This Business of Burnout
There’s a lot of discussion about burnout these days, and for good reason. More than half of all Americans report feeling burned out in 2023, and at least 80% of senior risk professionals predict that employee burnout will continue to significantly impact employees in 2024. Less than half of all organizations are equipped to address burnout.
Harvard Business Review reports in 2023 that more than 50% of all managers feel burned out. And according to this March 2024 article in Forbes, 41% of Americans feel burned out after taking time off from work.
What exactly is burnout?
The National Institute of Health (NIH) defines burnout as having three distinct characteristics:
Exhaustion; feeling drained, with physical, mental, and emotional exhaustion. People suffering from burnout have more incidences of sick days.
Alienation from work-related activities, cynicism, and frustration. Feeling negative about their workplace, culture, and projects, and ultimately feeling numb.
Decreased performance, at both work and often at home. People suffering from burnout have degrading emotional regulation which can affect their relationships, listlessness or waning interest in work tasks, and high frustration. Ultimately their self-image is jeopardized.
How does burnout affect business outcomes?
If your people aren’t performing at the level they are otherwise capable of, if they’re feeling negative about the projects they’re assigned to, the company culture, the organization, the management, or any combination of those, you’re at risk of having burnout spread throughout your organization, and potentially reducing output from those affected — and the colleagues they’re affecting. You may see a reduction in your customer satisfaction scores, missed critical work deliveries, or lowered quality in your product. Not only does burnout affect your employees, it’s coming for your bottom line.
What some of my friends have shared
Two dear friends, both exceptional performers in their roles, discussed burnout with me. As Manoj Ramanan Viswanathan, MBA, CPCC, PCC posted on LinkedIn, “It is not possible to move from burnout to high performance without recovery. This is where it is necessary to find the right emotional support to release pent up emotions that causes burnout.”
And as she approached her burnout recovery, Kathleen is considering 2 questions posed by Dr. Kandi Weans during a recent talk about burnout:
1. What am I doing to manage my stress?
2. What is it doing for me?
So what have I learned about burnout?
Well, honestly, it’s complex. It’s not unlike recovery from alcoholism and addiction, although there are some distinct differences. Having come through the first part of burnout recovery, there’s a lot I’ll share with you about my experiences in a two-part series. Part 1 unpacks how exactly I came to discover I was burned out, the circumstances that led me down that path, and the first part of my recovery. Many people may choose to stop their burnout recovery as soon as they feel better and get right back to work, but in Part 2, I’ll share how I went deeper into my burnout recovery to “fireproof” myself from falling back into the patterns that led me down the burnout road.
Are you at risk of burning out — or are you already there?
Some resources that may help you as you consider where you are on this widely common experience:
Check out the Calm burnout symptom list and tips for recovery.
Emma Gammon’s excellent book selection on her Substack, the hyphen— (highly recommended, go subscribe to it!)
Find an International Coaching Federation (ICF) credentialed coach to support your burnout recovery
Consider supporting yourself with a good therapist.
Photo by Stephen Radford on Unsplash