Mark C. Crowley wrote an article titled Four Ways Leaders Can Help Prevent Employee Burnout.
« In 2015, Stanford Business School professors, Joel Goh, Jeffrey Pfeffer and Stefanos Zenios identified the top ten stressors in the workplace today (e.g. long hours, job insecurity, excessive job demands and low social support at work), and studied how they impact employee and organizational health and well being. Their conclusions were stunning:
“Stressful workplaces contribute to at least 120,000 deaths a year,” the researchers found, “and nearly 8 percent of the nation’s health care costs. Stress not only has a direct effect on employee health, it also induces unhealthy choices ranging from alcohol abuse, smoking and drug consumption.” (As confirmation, a JAMA study released in August shows that 1-in-8 American adults is now an alcoholic).
And it is companies, not just workers, that are paying a dear price for all of this. According to the Stanford study, by looking away from the effects of burnout, business leaders have unwittingly driven higher attrition, lower engagement – and a tremendous loss in productivity. “This is costing organizations upwards of $125 billion per year.” »
« Four Top Remedies For Workplace Burnout: »
« 1. Give People Back Their Productive And Renewal Time
Business leaders must accept that it’s time to restore a more humane way of working. This means providing greater clarity on when is an appropriate time to send an e-mail or text, and when work hours generally end. In the absence of these kinds of guidelines, leaders implicitly convey to employees that they must always be available. And this lack of clarity and thoughtfulness has proven to make people feel both resentful and overloaded.
Another essential fix is to limit time people can spend each week in meetings. By defining rules for when meetings can even be called (and when an email will suffice), you’ll not just hold fewer of them – you’ll give people back the productive hours many unnecessary meetings steal away. »
« 2. Ensure People Get Real Time Off »
« 3. Actively And Broadly Develop People»
« 4. Make “Caring About People” A Core Leadership Competency »
Mark C. Crowley is author of Lead from the Heart.
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