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Workplace stress is likely to be an issue for all professionals at some stage in their career. No matter your industry or level of experience, managing stress levels is something all professionals need to practice to achieve success and happiness in and out of work. 

If poorly managed, the impacts of workplace stress can cause workers to experience burnout, a phenomenon we’ve all become more familiar with over the course of the coronavirus pandemic.

The last year or so has really tested us all, especially in achieving a work-life balance. According to research from Indeed earlier this year, 52% of employees feel burned out. What’s more, as searches online for ‘signs of burnout’ have increased by 24% throughout 2020 compared to the previous year, it’s never been more important to understand burnout and how it can impact our lives. The good news is that there are a lot of ways that employers and employees can reduce the probability of experiencing burnout. From self-care to evolving company cultures, the future of work doesn’t have to be one where digital burnout is commonplace.

In the age of multiple screens and constant communication, learning how to spot the warning signs of burnout and prioritising your mental health is an essential practice in order to have a sustainable relationship with our work and careers. In this guide, we explore what burnout looks and feels like, how to avoid it, and how to progress in your career without compromising your own stress levels.

An introduction to burnout

What is burnout?

Burnout is a term we see thrown around quite a lot nowadays, but it’s a concept that has been explored since the 1970’s, with the publication of Herbert Freudenberger’s book, Burnout: The High Cost of High Achievement. He defined burnout as “the extinction of motivation or incentive, especially where one’s devotion to a cause or relationship fails to produce the desired results.” 

We can understand burnout in the context of workplace stress, which many of us experience at some point or another. We can all become stressed at work, particularly if we are putting in longer hours than usual, there are important deadlines coming up, or we have issues in our personal lives. Research by Mental Health America and FlexJobs shows that 76% of respondents agreed that workplace stress affects their mental health and have experienced burnout.

Burnout is an extreme form of workplace stress whereby the stress you are experiencing makes way for mental and emotional exhaustion. The World Health Organization (WHO) characterises burnout by three main dimensions:

• Feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion
• Increased mental distance from one’s job, feelings of negativism or cynicism related to one’s job
• Reduced professional efficacy

When we are experiencing stress at work, it may be difficult to concentrate on tasks, and we may have feelings of being overwhelmed and anxious. But workplace stress becomes burnout when we no longer have the capacity to care or engage with our work.

Why do people get burnt out?

Burnout is a result of excessive workplace stress, so it is essential to look at the factors that can create stress in the workplace, and therefore the environment for burnout to take place.

Work culture

Historically, the work culture in most companies is one centred around productivity. And this is because businesses, by nature, are driven by profit, which is achieved by operating at maximum output. This often translates to an approach whereby productivity comes first, and inevitably, the needs of people come second.

This way of working creates the exact environment in which burnout can occur. This is because prioritising profits and results becomes a cultural norm that everyone is expected to practice. And voicing concerns about mental health often negatively reflects on performance and an employee’s efficacy. 

A culture that normalises long working hours and neglects mental health is much more likely to see cases of burnout amongst its people. This is because it causes stress, and employees are not taught to recognise the signs to avoid burnout.

Lack of support from management

Management figures have the potential to represent a solution for stressed employees, and research does show that 96% of employers provide mental health resources to staff. But the effectiveness of this support doesn’t always translate, with only 1 in 6 employees feeling supported by these resources.

Another factor to consider is the way in which senior members of staff manage their teams and employees. The WHO lists “poor communication and management practices” as a risk factor for poor mental health, which directly contributes to burnout.

This is because employees often feel like they cannot tell their managers that they’re struggling. According to research by Deloitte, “the top driver of burnout…was lack of support or recognition from leadership, indicating the important role that leaders play in setting the tone.”

Empathetic management practices encourage communication and compassion amongst teams and create a safe environment for employees to be transparent about their mental health and stress levels. This positive environment can combat stress and prevent burnout, but the reality is that many workplaces don’t provide this kind of opportunity for employees to have their needs met. A recent study, Hindsight 2020: COVID Concerns into 2021 showed that a third of employees wished their managers acted with more empathy.

Excessive hours

Another reason that people suffer from burnout is due to long hours. We spend the majority of our lives at work, but when the 9-5 becomes a daily 12-hour shift, our professional lives can eat into our personal ones. And, for those with high pressure jobs, that also means more stress. This has significant impacts on people’s lives, quite literally, with WHO and International Labour Organization reporting that “working long hours led to 745,000 deaths from stroke and ischemic heart disease in 2016, up 29% since 2000.” 

We’ve also got to contend with the impact of the coronavirus pandemic that we will start to see in research going forward. Considering research from NordVPN Teams that home workers are spending around 2.5 more hours logged on each day, workers are more vulnerable to burnout than ever before.

Demanding workloads

Being overwhelmed is a key driver of burnout, and many get to this point and then feel frustrated because they know they cannot be productive with their current workload. It is this loss of hope and engagement with work that leads to burnout amongst employees, making it a key area to focus on for businesses and managers.

However, in a working culture where employees are expected to ‘take one for the team’ and not question their superiors, workloads are often poorly managed and only reviewed when it is too late.

In fact, Qualtrics research shows that 79% of respondents in their survey of over 17,000 people across 26 countries feel “at or beyond workload capacity”. Considering this statistic in an area that is a leading cause of workplace stress, burnout looks more and more likely in the modern world unless companies change the way they operate.

What does burnout feel like?

As mentioned already, burnout is a mental state of exhaustion that results from being under excessive workplace stress. It manifests itself in a variety of ways regarding behaviour and feelings at work. These can act as warning signs to look out for in your teams or yourself. Let’s look at the ways that burnout can make us feel in our minds and bodies.

