Entrepreneur’s Notebook—Employee Burnout Taking Major Toll on Productivity

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Today’s uneven economy has been the cause of added stress, as companies make greater demands of their employees. The fast pace of high-tech companies has caused employees to put in odd hours, extended hours and weekend hours. Many companies have been forced to reduce their payrolls, and are adding responsibilities caused by downsizing.

Moreover, skilled workers for newly developed positions are more difficult than ever to find, causing added workloads for current personnel.

The workplace causes the greatest amount of stress and anxiety in peoples’ lives. This stress can lead to a variety of emotional disorders, including depression and dysfunction, and can lead to a host of physical ailments, from nervous twitches to chronic neck and back problems.

When left untreated, problems related to stress can accumulate and even lead to an early death. The greatest number of heart attacks occurs on Monday morning. These heart attacks can be brought on by work-related tension. This isn’t to say that everyone who works feverishly on a regular basis is going to die of sudden stress-related problems, but stress has been proven to be one of the most significant factors in calculating your overall lifespan. The more stress you experience, the sooner you’re likely to die.


Understanding causes

Probably the best solution to workplace burnout is to understand the stressors that cause it. When we are under more stress than we can handle, burnout becomes probable. Organizations must consider how they contribute to the stressors that cause burnout. Once these stressors are identified, organizations can find ways to minimize them and prevent employee burnout.


According to Drs. Maslach and Leiter (1997) there are six areas of organizational life that cause stress:

– The amount of work that employees experience, and the extent to which demands are manageable.

– The amount of control that employees feel they have in their jobs.

– The effectiveness of the rewards and recognition systems that employees receive.

– The organization’s responsiveness to its staff and the community at large.

– The respect and fairness accorded to people in the organization.

– The personal values that people have about their work, and the values of the organization as a whole.

In each of these areas, stress and tension occur when there is a gap or mismatch between an employee’s expectation and what the organization delivers. As the gap widens, burnout begins to take place. Only one area is required to cause burnout, but invariably, stress produced from several of these factors contributes to an employee’s burnout.

How does an organization handle the potential burnout of its employees? First of all, an organization must be willing to share the responsibility. Too often, the blame for burnout is laid on the individual employee, who is often given little support until it’s too late. When signs of burnout arise, an employee is often simply considered lazy, inconsistent, or untrustworthy. Their production declines and their sick days increase, contributing to the idea that it is the employee’s fault, and therefore their responsibility. However, when organizations take responsibility, and find ways to identify the causes of burnout and alleviate these stress factors, employee burnout can be minimized.

The first action an organization can take to reduce workplace burnout is to communicate with its employees in order to identify which of the six stress factors is most prevalent, whether its through a confidential written questionnaire, anonymous posting, or verbal interview. Managers should first set the right atmosphere for this communication, one of open, caring consideration, not fault-finding investigation. They should explain that the organization is taking responsibility and striving to ensure its employees’ health.

Once the organization has an idea of the stress factors experienced by its employees, it should develop a plan or set of guidelines that address these areas, whether through the implementation of flexible work schedules, giving more control and responsibility to employees, changing the system of rewards, or examining the values of the organization.

The organization should also implement ways to treat the stress experienced by employees, which can often be done in the form of a company wellness program that includes counseling support, or company-sponsored events that show a caring for the employees. In addition, minor yet frequent reward and recognition can help to mitigate damaging attitudes. Charles Wang of Wang Technologies has a tendency to shut down the entire office if he feels everyone is working too late, with a simple push of a button.

Whether large or small, burnout can occur in any organization. It can affect anyone in the organization. Productivity is most affected. If you notice this in your own organization, the feeling that nothing is getting done, morale isn’t as high as it could be, and productivity is slowing, maybe it’s not about the staff performing the tasks, but the organization’s expectations of the staff. Take the time to understand the stress factors that exist, and work with the employees to create reasonable solutions.

Addressing stress in the workplace will result in lower long-term costs and greater profits for the company. The Society for Human Resource Management has shown that there is a logical bridge between healthy employees and the increased benefits to the company. Companies with wellness programs find that they have lower medical and workers’ compensation costs, better attendance, and happier, more-productive employees.

David Wise is a consultant/broker for the Equis Corp. as well as a faculty member for the School of Business & Technology at National University. He can be reached at www.equiscorp.com.

Entrepreneur’s Notebook is a regular column contributed by EC2, The Annenberg Incubator Project, a center for multimedia and electronic communications at the University of Southern California. Contact James Klein at (213) 743-1759 with feedback and topic suggestions.

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