The American Institute of Stress estimates that 33% of individuals have very stressful lifestyles. These high-stress levels are mostly caused by the economy, politics, and interpersonal issues. Still, it’s difficult to ignore the detrimental effects that employment at a job may have on people’s mental health.
Approximately half of the employees say they need help to learn how to handle stress, while a staggering 80% of workers claim they feel stressed out at work. Additionally, 63% of US employees are prepared to leave their employment to reduce work-related stress, which is a worrying number for company owners.
The crisis of employee burnout
Employee burnout is “a unique sort of work-related stress – a condition of physical or emotional weariness that also encompasses a feeling of limited achievement and loss of personal identity,” by Mayo Clinic.
Even though just a tiny portion of the population may seem to suffer this severe stress, an Indeed poll found that employee burnout is far more common than you would think, with over 52 percent of respondents exhibiting symptoms of this disease. This is terrible news for employees, but it’s also bad news for businesses, which must deal with issues like decreasing productivity, disengagement, and lower employee retention rates brought on by burned-out staff.
Additionally, 36% of workers think their companies aren’t doing enough to reduce workplace stress, which makes them unhappy and might harm their health. In light of this, we’ve put up a list of four easy tips that businesses may implement to assist in lowering employee stress and fostering a happier, healthier, and more productive workplace.
Encourage a good work-life balance.
Unfortunately, our culture has reached a stage where it glorifies workaholics and denigrates those who want to relax. We set our standards by the ultra-rich billionaires who claim to barely get four hours of sleep a night and get up at three in the morning. Simply said, for the great majority of us, it is not possible. Furthermore, many businesses are guilty of leaning into these exaggerated expectations and subjecting their employees to unwarranted stress.
A better work-life balance should be encouraged for your workers if you are a company owner or manager. Naturally, this will mean various things to various individuals. However, the objective is to provide a setting where employees can balance their obligations at home and work without feeling much strain.
Encourage workers to utilize their vacation time as one easy way to do this. Due to a hard workload, a lack of work coverage, or a concern about being seen as replaceable, 52% of US employees fail to make use of all of their paid vacations, according to the US Travel Association’s Project Time Off.
Include more breaks
In line with the previous statement, you cannot expect people to work continuously without taking frequent breaks. Unfortunately, many businesses provide only one or two breaks each day, and they often only provide the legally required minimum (often unpaid).
Instead of adopting this outdated perspective, think about scheduling constructive breaks throughout the day. This may be a great strategy to reduce stress and improve team engagement and cooperation. If you need inspiration, consider planning a team-building exercise or table tennis competition at work. You could even play a board game like Scrabble together.
(Psst. If you need a helping hand, try unscrambled-words.com to help you locate new terms to beat out your coworkers in the boasting stakes. Remember that just though these breaks are intended to relieve tension, it doesn’t mean you can’t be competitive during them.
Provide remote working options
Remote employment has grown commonplace across several businesses since the epidemic. Employers had to find new methods to continue operating without having employees physically sit at their offices since millions of people were confined to their homes. In general, this seemed to be a great success, leading many company owners to opt for a 100% remote staff to save expenses.
As there are fewer distractions and they are free to schedule their task around other obligations, remote work has been demonstrated to boost productivity and lower employee stress levels.
Make sure that job responsibilities are specified.
When people experience job role instability, it is one of the primary causes of burnout at the office. Employees often feel uncertain about their job obligations, which adds extra strain and anxiety. This may be caused by poor communication, bad management, or a chaotic work atmosphere. Additionally, it makes things even more difficult if workers feel they can’t ask for help or acknowledge they don’t understand their tasks, particularly if you punish them severely for subpar work.
You must thus make every effort to reduce job ambiguity inside your organization. To do this, establish precise goals for each employee so they know what is required of them at all times. Additionally, you should establish a two-way communication line so that staff members may voice any issues or questions.
To sum up
Burnout is not only unpleasant for your employees, but it also lowers productivity at work. Additionally, if your staff members are not satisfied, they may likely quit your company, which would pose major problems for your business. Given this, it is your duty as an employer to do all in your power to reduce the possibility of employee burnout by encouraging a better work-life balance and creating a more laid-back workplace.
