The six main causes of burnout - and how to combat them

Matches that have been burnt, with text overlay the Six Main Causes of Burnout, and how to combat them, Rikki Goldenberg, Executive Leadership Coach, Career Coach

Why is burnout such a big deal?

A week can barely go by without the internet screaming about burnout. Between articles sharing tips and tricks, stats that make us cringe, and our own exhaustion on the topic it can start to feel overwhelming and insurmountable.

And… that’s why it’s a big deal. In the same way that we know we should practice mindfulness, exercise, get 7-9 hours of sleep a night... burnout is one of those things that we know we should be working to reduce. Thanks to Jennifer Moss’ “The Burnout Epidemic: The Rise of Chronic Stress and How We Can Fix It” we’ve got some good ideas to share, too. So let’s get into it.

The pandemic hasn’t made burnout any easier. Surprise! Shocker! Want some stomach-clenching stats? Burnout is seen as a global problem according to a 2020 HBR survey:

  • 89% of respondents say their work life is getting worse

  • 85% of folks feel wellbeing has declined

  • 62% of those who are struggling to manage their workload have been feeling burnout “often” or “extremely often” in the last three months

  • 55% of people feel they can’t balance work and home life

  • 50% of individuals are struggling to maintain a strong connection with friends

Simply put, burnout is all around us. And it’s slowly getting worse.

The hardest part of battling burnout is that often we put the pressure on the individual. Feeling burnt? Take a bubble bath for stress relief.

But burnout is about the organization, not the people. If the organization isn’t meeting basic hygiene needs, then, it’s going to pull people into a burnout spiral. No amount of “fun” meditation apps is going to fix it.

Let’s dive in to the learnings from Moss.

What about burnout will we cover?

  1. The WHO’s definition of burnout

  2. The six main causes of burnout - and a tip or two on how to battle each

  3. Impactful leadership for burnout

1. Burnout is defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) as:

  • Feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion

  • Increased mental distance from one’s job, or feelings of negativism or cynicism related to one’s job

  • Reduced professional efficacy

Even in how we define burnout, we know that it impacts our ability to do good work. If you’re feeling burnt, you’re simply not able to give your best.

2. The six main causes of burnout - and a tip or two on how to battle each

Moss details how six main causes come up when we think about organizational responsibility towards reducing and combatting burnout. They are:

  • Workload

  • Perceived lack of control

  • Lack of reward or recognition

  • Poor relationships

  • Lack of fairness

  • Values mismatch

So fun! Let’s learn more.

Workload: During the pandemic, US workers managed to add 3 more hours of work to our days. There goes that extra non-commuting time! An oracle study noted that 41% of respondents were juggling unmanageable workloads.

The trick isn’t 4-day weeks. Some organizations tried to give Friday’s off, but, it resulted in people having to work over the weekend or extend their days. “If you really want to take the pressure off the team, you have to adjust the workload,” Moss notes.

Here are some tips to better manage workloads for your team:

  • Scope properly at the start of a project - anyone who came from agency/consulting life is jumping up and down here. Learn from previous projects. Worst-case scenario? Give too many resources.

  • Ensure people know what is expected of them - this seems so simple, but how often have you felt like you don’t know what you’re doing? Makes me think of Jim at the office trying to figure out what a “rundown” is - made for great comedy, but also made me anxious.

  • Collect feedback, anonymously - create a space for people to share updates/concerns, etc. If you find out that folks don’t feel supported - you might consider adding trainings. Constantly underscoping? Add folks. People don’t know what their job is? Help! Pro-tip: actually do something with the feedback. A suggestion box is well and good, but if it turns into a trash can... well... you’re making it worse.

Perceived lack of control: Elizabeth Grace Saunders noted, “Feeling like you lack autonomy, access to resources, and a say in decisions that impact your professional life can take a toll on your well-being.” We need to feel in control to feel motivated, ability to hit our flow-state, and to do great work.

Organizations that are filled with micromanagers, unclear tasks, ridiculous requirements, and silly time-sucking meetings are those that make us feel out-of-whack.

Here are some tips to battle a perceived lack of control:

  • Don’t expect perfection - the desire for perfection creates micromanagers, ridiculous spreadsheets, and absurdly over-documented process playbooks. Whether you’re a manager or an employee, work to create a relationship with your work and team members that doesn’t require perfection. Mistakes are allowed.

  • Delegate properly - spread out the work based on unique skillsets, and let people do things their way. Think about it like household chores. I absolutely abhor folding laundry, so I will happily have someone else do that. And, that means I also have to be OKAY if they don’t fold something the way I’d fold it. Who knows, they might even be a better folder than I am. Trust me, they probably are. Give me dishwashing any day to folding clothes.

  • Job crafting - working with your team to develop their own job is incredible. Not only will most folks self-select into their strengths, they’ll also push to work mostly on the things that they are truly aligned with. Working in your wheelhouse? On things you love? That’s a beautiful jump to feeling that flow! Obviously, we will all still have to do things we don’t love, but if 80% of our time is spent on things we enjoy - daaaaang that’s pretty good!

Lack of reward or recognition: This is one of the #1 things that people want more of. Getting rewards and recognized for our work is a vote in our favor. The difficult part is that everyone wants to be rewarded and recognized differently. One person might want a public shout out. Another might want a title change. A salary bump. We can’t always give folks exactly what they want, but, we can find ways to create a culture of recognition.

Here are some tips:

  • Positive gossip - (this is my favorite!) just start saying nice things about people. It catches on like WILDFIRE.

