A big topic on everyone's minds recently is employee burnout. How do you prevent it? How do you recognize it? What do you do about it? Employee burnout can cause a loss in productivity, increase in sick days, and a decrease in employee morale. 

Lead By Example

Are you constantly emailing your team at 9pm on a Saturday? What about wearing your all nighters as a badge of honor? We all know that these, along with not taking your vacation days, are a recipe for burnout. If your employees constantly see you pass over taking vacation days or come into the office when you have the flu, they may start to think that that is the expectation for all employees. While as a manager you may have responsibilities that can keep you in the office longer, try to lead by example to prevent burnout. Communicate with your employees what the expectations are for taking time off and what the expectation is for checking email while out of the office. 

Recognize the Signs 

Another way to prevent employee burnout is to educate yourself on the signs of it. By knowing the common signs of burnout, you can recognize it early in your employees and get ahead of it before it becomes a major problem. If you begin noticing signs in nearly all of your employees, it may be a sign of a larger problem with your company culture and expectations. Learn more about developing a good company culture here.

Evaluate Your Expectations

Do you expect your employees to be on-call 24/7? If you send an email at 7pm on a Sunday, do you expect a response? While there may be times when you need to contact employees outside of normal work hours or need them to be on call, evaluate if this needs to be an all the time thing or if it can be an exception. If your business needs someone to be on-call on weekends, consider making a schedule and having employees rotate who is on-call so it doesn't fall on the same person every week or everyone when one person would suffice. 

By recognizing the signs and having open conversations with your employees, you can help prevent employee burnout. What steps does your company take to prevent burnout?