How you can identify and avoid employee burnout

Most of us have experienced employee burnout in one way or another - whether we have felt burned out ourselves or recognized it in one of our colleagues. Luckily, there are plenty of simple steps you can take to make sure burnout doesn’t get the best of you or your employees.


Preventing burnout

  • Have fun – Making room for fun can reduce some stress and help to keep employees motivated when they are on the brink of burnout.

  • Switch it up – Let employees focus on new projects or teams when they’ve been concentrating on one thing for a long time, like Facebook is doing with Hackamonth.

  • Encourage breaks – It’s wonderful to have employees that don’t want to quit working until they get things done. Sadly, those are the people that are certain to burn out quickest. If you have employees like this, persuade them to take walks or go on a coffee run – anything to keep them from going stir crazy.

At times burnout is simply inevitable. When it’s already happened, there are several simple ways to ensure that it doesn’t overwhelm your employees.

How to cope with burnout

  • Accept it – Burnout isn’t always avoidable so it’s important to be conscious of the signs such as lethargy, decreased socializing or irritability.

  • Communicate – Growing businesses often undergo changes that leave employees frustrated. Making sure your employees know that they can talk to you is an excellent way to stop burnout before it gets out of hand.

Although employee burnout isn’t always avoidable, it’s critical to know what steps you can take to make it less damaging to your employees and your business. These simple tips can help reduce the effects of burnout and even prevent it when possible.

For more burnout-fighting tips, take a look at this article.