Tuesday's Tidbits: Preventing Burnout

Hello, and welcome! Whether this is your first blog post of ours that you've read or not, thank you for stopping by and for reading. Our goal with these blog posts is to be able to spread positivity and motivation throughout our community of professionals, and to add value to your life through new ideas, creative alternatives, and helping you take some small steps to improve yourself professionally as well as personally!

You reading this post, stock photo-style

Tuesday's Tidbits is different from Thursday's Thoughts, because even though the topics still come from regular conversations with professionals, it's a more data-driven approach instead of staying on a personal level, though that's still obviously a big part of this segment.

Today's topic - Preventing Burnout. I started my professional career about 7 years ago, and the first 3-4 years that I was working in a professional environment, I can probably count on 2 hands the amount of times I even heard the phrase in reference to working. I was working Sales at the time as an Account Manager, and obviously I knew what burnout was, but I had never heard any of my Managers, Assistant Managers, Directors, or even C-level people mention the fact that burnout was...well, real. It seemed like a concept for some people, but I never heard any indication that we'd be subject to that.

Fast-forward to 2020, and...well, that's certainly changed, hasn't it? Burnout is a buzzword going around professional circles, especially leadership. Everyone is talking about burnout and how to combat it. Why? Because professionals are feeling burnout like never before due to the current environment with everything that's happened with Covid-19. To prove this, here's a quote from Joe Lennon, CTO of Workvivo via CIO's article "Top 8 challenges IT leaders will face in 2021":

“The long-term impact of working from home is coming to the surface now with the social capital of working in the office running out,” Lennon says. “Some are feeling burnt out, isolated or are finding it hard to find work-life balance in this new setup. We all need to find ways to re-create the workplace culture and office dynamic online so that employees feel connected and engaged. We want to make sure employees understand and feel a part of the company’s culture and aligned with our goals so they can work effectively and happily under this new model.”

Burnt out, isolated, or hard to find work-life balance in this new setup. I think that accurately depicts a lot of people working in a professional setting right now, and to further back that up, Ivy Exec's article "The 7 Industries Where People Experience Burnout the Fastest" has industries such as Sales/Bus Dev, Design and Medicine, and that's BEFORE 2020! Imagine how those numbers would look now!

That same story has these points from a Randstad USA employee engagement survey that shows the common factors that can lead to burnout:

• Pressure to be “always on,” and therefore check work emails late at night or on weekends.

• Expectations to get more done than is possible in the workday.

• Not making progress in your career.

• Your boss not appreciating what you do.

• A lack of staff to do the work.

• Inadequate pay and benefits.

• A lack of work-life balance.

In a slightly funny coincidence, we actually had a Monday Motivation video posted on LinkedIn yesterday that talked about improving work-life balance before we'd even read this article to respond! Use that hyperlink to go check it out if you want a few tips on some small changes you can try to improve your work-life balance.

Look at that list again. Odds are that if you're working in a professional work environment, you don't just feel one of those, which means that the feeling of burnout can compound and become more dangerous. Employees that feel burnout typically see their happiness at work dip, and when the happiness dips, so does the motivation, their energy, and their productivity. Keeping employees happy is something that all leaders should take into account, because happy employees maintain the drive to continue putting in 110%, which helps your business not just reach your annual goals, but smash through the ceiling of what you thought was even possible! You can see some specific stats on how the tremendous differences in efficiencies between invested employees and employees who are checked out on our Motivation Speaking page.

What burnout looks like via stock photo

Burnout is obviously real, and it's never been felt as much across so many different industries than it has thanks to the added stress of 2020. People used to go to the office in-person to avoid the distractions of home, and they were able to get more done. Now they have the kids, pets, and/or awkward roommates right there 10 feet away, and many feel it's way more draining to do meetings over Zoom than it ever was in person. Addressing burnout can be the difference between reaching your 2021 business goals and not, because the more your employees are feeling burnout, the less likely they are to pour their best efforts into their daily/weekly tasks.

