Looking forward to your next vacation? Work burnout isn't just a saying anymore. It's real, and the World Health Organization (WHO) is concerned.
Last year, the WHO noted that burnout is caused by “chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed.” Symptoms include exhaustion, negative feelings or cynicism about one’s work, and reduced effectiveness.
And burnout-prevention is even harder during COVID-19. Why? Homebound agency employees have minimal physical boundaries between home and non-work, clients are stressed, and no one’s sure what’s next.
Worried that one of your employees is approaching burnout—or that you’re approaching burnout yourself? Concerned that you or your colleagues need to unplug?
It’s good that you and your employees are committed to the agency, but overwork is unsustainable. As a leader, you may be part of the problem—but you’re also in a position to help.
Preventing burnout will require a unique approach for an agency, but these suggestions will get you started—even amidst the pandemic and a tense political climate.
Help but don’t infantilize
You need to walk a fine line as a leader: be helpful without coming across as infantilizing.
For instance, offering to help one of your direct reports prioritize (based on what you need from them) is helpful, since it supports them in self-managing. As a manager, I offer occasional check-ins so that people don’t feel like they need to make decisions in a vacuum.
In contrast, abruptly “ordering” someone to take a specific day off can come across negatively, especially if you mandate the particular day without consulting with them on which day would make the most sense, given their schedule, workload, personal priorities, COVID-19 situation, or family obligations.
Ask them what they need
With that customization in mind, you should ask each employee how you can help them unplug.
You might suggest they take a long weekend, but acknowledge they’ve got a lot on their plates, and ask how you can help them make the weekend truly work-free. For instance, you may need to give them “permission” to disable email and other work apps, and perhaps to run their out-of-office auto-responder the day before and after the break.
Connect with your remote workers
If your agency was 100% virtual before COVID-19, you’re likely used to checking-in electronically and via calls and videos. But it’s harder during COVID-19 because everyone’s more distracted than ever. And if your agency wasn’t virtual before the pandemic, the shift toward “more remote” is likely harder.
Weigh how to stay in touch, without overdoing it. My clients use employee engagement tools like 15Five and Know Your Team to monitor morale without being intrusive, so the agency leaders can take action before it’s too late.
Take a hard look at night-and-weekend work
To what extent are your employees working late and on weekends right now? How often are they getting questions from their colleagues (or from clients or from you) on weekends?
A recent Wall Street Journal article noted data from a recent Oracle survey in which 70% of respondents said that they have experienced more stress and anxiety at work this year than any other previous year.
Work is running longer, with a surge in calls, texts, and other interactions outside of traditional work hours. And working parents are pulling double duty with homeschooling, so late nights might be the only time they feel they can get work done.
Your team needs leadership in this area to handle client requests during nights and weekends. Communicate to your clients, too, that this type of work is for emergencies only. Impress upon everyone how important boundaries are to ensure that your team—and clients—are practicing meaningful self-care.
If you’re the one working nights and weekends as a leader, it’s worth taking a step back to understand why. With the right strategy (and deliberate effort), you can make yourself increasingly optional at work. If not for yourself, do it for your team—they see you as a role model and need you to help them.
Switch from “Maximize” to “Optimize”
Are you a maximizer or an optimizer?
Maximizers always want more, typically without pausing to think about what never-ending “more” costs. Because “more” is never enough, maximizer-led agencies tend to experience high staff turnover, poor scope management, and owner and employee burnout.
In contrast, optimizers prioritize the return on investment (ROI) of their commitments. It’s not that optimizers don’t want growth at their agency—but they consider whether the projected return is worth the expected financial, personnel, and emotional investments.
When to escalate from "ask" to "tell"
If one of your employees isn’t advocating for themselves—and they’re choosing to work when you told them you don’t expect it—there are two parts to consider.
Are you saying one thing but effectively demanding or expecting another? In that case, you need to address the inconsistency directly, because that’s largely about you.
If you aren’t sending mixed messages—yet they’re still choosing to not unplug, to their detriment—then figure out why. Ask them. Maybe they feel that they have no other choice given their home or personal environment.
Stop saying "Don't work too late"
When you switch out of work mode (or log off Slack) and see an employee is still working, stop saying “don’t work too late.” It can come across as a glib joke versus an earnest request.
Instead, ask what they’re working on—and let them know if they have the option to defer the work until tomorrow or even later. That way, they can choose themselves whether to work late. Your team will appreciate this extra effort and care to help them focus on their lives versus their workload.
Also, “ASAP” situations or emergencies are ideally only rare occurrences. If they are frequent in your firm, you have bigger issues to solve.
Adjust your expectations downward
Should you reduce your expectations from your team? Yes, at least to a point.
The 2018 book Meltdown: Why Our Systems Fail and What We Can Do About It identifies two factors in failure-prone systems: high complexity and tight coupling. That is: when people are under pressure to act quickly amidst extreme distractions, they are prone to make mistakes.
Given the collective stress we’re all feeling this year, adjusting and discussing expectations regularly will keep the lines of communications clear.
This doesn’t mean you should tolerate a pattern of problems that put your agency at risk—but consider whether your expectations might be making things worse. This includes deciding how to handle higher client expectations: will you transmit that pressure to your team, push back, or somewhere in between?
Put on your own oxygen mask before assisting others
There’s a reason that airline pre-flight safety briefings advise you to put on your own oxygen mask first: If you’re incapacitated, you can’t help those around you.
Likewise, take a close look at your own self-care, or lack thereof.
As an agency leader, your choices model the behavior you expect from your team. If you work through lunch every day and can’t remember when you took time out of the office, what does that tell your employees?
If you don’t feel safe taking a trip or vacation during the pandemic, consider how you might create a “staycation.” Your PTO at home may not be as relaxing as a trip out of town, but the point is to disconnect from work to help you recharge.
Assess and regroup on your priorities
Recognizing your agency has a burnout problem is the first step. But you’ll eventually need to fix the underlying core problems. However, that may not be feasible right now. You can’t erase the anxiety and stress your team may be feeling about COVID-19 or the global environment but you can make work better for your team.
The solution requires a mix of commitment and results—your agency’s employees should see that you're committed to prioritizing fixing the problems, but they also eventually need to see results from your collective efforts.
Also, consider making self-care practices a core component of your strategy. Review your benefits and perks and see what should be changed. Ask yourself: What resources does your insurance company or healthcare plan offer? What meditative breaks or tactics could help alleviate stress? What does your team want or need?
Talking with your team and working with them to manage their self-care is a great step in the right direction. Then, you can start to tackle burnout from a long-term perspective. Fighting burnout at work is more important now than ever. As an agency leader, you can help your team—and help yourself—get through these challenging times.
Question: What’s your next step to reduce the risk of burnout at your agency?
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