“Just Don’t Call it Burnout”

A few months ago, a client asked me to build an Employee Experience assessment - with a specific section on "Burnout." It was at the height of the "Great Resignation," and like many companies this Enterprise Client was hoping to stop the hemorrhaging and put their finger on what was causing all the attrition. Our discovery call went something like:

"Hmm....Maybe it's BURNOUT??
Can you build us an assessment to know for SURE?
.....Oh, and please don't use the WORD "Burnout"
—We find that it's triggering"

I fought the urge to push back on her request, because, well….she was right. There is a lot attached to this word. And yes, we have a burnout problem — but we also have a burnout diagnosis problem. If everything is a cause and symptom of burnout, it becomes almost impossible to treat.

The term “Burnout” was originally researched and labeled by Christina Maslach and Susan Jackson in 1982 as a “syndrome” involving experiences of emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and reduced self accomplishment while at work. Since then, the term burnout has become so widely used to describe many types of stress that we no longer feel qualified to recognize or reduce its effects.

In fact, Gallup found that 76% of the global workforce has reported feelings of “burnout” at some point on the job. But how much of this is natural stress that comes with doing challenging work? Other (more rigorous) studies (McKinsey) show that 28% of the population are experiencing true burnout, and 32% more report having ‘moderate distress’ in their jobs. Either way, those experiencing true BURNOUT are 2.3x more likely to leave an organization and 8 times more likely if the burnout is caused by a toxic work environment.

So, where to begin? Every treatment needs a diagnosis. If “everything” can cause burnout — then treating it will become near impossible. In this issue, I break down the 4 major areas of Burnout. I explain the root causes of each; and I give actionable ways to help treat and restore the burnout. Each of these forms have remedies, but understanding the source and type of burnout is key.

ASSESSMENTS LOCATED AT THE END

Lastly, I’ve provided a list of questions at the end to help guide you and your team through both diagnosis and treatment of BURNOUT. And for the Premium Subscribers, I’ve included a link to my Scientifically-Valid and Reliable Burnout Assessment — so you can know your BURNOUT SCORES for each of the 4 areas. This will make diagnosis and treatment more efficient. Alright - let’s get into it.

Burnout - The 4 Areas - How to Fix

In asking which of the 4 areas of Burnout do people experience most, my informal survey revealed the following:

1. Physical Burnout (21%)
2. Mental Burnout (31%)
3. Attitude Burnout (44%)
4. Skill Burnout (4%)

Knowing what area of Burnout employees are experiencing can help shape leaders behaviors in addressing each. So, let’s dive into these 4 areas.

1. Physical Burnout - The Empty Tank Syndrome

Physical Burnout is better known as good ol’ fashioned “EXHAUSTION.” Much of my last newsletter focused on how your brain and body become depleted after long periods with no rest. This is true whether you’re out for a long run (cardio, muscle stress), or sitting in a long meeting that requires extensive concentration (beta wave stress). Simply put, your body and brain become depleted after periods of elevated stress and need to “rest” in order to restore. But are these stress responses leading to TRUE BURNOUT? Or just a stressful project - or season? Well, that depends on the KIND of stress and HOW LONG the stress sticks around. Let’s unpack.

Good Stress vs. Bad Stress

Not all stressors are created equal. There’s good stress and bad stress. Good Stress (eustress) = is a Difficult, Enjoyable Challenge. This is the 90 minute strategy session about an area of your job that you’re passionate about — it pushes you — but drives you toward rigor and excellence. Bad stress (distress) not only depletes your energy, but changes (literally, depresses) your mood and opens you up to other forms of burnout (more on that later). In negative stressful situations, as your mood drops, your body produces cortisol to buffer this mood change and keep you more balanced. (The Microsoft Study shown above would’ve benefited from measuring cortisol levels to determine whether back to back meetings were causing bad stress - or good stress. Although if I were betting, I’d put my money on negative stress). When cortisol is present and bad stress has ‘taken over,’ you no longer function in an optimal way — your brain continues to spiral until the source of the negative stress is removed. Whereas, with good stress, there is a sense of catharsis and accomplishment when the task is over, negative stress can remain in your system LONG AFTER that difficult conversation or frustrating meeting.

So keep in mind — STRESS in general doesn’t CAUSE burnout. But if the number of tasks you have in a given week are causing more BAD stress (pointless tasks, unsolvable issues outside of your authority) than GOOD stress (A Welcomed Challenge) you are likely on your way to burnout.

DURATION of Stress Matters

So, what if the stress just doesn’t seem to go away? What if your cortisol overstays its welcome? Is it possible to be stuck in a state of perpetual stress?? Sadly, you can — and it’s called Chronic Stress. On the other hand, when you experience a QUICK jolt of stress from a deadline you forgot about — or a customer hiccup that popped into your inbox and you need to drop everything to go fix it, we call that acute stress. Your body responds quickly and produces a surge of energy (and a cocktail of hormones) to help you focus on removing that thing off your plate. Ah, quick panic - but quick resolution. Your brain and body respond — fix the problem — then back to normal. But if the stress doesn’t go away because you’re working on a pointless project with no real value — or worse working on that project with a toxic co-worker, then you may be left with ongoing stress well before and after each interaction. Your brain and body elevate the stress response, but it never returns to normal — beta waves elevated, cortisol elevated, but no solutions. It’s like putting a car in neutral, and revving the engine for hours, days, weeks. Overtime, you will break down - you will burn out. In fact, the World Health Organization cautions us that these types of elevated “Chronic Stress” experiences, if not successfully managed, will lead to true Burnout.

