invested in a wellness program and people are still exhausted, Why isn't our wellness program reducing burnout? covers why that happens. If the main problem is the amount of work or the hours, Our people say they have no work-life balance. What can we actually change? covers what an employer can change.
The Grantibly perspective
Angelika's perspective
Wellbeing isn't only about whether an organization has good policies or offers wellness programs. It's also about how people interpret their experiences, how they're treated, whether they feel valued and capable, how they respond to challenges, and whether their relationships and working environments help them grow and thrive. That's why we look at the individual and the organization together when we try to understand what employees are going through.
We're interested in both individual and organizational responsibility. People can develop healthier mindsets and ways of working, but someone overwhelmed by an unmanageable workload may need resources more than a better mindset. Using data, we want to help organizations understand what's actually happening in their workplaces and why employees are having the experiences they are, so that leaders can make changes that improve wellbeing.
