Employee burnout is a big problem and it seems to be increasing. It prevents employees from being engaged and it hinders employee performance. If you aren’t discussing these challenges within your organization, you should. A recent Gallup study revealed just how urgent this crisis is. They reported that 23% of employees reported feeling burned out very often or always and an additional 44% reported being burned out sometimes.

Today, we want to talk about how to recognize employee burnout and how we see burnout show up in the organizations with which we work. If we know the ways in which burnout shows up in organizations, we can address the issue as soon as we see the signs. Our top 6 are:

  1. Absenteeism– there is an upward trend of days requested off or sick days being used
  2. Missed Deadlines– deadlines are being missed more frequently than they have in the past.
  3. Visible Exhaustion– an employee is visibly tired or “dragging” throughout the day. There is a noticeable lack of energy.
  4. Irritability– individuals are easily annoyed and quick to anger.
  5. Cynicism– an employee has become a “Negative Nancy” or a half-glass empty kind of person and they voice it to others.
  6. Isolation/Distancing– an employee is keeping their distance and not interesting in engaging in conversations or relationship building.

These symptoms of burnout are important to know so you can take steps immediately to prevent a trickle down effect throughout the organization. However, we as employers, we need to be proactive to address these issues before we start seeing these signs. If we can address these issues in the workplace before they happen, we can prevent widespread challenges across the organization. This saves time and money and it provides for a much more enjoyable workplace.

If you need help identifying the challenges in your organization and developing a plan to prevent burnout and improve your culture contact us at contact@talentidgroup.com.