Keep in mind that your body’s natural stress response heightens your mental, emotional, and physical systems so that you can efficiently remove the stressor and return to a normal state. But if you’re experiencing extended periods of stress, because you cannot remove the stressor, your stress response will remain elevated and you will not function normally.

When your body is in a state of chronic stress:

1. Relational skills to work with ‘different’ personalities are impaired
2. Attitude in maintaining an optimistic outlook drops
3. Mental state to think creatively and make decisions suffers

So, if you’re experiencing true physical EXHAUSTION - most likely it’s being caused by either Good or Bad Stress — and it’s not going away. So, how do we get back to our restored state?

What’s the FIX?

1. Rest. When the brain is in a perpetual state of exhaustion it will fail to brainstorm and create properly. It won’t handle conflict well. Your ability to empathize and listen to teammates will suffer. It is near impossible to create a healthy and thriving culture for you or your team if you’re at an elevated cognitive stress state. This means, you must rest not only for you, but for your team. So, take your 10 minutes to allow your lingering thoughts to land. Go for a walk. Reset your brain to begin its next activity. Be kind to yourself and your team.

2. Reprioritize. Work is work. We get paid to do hard things. We get that. But what KINDS of things are filling your day? Burnout occurs because the majority of our tasks deplete us, instead of challenge us. So, what is your ratio? If you’re finding that you cannot catch your breath, have an honest conversation with your manager about delegating, automating, or removing a number of your depleting tasks, so that you can focus and bring innovative quality to the challenging tasks that give you a stronger purpose.

3. Boundaries. If someone asks you to do work on a project that does not align with your primary role/responsibilities, ask them the following question: “What am I allowed to take off my plate to make room for this?” This is the healthiest way to communicate boundaries while still sounding like a team player. More on this as it relates to Role Clarity in the next section.

2. Mental Burnout - The Purpose Problem

Mental Burnout is a fancier way of saying you’ve “checked out.” Maslach and her research team identify this phase as the beginning of “DEPERSONALIZATION.” You begin to mentally DETACH yourself from your role — and your brain couldn’t be further from your daily actions.

Meaning has become one of the largest predictors of employee engagement, retention, and even revenue. Employees who can find meaning and purpose in their role will display far greater resilience during seasons of exhaustion and stress. But, if you combine unchecked periods without rest, unclear role expectations, and a vague corporate mission — you have a perfect recipe for mental burnout. (e.g., “Why am I doing this? What’s the point?)

The pandemic shook things up because it forced the “why does this matter” question. Millenials, for years, have been asking this, but the pandemic poured gasoline on this question. I’ve been studying the connection between Meaning, Purpose, and Employee Engagement for 4 years across hundreds of organizations and one of the most valuable findings I’ve seen is that:

Purpose and Meaning are the loudest voices in the Choir
when it comes to predicting Employee (dis)Engagement.

68% of the reason an employee is engaged is because they have found—or have been convinced—that their role has purpose and meaning. And while I often hear from leaders that “creating meaning for employees isn’t actionable,” I’d love to break down the 3 Metrics I use to measure and increase meaning for teams:

The 3 Metrics of Purpose

1. Purpose = (macro) is the direction-headed or intended Destination of a Company (or role). Similar to a “Vision” - an organization is responsible for developing and communicating what they do and where they are headed. If the company and the person are “headed” in the same direction, you likely have an employee with strong purpose. **Be sure to include: Values and Differentiators in your company’s purpose for your employees.

2. Meaning = (micro) is the significance an employee sees in their role. Employees may not see this immediately upon joining a company. The most successful leaders will draw clear connections between where the company is headed and how an employee’s day to day tasks and responsibilities are a crucial part of that journey.

3. Role Clarity = 61% of employees do NOT know what is expected of them in their role. No wonder why we’re mentally checked out. We’re not completely sure what we’re supposed to be doing, let alone tying those responsibilities to a greater purpose.

What’s the Fix?

1. Communicate The Mission to Your Employees. Companies are great at crafting stakeholder goals and revenue projections. This isn’t that. Create and Communicate who you are, where you’re headed, and what makes you different than the others. Then over-communicate that to everyone who works there.

2. Connect The Purpose to the Employee Role A great leader understands and can communicate the big picture to their employees. Consistent 1 on 1s that continually remind the employee of the impact their work has on the organization will exponentially boost meaning. It’s also a chance to uncover passion projects that your employee is primed to take on — again boosting meaning for them.

