Guest Blog: Five Considerations of a Burnout-Proof Workplace Culture

Guest Blog: Five Considerations of a Burnout-Proof Workplace Culture

ESGmark® member Everwell Coach Nat Lipeka talks us through how to make your organisation a healthier, happier place to work.

Burnout – the little workplace secret everyone experiences, but no one dares bring to the weekly team discussion table. That workplace stress and incidence of burnout have been skyrocketing is no new news, with the subject finally making it into the spotlight as a pandemic swept the world, forcing the global workforce into 24/7 confinement of their homes, blurring any remaining boundaries between work and personal life. In a September 2020 survey 22% of UK adults reported job-related burnout, with Google searches for “occupation burnout” increasing 184% between August 2019 and August 2020. Older studies found one in three people stating their work to be either very, or quite, stressful, whilst one in five take a day off sick due to stress with only 10% of those citing the real reason behind doing so.

Burnout – officially recognised by the World Health Organisation as a health condition and an “occupational phenomenon” – impacts everything from productivity and performance, through employee engagement and turnover, all the way to personal health, quality of life and personal relationships.

But just because things are how they are does not mean they have to stay that way. As individual health and wellbeing continues to rise to the top of social agenda we should expect to see working culture continue to evolve, particularly as more and more Millennials join the ranks of leadership (which, with the “older lot” now reaching their 40s, is more imminent than not). Businesses now have an opportunity to re-design and re-create their organisational culture in a way that supports their employees to grow and succeed professionally, whilst maintaining the much-talked about sense of balance, wellbeing and personal life. Companies that succeed in doing so will enjoy the rewards of not just higher performance and productivity, but greater employee engagement, job satisfaction, workforce longevity and organisational reputation.

Here are five key factors to consider when burnout-proofing your workplace culture.

CREATE A SAFE SPACE FOR OPEN AND HONEST DIALOGUE

One of the most crucial pillars of business culture is communication…And not just one-way top-down communication via a monthly newsletter or a quarterly townhall with presentations from leadership, but good old two-way, downstream and upstream, dialogue. By creating a “safe space” – a term used in coaching to describe a non-judgemental and conflict-free space where individuals can be honest and vulnerable about their experiences – businesses give their people an opportunity to speak up and be heard. If employees feel they can do so without fear of it potentially working against them (key reason people don’t speak up about workplace issues), businesses create a more transparent and engaged work culture as well as an invaluable feedback loop that helps draw insights and open up a previously untapped pool of creativity and potential to solve problems in a timely and cost effective manner.

TRUST YOUR PEOPLE TO DO THEIR JOB

Do you trust your employees to do what they need to do get their work done, or does a one-style-fits-all approach rule the floor? Do your employees need to seek permission to do something, or are they trusted to make decisions on their own (where applicable)? Do they feel safe to take their lunchbreak or leave work early if they need to, knowing they have fulfilled their responsibilities? These may be tedious and somewhat obvious questions to ask, but it’s not uncommon for entire teams and businesses to be run by micro-management, which only serves to perpetuate a culture of fear and frustration, increase workplace stress and decrease employee engagement. By creating a high-trust workplace culture – one anchored in transparency, open communication and feedback, and mutual respect – you’ll reap the rewards of increased productivity, collaboration, creativity and innovation, whilst reducing stress, sick leave and incidence of burnout. Really simply – trust your people to know what they need to do to get their work done, then trust them to do it!

EMPOWER THROUGH BOUNDARIES

The concept of boundaries has been trending strongly since the onset of the pandemic, with the workplace continuing to be one of the more challenging contexts for boundary-setting. Boundaries are a self-care tool that allow people to effectively manage and protect their energy – be it physical, mental or emotional – by communicating to the external world – workplace, or otherwise – what they need to function and perform at their best. Boundaries are fundamental to effective stress management and it’s in everyone’s interest for employees at all levels to openly communicate and set boundaries that empower them to do their best work. A workplace culture that not only talks about but respects and encourages boundaries – such as taking your lunchbreak away from your desk, not answering e-mail after work hours or working weekends, leaving work on time, or time blocking your calendar to do “deep work” – will go a long way in burnout-proofing your business.

CHAMPION EMPLOYEES AS WHOLE BEINGS

No human being exists in a vacuum of the workplace. No matter how driven, dedicated and ambitious your employees are, every single one of them has needs – physical, psychological, emotional, spiritual and intellectual – outside of the workplace. A burnout-proof culture is one that not only acknowledges, but more importantly champions the multi-dimensional nature of its workforce by taking a holistic approach to workplace wellbeing and organisational design that allows for professional growth as well as personal development, rest and leisure, and family and social commitments. A work culture predicated on hustle and long hours at the office is one that inevitably takes away from other areas of one’s life, which – whilst temporarily OK – we must get really honest with ourselves and recognise when temporary becomes permanent as that is the edge at which we start playing with burnout.

LEADERS MUST LEAD

Leaders by definition have a tremendous impact on organisational culture and workplace practices; after all influencing and managing people is at the core of their job description. As employees, we look to leadership for inspiration and guidance on best practice, and model our behaviours on theirs – be it on a consciously or not. A company which values wellbeing on paper, but in practice is led on the premise of hustle culture is not only counterproductive, but also leads to confusion and frustration, and ultimately undermines its credibility with its own workforce. Conversely, when leaders lead by example – modelling healthy professional boundaries to their teams, ending work at a reasonable hour, taking the weekends off for personal time, not sending e-mails after hours – you can expect to see both lower levels of stress as well as consistently better levels of performance. If you really want to burnout-proof your working culture, it is essential you invest time, energy and resources into making sure that leadership is aligned with the changes, or cultural norms, you are seeking to implement.

CONCLUSION

Whilst statistically workplace stress and burnout is no small problem, it very much remains an invisible one, and one that continues to carry stigma around it. There’s a long way ahead of us, but the tides are slowly changing in favour of a more balanced approach to work and the way we think about professional success as well as what is required to achieve it. Businesses that embrace and step into the forefront of change will create significant brand and human equity for long-term success.

Nat Lipecka is an ex-City Stockbroker and Investment Banker, workaholic, perfectionist, stress and adrenaline junkie, turned certified Coach, Human and Lifestyle Optimiser. As an Expert, Speaker and a Coach, her zone of genius is working with ambitious, driven, goal-oriented professionals, leaders and entrepreneurs, who want to create success in their life on both a personal and professional level.

Click here to find out more about EVERWELL.

Mental Health UK has a full definition of burnout and it’s affects on your wellbeing.

Here at ESGmark® we believe that the ‘S’ is ‘ESG’ starts with those around you - your team, colleagues and employees. We have plenty more on this subject in Nat’s blog on burnout, along with wellbeing in the workplace and creating a supportive work environment for mental health.