One of the biggest threats of every business team is burnout. This affects the quality of work, productivity and efficiency, and eventually the business itself. With that in mind, it is crucial to learn how to protect your team from burnout and allow them to work in a relaxing environment. The goal is to inspire and motivate, and burnout does just the opposite.
The danger of working overtime
Working overtime hours has both advantages and disadvantages. The positive sides are:
- Overtime hours are paid more;
- You get to finish more work, having less for tomorrow;
- Depending on your company, you can pile up hours of work and have an off day in the future;
- Employees who work overtime hours often get bonuses and recommendations from their bosses;
However, there are also downsides:
- Employees who work overtime are more tired as time goes by. This can result in physical and mental health issues, consequently preventing the person from coming to work. The company also suffers from an employee less at its disposal;
- Some people like to do their eight hours and go home; extra cash is not worth staying overtime. In that case, they will show a level of dissatisfaction if they must stay after hours to work;
- If working from home, overtime can happen quite often because you don’t have a sense that you are at work. Your personal and work life may blend, causing issues with time management in both;
- If a company must work overtime, there is a delay in schedule, and work is piling up. This is bad, and the company is spending more money on paying overtime hours, which can create financial issues if it prolongs for some time.
These adverse effects can cause burnout and seriously hinder employees’ efficiency and motivation. As a manager, your goal is to track and manage the overtime hours of your employees. If you start noticing some of the effects from the list above, react quickly before it is too late.
Balance the workload
As mentioned above, the need for overtime hours might be because of the increased workload on the job. Besides that, sometimes work assignments pile up, for one reason or another.
While some people thrive under these conditions, others might experience burnout because they cannot handle that amount of work. An excellent way to solve this issue and protect your team from burnout is to motivate your employees to track time.
This way, you will have full insight into how much time they need to accomplish the assigned tasks. If they are falling behind schedule, they might be under a heavy workload.
Understand the complexity of tasks
Assigning either overcomplicated or borderline tedious tasks to your employees can cause burnout. If they don’t feel they can do their assignments efficiently and deliver what you are asking, their motivation might drop. Similarly, if they feel like they could do more but are swamped with boring and mundane tasks, it can cause the same reaction.
The fact is that you probably have employees of different capacity in your team. By tracking the time they need to perform tasks, you will exactly know who fits into what category. Use that information to assign the correct tasks to every employee and give them the exact amount of work they can handle to deliver quality results without feeling overwhelmed.
However, understand that sometimes tedious tasks need to be finished just like everything else. Make sure to explain that to your employees, displaying a sense of compassion. They need to understand that you are aware of their capacity.
A hectic work environment can cause burnout
It is usually a good thing when new things start happening in the business. The company may be expanding, possibly moving to a new location, there are structural changes in the team, etc.
When this happens, people will feel a rush of energy everywhere around them. While new things are good, they may quickly overwhelm some people and drain their energy. They will feel as if too many things are happening around them, and they don’t know what to do first.
Again, almost everything revolves around efficient time management. If the company is moving or expanding, a time-efficient transfer to new headquarters is simply a must. Any stretching and delays could cause a lot of stress.
In the same manner, any structural changes in the company, or new projects, carry a lot of weight with them. Make sure that everyone is informed promptly. It is also essential to understand how much information you can share without bombarding them with new changes. You can use a time management app, pace yourself, and set realistic deadlines for all events.
Employees need control
The best way to protect your team from burnout is to give them control over their tasks and assignments. That may even be a better solution than to manage things for them. People like the freedom of organizing their work tasks. Unless there is a considerable amount of work that requires the management team’s assistance and organizational skills, let them handle their daily duties the way they see fit. As long as it does not affect the job, they should be able to plan their day.
If the nature of the job allows it, let them pick their working hours and set their deadlines. At the same time, track their efficiency and completion time to see if they are doing a good job. If necessary, offer advice to tweak their plans.
Protect your team from burnout by making sure they all take full vacation days
People who work and don’t rest enough will quickly burn out on the job. The final piece of advice that will help you protect your team from burnout is tracking their vacation days. Using an app that can manage vacation schedules is an excellent way to keep everything organized. If you feel that an employee needs a day or two of rest, act proactively and make it happen. Be there for your employees, and they will carry the business for you!