This is the point where I'll be completely honest - If you're an employee, this post is more validation for you than it probably is informational. This post is more geared towards leaders who aren't treating the idea of burnout as seriously as they should. Though your employees can have small ways to recharge their batteries, and that portion is on them, Managers/Directors/Leaders need to be using their influence to ensure that their businesses are adapting with the current work environment, and providing ways to prevent the burnout of their employees. I've heard from people I know that goals are going up, and what they're being asked to do is going up in 2021, even though the resources they have and the benefits they have are remaining the same. Some people are doing double-duty right now, because Covid created a layoff with positions that still haven't been filled. You have to help your employees not run themselves into the ground, or else your team isn't going to reach your goals!

It's the same as riding a horse in a race - You can kick and urge them on, but eventually, that horse is going to get fed up and give up. You need to know your team, know what they need, and give them a way to succeed in this crazy new work environment, and part of that is to make sure they have the necessary resources to avoid burnout. I would dare say that it's not a good quality for a Leader to refuse to adapt their team strategy to incorporate more methods to avoid burnout. If you're not moving up, you're either stalling or falling, and nobody wants to lead a team that's falling in productivity.

Preventing burnout doesn't have to be difficult. Here are a few easy things to consider that can help combat burnout in 2021:

1. Talk with your team about burnout. Listen to them to see what factors are leading them to feel burned out, and write those down! The ones you hear most often should be your priorities moving forward.

2. Invest in small ways to add recognition to your employees. You can give them an afternoon off, send them a personalized gift (which can cost less than $20), or you can invest in a Team Power Hour event to help boost their morale, teamwork, and stave off the feeling of burn out (who does Power Hours? Oh yeah! SweetHart Entertainment does!)

3. Hold employees accountable. There are a lot of small things employees can do to prevent burnout, and the effort should be 50/50. If the business is doing their due diligence to provide resources to prevent burnout, so should the employees.

It's everyone's favorite time - Shameful product plug time! But the fact is that SweetHart Entertainment can actually help with most of those forms of burnout employees can feel, and here's how:

1. Pressure to be "always on" - Our From Manager to Leader seminar can help leaders see the benefits of enabling a better work-life balance for their employees, full of real-life scenarios where businesses saw an increase in employee productivity

2. Expectations to get more done in a day than possible - This is also covered in our From Manager to Leader seminar for leaders, and we show how setting expectations are necessary, but setting realistic expectations leads to increased happiness, job satisfaction, and productivity.

3. Not making progress in your career - If you're an employee who's feeling no traction in your career where you currently are, or if you're in HR or a leader who feels your team could use additional skills to be more efficient, SweetHart Entertainment's Soft Skills Seminars could be the solution. We help employees gain necessary skills and improve their efficiencies.

4. Your boss not appreciating what you do - This is crucial! Though you shouldn't go through the halls with an airhorn to recognize an employee who just hit their basic requirements, there are tons of different ways to appreciate employees, which again leads to more happiness, job satisfaction, and productivity! These are topics in some Soft Skills Seminars and our From Manager to Leader course as well

5. A lack of staff - Though we can't help you hire (unless you contract us), we can help your HR team get better qualified personnel through our From Maybe to Definitely Seminar!

6. Inadequate pay & benefits - You're on your own on this one...sorry! But we could be one of your benefits if you utilize our Team Power Hours!

7. A lack of work-life balance - Can you guess what we're going to say? From Manager to Leader course? You nailed it!

So many different avenues that SweetHart Entertainment can help with to make sure your employees are less likely to experience burnout, and therefore keep their motivation on a daily basis, and continue giving you effort that ensures you can reach your 2021 business goals. Contact Us using a form on the Team Power Hours or Soft Skills Seminar page, or just email us at sweethartentertainment@gmail.com if you want to learn more about how these can help increase your employee's happiness, motivation, morale, drive, and productivity.