Emotional signs of burnout

People who are able to motivate themselves to do their jobs usually do so by finding meaning in their work. This inevitably includes having an emotional connection to it, be it a sense of pride at a skill they have or feelings of fulfilment and that they are achieving their purpose. But many people who experience burnout, experience a distinct lack of connection to their work as well as a lack of energy and motivation.
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This can include feelings of:

• Doubt in your abilities to do your job
• Not feeling connected to your work
• Having a negative approach to your performance or career
• Loneliness
• Wanting to give up

Physical signs of burnout

Stress manifests itself in the body as well as the mind, so people who are burned out are likely to have some physical symptoms too. These can include:

• Fatigue and tiredness
• Headaches or aches in the body
• Lowered immunity
• An inability to sleep
• Changes in appetite

Mental signs of burnout

Burnout is recognised as a syndrome by the WHO, and can have detrimental effects on your mental health. This can manifest itself through increased anxiety, an inability to focus and symptoms of depression in some cases. Burnout can manifest differently for many people, but it can be most commonly recognised when feelings of stress and anxiety make way for exhaustion and emptiness.

How can professionals avoid digital burnout?

Burnout is becoming more common amongst professionals, but this isn’t to say it’s an inevitable future. There are lots of ways that we can better manage work stress, and therefore avoid burnout. So now we’re familiar with what burnout is and how it can manifest itself in anyone’s professional life, let’s look at the ways in which we can avoid it.Avoiding burnout means being proactive about workplace stress from both an individual and company perspective. The company perspective is argued to be the most important area by psychologist Christina Maslach, whose work reveals that the work environment in which employees are in acts as a catalyst for burnout to occur. As a result, efforts to avoid burnout should start from organisations themselves.

Wellbeing programs and mental health support are little more than a gesture unless staff can access support in their professional lives. Toxic working environments are a key cause of burnout amongst professionals, so avoiding workplace stress must start at the top of a company.

We can see how management contributes to the issue of burnout with Gallup’s research into the causes of burnout. The five factors that were most highly correlated with burnout were:

• Unfair treatment at work
• Unmanageable workloads
• Lack of role clarity
• Lack of communication and support from manager
• Unreasonable time pressure

Many of these factors are relatively easy to combat from a management perspective. All it takes are small changes from management that make all the difference to staff. This alternative approach shows that burnout is more to do with how people are treated at work rather than an individual’s actions.

Taking a more human, holistic approach to people management has the potential to reduce burnout significantly by enriching the employee experience. And many companies are doing this well, especially in the wake of the coronavirus.

According to recent research by McKinsey, 80% of employees think that managers have been proactive in protecting the health and safety of their teams. And these employees who are satisfied with their firms’ handling of the pandemic are six times more likely to have a good sense of wellbeing in their jobs.

Research carried out by Achievers Workforce Institute found that many organisations struggled to engage their employees throughout the pandemic, with 40% saying they weren’t recognised for their work. They suggested that a lack of recognition ultimately leads to disengagement. And this feeling of disconnectedness and disengagement from work is a key cause of burnout, highlighting the importance of work wellbeing. Finding ways to engage employees means providing wellbeing resources and opportunities that work for them.

For example, large corporations like Adobe have taken a people-first approach to management. They’ve taken a tailored approach to wellbeing so that individual employees’ needs are met – no matter their background or living situation. They did this by segmenting their employees into groups and creating tailored wellbeing packages for them depending on their individual needs. Moves like this along with an extra day off each month to recharge saw their engagement rates actually rise over the pandemic.

It’s essential to recognise that wellness programs work well in theory, but they cannot be implemented in practice unless organisations and managers provide the space to make them happen. If an employee doesn’t have time for mindfulness or feels uncomfortable voicing their needs out of fear of being reprimanded or ignored, then the issue lies in the culture of the company.

What can we do as individuals to avoid burnout?

Whilst the root causes of burnout lie more in environmental factors; as individuals, we can put certain measures in place to help avoid burnout by effectively managing workplace stress. These revolve around setting the right priorities to protect your mental health and getting into healthy habits in regards to boundaries and work-life balance.

Set boundaries

Boundaries are an important practice to safeguard your sense of wellbeing and avoid feeling stressed. You can set boundaries with co-workers, managers, and yourself to better manage your time and energy and not feel overwhelmed or stretched too thin. Interpersonal boundaries often take the form of saying no if you feel uncomfortable or unable to take on extra responsibilities. When it comes to setting boundaries with yourself, this can take the form of sticking to a daily work routine that doesn’t leave you feeling drained and makes time for other areas of your life.

Achieve a healthy work-life balance

Setting boundaries with yourself and your job can create time for the other areas of your life, but having a healthy work-life balance is about more than making the time. It’s also about what you do with it. In your downtime, try to practice self-care, stay active and prioritise the things that bring you joy so that you can enjoy a full, balanced life.

Communicate with your manager

Creating a healthy workplace where workplace stress is minimised means practicing two-way communication between management and employees. There’s no way to make actionable changes to your schedule or job unless your manager understands what you need, so be vocal about how you’re feeling and your manager can then support you better.

If you do feel stressed or overwhelmed, be honest with your manager about how you feel and what you can achieve. It’s difficult to gauge people’s headspaces and capacity, especially while remote working. So being open and honest with management is vital for creating the optimal working environment.

Limit screen time

Burnout can be driven by the always-on digital workplace, so limiting screen time in your routine can be beneficial. This also aids in creating work-life balance and switching off from your professional life in a digital workplace.