  • Create a space for gratitude - It could be a shout-out slack channel, a way to send a $5 coffee gift card, a post-it board, whatever works for your org, find something that lets you shout folks out.

  • Practice your thank you’s - if you want more people to say thank you, start saying thank you. Thank someone for their contribution in a meeting, thank someone for taking notes in a meeting, thank someone for having presented when presenting makes them nervous. It’s like trying to teach a toddler to say “please.” Why would they say please if you never do?

Poor relationships: We need good working relationships to be happy at work. BetterUp found that workplace belonging created a 50% reduction in turnover risk and a 56% increase in job performance. No pressure, right? Just go make friends! Ha. This one is hard - it requires so much from others, not just yourself. However, there are a couple things to try... check them out:

  • Random dates - try creating opportunities for people to meet with others within the organization. Yes, it’s going to feel like one more to-do list, but, they also may create a relationship with someone who could help them out in the future! Magic!

  • Connection points - have a lot of people who like fantasy novels? (Raises hand) Add a slack channel for book recommendations. Parents? Get that out there too. It doesn’t require monitoring, but, I’ve been super grateful to those slack channels for tips on the best bassinet to buy secondhand!

  • Reduce competition - some orgs focus on up-or-out models, or, there’s the idea that only one person can get to that next level within an org. Guess what - if your org has this kind of set-up - you’re going to run into some serious competition with snake-like actions. If you can find ways to improve team dynamics, you’ll see relationships forming. Think about it this way - if you partner with someone knowing that only one of you can get promoted - there’s no way that relationship is going to bloom without some weird dynamics occurring. Sure, competition helps folks work hard - but it can also result in cutting corners, undermining, and reducing efficacy of our group work. Stop that. It makes me mad.

Lack of fairness: Gallup tells us, “When employees do not trust their manager, teammates or executive leadership, it breaks the psychological bond that makes work meaningful.” Basically, if at your org folks feel like they aren’t getting what they deserve, things are going to break, really, really fast.

Some ways to make things feel more fair:

  • Start with communication - make sure that everyone has the same access to information relevant to their seniority. At smaller, younger organizations this is one of the biggest mistakes I see. A leader has a friendship that means they share things (off the cuff) that then puts that person in a position of relative strength. How can we keep up if that person is getting “insider info?” It’s a lonely thing to realize, but as a leader you can’t share based on favoritism.

  • Recognize fairly - that $5 coffee gift card doesn’t replace a promotion or salary bump at year-end. Same with ridiculous rules around how long you need to be somewhere to be recognized. Pro-tip? Keep track of who’s been getting hired and promoted and if there may be unconscious bias showing up. If you look at your leadership team and notice it’s a lot of white men, and then a lot of white men are getting promoted... you might have a problem.

  • Act on feedback - remember how we wanted to get feedback about workloads? Well, if we don’t do anything with feedback... what’s the point?! So, capture feedback and then do something about it.

Values mismatch: Value misalignment means there’s very little reason to be motivated to do good work. That could appear as being overqualified and under-challenged, bait-and-switched, or disconnected from the organization’s goals. Whether folks are frustrated because they feel like they were hired for a job “beneath them” or they dislike the mission of the company - it’s a recipe for less productive and unhappy people.

How to combat values mismatch:

  • Have goals - the team needs to know what that plan is. Wait and see, is, not a plan. By making sure everyone knows what’s expected - and when - they’ll be able to work towards improvements.

  • Meet the goals - it’s one thing to put someone on the path to promotion, it’s another to get them the promotion. If you’re telling your team that they’ll get promoted, and then come review cycle... they don’t? Wow wow wow. There’s no way that the next review cycle will bring them any joy - unless you plan to also get them back-pay for the previous 6 months where they were already acting in that role. Make sure that you’re managing expectations properly with your team. Otherwise the resentment will grow and transform into something nasty.

  • Connect - if you aren’t meeting with your team consistently... do that. Need tips on your best 1-on-1? Go here.

There you have it. 6 main causes of burnout along with a fair number of tips and tricks on how to combat them.

3. Impactful leadership for burnout

We don’t want to just say, here’s all this stuff to do - good luck! As a leader, what can you do to continue to combat burnout - not just for your team, but for yourself? Here are three things to take on as a leader:

  1. Stay curious! Being a leader means we can’t always jump straight into decision-mode. By stepping back, taking a breath, and pondering... we immediately create space for ourselves to wonder.

  2. Curate empathy - Moss notes (and I agree), “It’s annoying when people suggest that empathy is a soft skill...some terms just need to be changed; soft skills is one of them.” Empathy is at the root of great leadership. If you lead with empathy - really trying to understand your team (authentically) you can create a beautiful relationship. You may need to work on boundaries too to avoid getting drawn in too far ... but, creating empathy? Magic. It’s as simple as maintaining curiosity, authentically caring, and actively listening to your team.

  3. Walk the walk - this one kills me. How many orgs create a meditation session, a team workout, a you-name-it training and then leadership... doesn’t show up? Guess what that tells everyone. If you’re “too busy” then they should be “too busy.” So.. I don’t care what you have to do, but if balance is what you want for your team, you’re going to need to do it too. Attend the meditation session. Join that workout. And if you don’t want to do those things?! What do you want to do? Maybe consider offering that as a “perk” instead!

Okay folks! That was a LOT about burnout. The main causes, how to combat them, how to lead... We did it!

Want to go further to figure out how to be a better leader while managing your own plate?

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