Battling Burnout Is Key to Employee Well-Being.

• Author: Ziegler, Katie

Two years and counting since the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic, workplaces still grapple with what the new normal looks like.

How should they support their employees' well-being? Which of the changes implemented due to COVID, such as flexible scheduling and remote work, should continue?

Employees are paying attention to the answers. A Gallup poll in February of this year found that fewer than 25% of workers "strongly agree" that their employer cares about their well-being. At the height of pandemic lockdowns in May 2020, nearly 50% strongly agreed that they felt cared for. Gallup notes that employees who feel that they are cared for and supported by their workplace are about 70% less likely to be seeking a new job or experiencing burnout, and are three times more likely to be engaged at work.

How can workplaces demonstrate that they value employees? An important way to support workers is to recognize the signs of burnout and understand how managers and co-workers can foster a caring workplace environment.

"Burnout is a word that gets thrown around a lot," says Brian Baird, a clinical psychologist and former congressman from Washington state. "People say, 'Oh, I'm really burned out.' But there are specific factors that researchers define as the areas of burnout."

Baird told an NCSL web meeting that workplace burnout can manifest as symptoms in one or all of three main areas: exhaustion and lack of energy; alienation from work activities and feeling numb; and reduced performance of tasks. These symptoms can lead to "a sense of loss of meaning in the job: 'I'm not sure I feel that this job is satisfying or purposeful to me anymore,'" he said.

'Not an Either-Or'

"Burnout is not an either-or, it's not like a switch gets thrown. It is a collection of experiences and attitudes and reactions you can have somewhere on a continuum. You can feel some degree of burnout or no degree of burnout," Baird said.

Factors in the workplace that contribute to burnout include unclear performance expectations; demand that exceeds available resources; lack of ability for employees to share ideas and concerns horizontally and vertically; and lack of recognition for effort and achievement.

"As a team leader, if you look at factors that contribute to burnout, you also have a road map of factors that, if you address...