Alexandre Diard Often diagnosed too late, it is crucial to recognize burnout in oneself or others to prevent it and act as early as possible. Since burnout is a process, not a state, it is not necessary to hit rock bottom to recover. It is also important to remember that burnout affects all professions, not just high-stress ones.
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Burnout : Definition
Burnout is now considered the professional ailment of our century. To experience burnout is literally to “burn from within, to consume oneself.”
As Catherine Vasey, psychologist and author of “Burnout: Detect and Prevent” explains, “It is a slow wearing down that finds its roots in the professional environment.”
Burnout results from significant and repeated stress: the problem today is that urgency has become a way of life. Always connected, we are on alert 24 hours a day. As a result, the body is exhausted, and this underlying fatigue has a profound impact on morale, work, and health over the long term.
Frequently asked questions about Burnout
What is this illness ?
To prevent burnouts within your company, it is first essential to recognize the signs early on to take action, as burnouts are usually addressed too late. All your company’s employees should be aware so they can observe potential symptoms in their colleagues or themselves.
Burnout affects the entire working population, not just stressed executives. It occurs in all professions, including part-time workers. Understanding the causes of burnout and its consequences is the most effective way to avoid it.
Causes may include a lack of or excessive demands, insufficient recognition for work done, feeling mistreated, loss of social contacts, a sense of lost control, or a conflict of values. The consequences are numerous: severe fatigue, sleep disturbances, irritability, aggression, rumination, loss of concentration, as well as physical problems like respiratory pressure, headaches, and stomach pains. A telling sign among these symptoms is when this underlying fatigue does not go away with vacation, and the buildup of tension and stress resumes upon returning to work.
It’s also important to note that burnout rarely occurs in isolation within a company, as many factors are common across an entire company or department.
How can we improve our work environment to prevent it from happening ?
Once you know how to recognize the onset of burnout, learning to avoid it is crucial. There are many reasons for burnout because no single cause can explain it. It is a combination of factors that, individually, may seem harmless but, when combined, become too difficult to manage and lead to burnout.
At the company level, action should be taken on two main fronts:
The work environment must be healthy:
Burnout results mainly from stress factors but has severe physical consequences, such as pain, chronic diseases, sleep disorders, confusion, and cognitive impairments. Indeed, it weakens the immune system, which is why ensuring a sufficiently healthy work environment that limits immune system overloads (chronic infections by viruses, bacteria, or fungi, exposure to toxic products, pesticides, preservatives, heavy metals, etc.) is necessary.
Team cohesion must not be underestimated:
Burnout can be caused by a feeling of being left out, a lack of social belonging. To counter this feeling, the company must initiate efforts to strengthen team cohesion. Various solutions can be considered depending on the needs and budget of the company. These initiatives are not only useful for preventing burnout but also increase productivity and workplace well-being because the happier and more fulfilled an employee is at work, the more effective they are.
Among the simple solutions to implement, we can mention, for example, a weekly breakfast gathering the entire team, allowing everyone to get to know all their colleagues, not just those they usually work with.
The company can also organize after-work events, which allow colleagues to interact in a less professional setting, without hierarchy. Getting to know one’s superiors on a more personal level can help understand their professional decisions better, just as knowing employees personally can help understand their personal obligations and facilitate granted compromises.
How to better organize employee work ?
Since burnout is work-related, this is where the majority of efforts should be concentrated. It’s crucial to organize work well, set achievable goals, limit stress, recognize the work of the employee, and separate personal and professional life.
- Organizing work well involves clearly defining missions and explaining processes
It is essential to ensure that the employee has all the necessary resources to succeed in their missions and has a colleague or superior to turn to when encountering a problem.
- Setting achievable goals
This involves a challenging task because the goal must be stimulating professionally but not so challenging that it becomes unattainable. They must therefore be ambitious but achievable. One method to use is the SMART (Specific, Measurable, Acceptable, Relevant, Time-bound) methodology. It is important to remember that a goal is made to be adjusted as needed.
- Limiting stress and harassment
Stress or harassment are major causes of burnout. A CSA survey indicates that 72% of employees suffer from stress. It is therefore crucial to listen to employees’ objections and comments about their workload, the diversity of tasks assigned to them, etc.
It is also necessary to learn to manage stress to avoid falling into a negative spiral where the employee feels perpetually overwhelmed. Stress management training or coaching, which can be included in the company’s training budget, can be pursued.
Managing stress involves learning to de-dramatize situations, take a step back, and accept that one cannot always succeed in everything they undertake. It is also essential to be careful during recruitment regarding the candidate’s personality to avoid any value conflict, as this is a source of much stress and demotivation.
- Recognizing work, complimenting the employee
Regular interviews to discuss the progress of projects, assigned missions, and the type of mission the employee wishes to undertake or avoid are important because they motivate the employee by supporting them and showing that their work is necessary for the company. Showing them that they contribute to the company’s success helps give them a place within the company and reasons to continue moving forward.