3. Clarify The Employee Role - “Scope Creep” - a client of mine used this term several weeks ago - and I love it. Has the scope of your work “creeped” since the pandemic? Has it gotten larger? Are you doing completely different tasks than you once were, but still stressing over old tasks that you were hired to do? When was the last time you’ve revisited your job description with your manager? With your direct reports? It is impossible to connect the significance of your role to the purpose of your organization if you don’t have complete clarity on what is expected of you.

3. Attitude Burnout - The Recognition Problem

People Want to Feel Seen

More than just “mental spacing” due to lost meaning and purpose at work, some employees may be suffering from Attitude Burnout —when an employee develops feelings of disillusion, cynicism, and even resentment due to feeling undervalued and under appreciated in their current work. In conducting an informal survey with my LinkedIn Network, I noticed that Attitude Burnout (44%) was the most common form of burnout reported. The root cause of this is explicitly tied to the communication behaviors of leaders in the organization. It may be surprising to note that a recent study showed that the average leader is 10 times more likely to be assessed as “under-communicating” to their team members, than “over-communicating.” In this case, no news is bad news. People need to know how they are doing - both constructively AND positively. Bottom line, this form of burnout stems from the lack of recognition, and solving it might be the most actionable. 

What’s the Fix?

Recognizing employees is one of the biggest ways to boost morale, engagement, and performance. We can do this in 2 major ways: Money and Words. While not every manager has the power to increase salaries to where employees would like them, they DO have the ability to communicate and show recognition and appreciation to everyone they lead. So, let’s examine some guiding principles on impactful ways to show appreciation to team members.

1. The Who: The messenger matters. While we love hearing positive feedback from colleagues, when a leader drops public praise to an employee - it hits different.

2. The When: Timing is everything. If you’re delivering appreciation make sure it’s not sandwiched between two constructive pieces of feedback. Deliver it on it’s own. Let it sink in.

3. The Where: Not everyone enjoys public appreciation, many do. Find out and deliver accordingly.

4. The What: Details matter. Generic forms of appreciation are rarely remembered. (and please can we stop blanket-calling people Rockstars? 😉— unless of course you’re the manager for an up and coming independent music group.) Instead, be specific - what action did they do recently that warrants a call out. Show them you see them. (e.g., “In yesterday’s meeting - you did so well to include input from everyone -seriously, you went around and made sure each person gave feedback- I really appreciate how inclusive and thoughtful you are with everyone on this team.”) The true remedy for Attitude Burnout is feeling seen.

4. Skill Burnout - The Toolbelt Problem

The speed of business seems to be moving faster and faster. From predicting the future of work by mandating RTO policies or leading hybrid teams; to picking out the right A.I. tools and deciding which trends to focus — the speed of business can be exhausting for many and, in particular, to those in people leadership. Skill Burnout refers to the feeling of inadequacy due to believing that they don’t have all of the skills they need to be the best they can for those they lead. It’s not the most common form of burnout experienced, but it is still affecting many. So, I want to give some practical tips on how best to address this:

What’s the Fix?

1. Skill/Self Discovery. Sometimes we find ourselves in roles that don’t complement our skillset. Not to say we shouldn’t grow in various skills, but often the default advancement for a high-performing individual contributor is management. But, performing well and empowering others to do that same thing well — are 2 very different skillsets. (e.g., Selling vs. Leading a Sales Team). New leaders should assess what people skills they may currently have — and which ones are lacking. Then, off to go develop.

2. Professional Development - Now, go develop more skills. And spend more time and investment than you originally thought. Keeping in mind, in the next 5 years, A.I. will change 25% of the jobs that currently exist. Read that again.This means that roles will shift, evolve, and the leadership skillsets needed for these changes will change as well. The important takeaway here is that A.I. won’t steal your job, but the person who knows how to manage the tools WILL steal your job. When someone is feeling Skill Burnout - this is a sign - to pause and invest in yourself.

3. Autonomy - Now, go practice in your own way - on your own rhythm. Leaders, be patient and show grace to yourself. Mastery comes from repetition and “failing forward.” Show that same patience and autonomy to your team as well. If you’ve invested in your team members, this will take time for them to gain the confidence in the new skills. Much of the burnout in this area comes from self-doubt and a lack of confidence, so once the new skill is fresh, you will need to allow time and autonomy for it to solidify.

Let’s Assess -What’s Your Burnout Score?

What gets measured gets managed. You will not be able to prevent and restore burnout if you do not know which type of burnout you or your team is experiencing. So, I want to provide you with a qualitative questionnaire (free subscribers) to help guide you during your 1 on 1s with your teams — but also a scientifically valid and reliable survey (premium subscribers).

Okay - here it is! The definitive scientifically-valid and reliable Burnout Assessment. Uncover your scores on each of the 4 AREAS of BURNOUT — for you and YOUR TEAM - Use this link to assess your own scores — then send the link out to the teams you manage. Have them bring their scores with them during your next 1 on 1s to get a better grasp on whether they rank HIGH/MODERATE/LOW on each of the 4 areas.

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