A certain amount of ‘pressure’ at work can be positive, as it can be healthy to increase performance and prepare for challenges ahead. But if the pressure remains high for an extended period, it can lead to a severe stress reaction. If stress is not managed, this can be detrimental to employee health and to the business.
It could be more than stress if you’re observing team members who are disillusioned and completely exhausted and may be on the road to burnout. Understanding what signs to look out for is the first step, followed by knowing how to support employees in regaining balance.
When things are busy, or we have too much on our plate, it is natural to feel a certain amount of stress. But, there is a difference between stress and burnout, typically, stressed people can see a future where once they get everything under control, they’ll feel better. When we are left with relentless pressure, we may be unable to cope, resulting in burnout.
Being burned out means feeling mentally exhausted and empty, devoid of motivation, and beyond caring. Those experiencing burnout may not be able to see a future with positive change in their situation.
Excessive stress can feel like you’re drowning in responsibilities, whereas burnout is a sense of being all dried up.
As a manager, you can ask yourself the following questions about a team member you may be concerned about:
Do they frequently work late?
Do co-workers often ask this person for help? And does this person always oblige?
Do they allow their schedule to be filled with back-to-back meetings without allowing time for goal-directed work?
Do they take breaks or have buffers between things in their schedule?
Do they tend to work until your work is done?
There are a series of signs and symptoms of burnout to look out for:
Behavioural signs and symptoms of burnout
- Withdrawing from responsibilities.
- Taking out frustrations on those around you.
- Skipping work.
- Being late for work or necessary appointments.
- Isolating from others.
- Procrastinating, taking longer to get things done.
- Using food, drugs, or alcohol to cope.
Physical signs and symptoms of burnout
- Feeling tired or drained most of the time.
- Lowered immunity, frequent illnesses.
- Frequent headaches or muscle pain.
- Change in appetite or sleep habits.
Emotional signs and symptoms of burnout
- Sense of failure and self-doubt.
- Feeling helpless, trapped, and defeated.
- Detachment, feeling alone in the world.
- Loss of motivation.
- Increasingly cynical and negative outlook.
- Decreased satisfaction and sense of accomplishment.
How to reduce stress and risks of burnout in the workplace?
Poor mental health collectively costs employers up to 56 billion each year. Preventing stress in the workplace begins with education. Whether a small company or large corporate employer, providing mental health training for your workforce should be considered.
At Afyabloom, alongside training and consultancy, we offer board-level reporting on insights, trends and risks for your organisation and workforce screening to identify problems with employees’ mental health before they happen. This helps you put a complete safety net in place.
Most training providers are training-only companies, wellbeing specialists or large groups that cover the whole of healthcare. Afyabloom is differentiated as we are true experts in mental health. We purposefully choose not to dilute our expertise by expanding to other health services, making us niche in the market.
We work with mental health clinicians who are experts in occupational mental health. The specific expertise of our trainers inspires trust, encourages open dialogue around mental health and effectively upskills an employer’s ability to support issues with mental health in the workplace.