One of the mistakes to absolutely avoid is forcing the employee to interrupt one of their ongoing projects, as this creates a significant sense of frustration. If you allow work freedom to your employee, ensure that the rules regarding time and money investment are clear, so they are not left destitute if the project is stopped. It is also crucial that the hierarchy respects the rules established at the start.
- Encouraging separation between professional and private life
Implicit messages like “staying late is a sign of motivation” should be avoided, as this is not a long-term solution! It is important for each employee to be motivated in their work, respecting breaks and disconnecting from work as soon as they leave the office. This encourages more full involvement the next morning.
On the other hand, staying constantly on alert reduces novelty, fulfillment outside of work, and the employee may tend to focus solely on their professional life. However, it is important to have other concerns (varied social relationships) to be able to better thrive in professional life.
To prevent burnout, dialogue must be opened, i.e., de-demonize the topic, not make it taboo so that those prone to burnout can be more easily spotted. By discussing, not being ashamed, accepting that burnout can happen, we can anticipate and solve it before it’s too late.
This discussion must take place at all levels, both with colleagues, a supervisor, or an HR manager. With colleagues, it’s necessary to talk about stress to realize that one is not alone in this situation and to feel supported. With a supervisor, there must be a climate of trust, being able to discuss difficulties to adjust goals if needed. All fear that some employees have when addressing their superiors—the fear of losing their job—must be eliminated.
What are the different phases during a burnout ?
Vigilance must be maintained throughout the process leading to burnout:
- The alarm phase, which is a manifestation of stress: healthy relationships between colleagues and the manager are crucial.
- The resistance phase, during which the metabolism adapts to the sensations of stress, the body becomes more resistant: one must not relax efforts thinking the problem is solved, it is important to keep the rhythm of one-to-one’s with superiors and with HR managers.
- The rupture phase, which triggers the reappearance of characteristic reactions to the stress of the alarm phase, but these reactions are then irreversible: all members of the company must be sensitive to this moment and react as early as possible, the intervention of a doctor or a psychologist is necessary.
- The exhaustion phase, which is characterized by a loss of psychological defenses and constant anxiety: once this stage is reached, medical appointments are mandatory to find a solution. In the event of an absence being necessary, the employee must not be abandoned but, on the contrary, be given the feeling that they remain a member of the company, so they can serenely reintegrate the company once cured.
In the interest of the company and the employee, anonymous questionnaires should be distributed regularly to employees to detect potential risk factors for burnout syndrome within the company.
How can we learn to manage a burnout ?
When burnout is diagnosed, there are three steps to follow:
Doctor’s intervention: it is the doctor who can establish a diagnosis, as it is important not to confuse temporary fatigue with burnout. Burnout is a state of general exhaustion, both psychological, emotional, and mental, and in the absence of treatment, the syndrome can lead to serious medical conditions like depression or somatic diseases. Among the examinations that the doctor will prescribe are a detailed anamnesis (questioning about the professional and family situation, which can lead to a meeting with a psychologist), laboratory analyses, and analyses of eating habits.
Follow-up by the company: it is important for the employee to feel supported in their company even if they must be absent temporarily, as this prepares their return to the company. The employee must feel capable of returning to work because they have the capacity to do so. It is therefore necessary to open the dialogue to determine what may have caused the burnout: work overload, lack of recognition, lack of work, lack of interest in missions, need for change, weariness, harmful atmosphere within the department, conflict of interest, etc. Meetings with different people (colleagues, managers, HR…) allow gathering as much information as possible about the real causes of the burnout.
Implementation of a new strategy: it is important that the entire company is involved in creating and implementing new measures. Burnout never occurs alone, so all departments must reflect on what could be improved within the company. Identifying “wear and tear spots” (tasks, situations, or people that create a sense of helplessness, heaviness, fatigue, draining energy) is therefore essential so they can be improved. Even the simplest efforts can significantly change the perception employees have of their company.
Burnout is not something to be taken lightly, especially since it is likely to occur again. Listening to employees and the occupational health doctor is essential.
How can we prevent it ?
Burnout syndrome can be prevented by sufficient sleep, a balanced diet, physical activity, and possibly meditation or relaxation techniques. Moreover, social contacts and their variety contribute to finding a better balance between work and leisure.
To prevent this syndrome, action must also be taken in the workplace:
- Know the main causes to avoid them (such as stress, overload or lack of work, conflicts of interest, lack of recognition…)
- Recognize the symptoms, both in oneself and in others.
- Open dialogue so that burnout can be addressed as early as possible, organize regular points to evaluate each employee’s work (amount of work, quality and diversity of missions, interest in missions…) and adjust each one’s goals.
- Actively participate in the company’s atmosphere: organization of breakfasts, lunches, after-works…
- Ensure that the company’s environment is healthy.
- Limit stress, identify wear and tear spots to improve them.
- Set achievable goals.
- Recognize the work of each employee, giving them a well-defined place in the company so they feel they are part of it.
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