Episode #311: Don't Hit Burnout Baby

Leaders encountering this title preventing burnout might be thinking “I am tough, self-reliant, hairy chested and resilient. I don’t need to worry about it”. This means your business is probably sailing along smoothly and everything is hunky-dory. What happens when the economy starts dropping precariously or key people bail out and join the competition. Or when rivals within the organisation start making things difficult for you internally or the new “bad penny” boss turns up and upends your neat little world? One day you are a hero and the next day zero is in the offing. Also, what about the members of your team who are not like you? Those who are more vulnerable to becoming stressed or who are sacrificing their health for the business, through a strong sense of duty and loyalty? We know the impact of psychosomatic illnesses today, so sucking it up and carrying on isn’t the answer for everyone. On the sea or in the air, the captain of the vessel is responsible for the lives of everyone on board. That duty of care extends to the leader. We are responsible for the health and well being of all of our crew.

Workplace burnout isn’t the same as workplace stress. Unrelenting stress may lead to burnout, but it isn’t the same as too much stress. When we are stressed, it is often because we are too concerned, taking total responsibility for the business. When we are burned out, by comparison, we don’t see any hope in the future, we can’t hold out for an improvement to the situation. We feel empty, devoid of motivation and have given up caring. Feeling detached, disengaged, demotivated is the door to deep depression.

Okay, you say, “that is not me”. That is not you today perhaps. What about other people in your organisation? Studies show that ten percent of the Japanese workforce is suffering from depression. This is real and are you fully aware of how your employees are coping with the demands of the business? The Government has introduced laws to reduce overtime work. There are some people who miss the point and want to game the system, so that they can work longer than the limits. Japan is a crazy country in some ways! I can’t see this new limit ever being an issue in my own home country of Australia.

The most effective way of heading off job burnout is to quit what you are dong and switch to doing something less stressful. Hardly an option for most of us though. The better option is to monitor our stress as it rises and take precautionary measures to prevent it escalating into burn out. Here are four things to consider.

1. Clarify job expectations

Update your job duties and responsibilities. We all tend to accumulate extra duties over time, a bit like how ships accumulate barnacles on their hulls as they plough through the seas. These need to be cleaned off for smooth sailing. Lazy, disengaged people don’t accumulate these job barnacles, so we are talking about the hardest working members of the team here, including you.

2. Request a change

If your workplace is large enough, you might be able to move to a different location, office or department. Even a change of scenery can help to generate a new you. “Oh no, I couldn't do that. I need to get to the top, I have responsibilities”. Great, dying from a brain aneurysm or becoming totally disengaged through burnout are worse things, so let’s get some better perspective going here.

3. Ask for different responsibilities

If you have been doing the same things for a long period of time, refresh your mind by asking to try something new. Maybe a different sales territory, lead a new team, run a different project, or play a different role in the organisation.

4. Take time off

For workaholics, this is the big one. Which is better – get the rat off the treadmill and take a complete break or break down? Take a vacation or a temporary leave of absence. As the boss, you might be indispensible but if you got hit by the proverbial bus, the workplace would still open at the usual time and the work would get done regardless. Somehow everyone would manage without you, so why not take a break from the front line to regroup.

You may or may not be on your way to burnout, but maybe one day the stress will start to pile up or you will begin to detect it in your crew. Better to take action early in both cases, rather than trying to put Humpty Dumpty back together again.