“The Return to Work”- Implications for Burnout and Wellbeing
Back to work... Return to the office... No more working from home... Hybrid approach. These are the words that have been touted to countless employees around the world in the past few months. For some, these words are associated with feelings of joy, relief, gratitude, and excitement. For others, they connote nervousness, anxiety, stress, and fear. With this in mind, there is a need to understand what this next change in our working habits means for burnout and employee wellbeing and how we can support our teams during this next working phase.
Now that the dust is settling on the last year and half of upheaval and change, there is a body of research we can refer to in order to understand how employee wellbeing has fared throughout this tumultuous time. A recent report by McKinsey found that since the COVID- 19 pandemic began, 42% of employees worldwide have reported a decline in their mental health. Gallup also report a global increase in employee worry, stress, anger, and sadness in this time. Moreover, simply hitting the reset button and returning to our old definition of ‘normal work’ does not guarantee an improvement in mental health, as 1 in 3 employees report that the return to work has in fact negatively affected their mental health. Only 19% of those who have not yet returned to their pre-pandemic working environments anticipate this having a positive impact on their mental wellbeing, compared to the 49% who believe the opposite to be true. A further concern relates to the increased likelihood of burnout among employees brought about during times of change. Clearly, the return to the office will have different implications for different people. For those who are concerned and who may struggle with this transition, what are the main worries and how can these be addressed?
Burnout – what is it?
“a syndrome conceptualized as resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed”
The word ‘burnout’ is often thrown around the media and workplaces – but what does it actually mean? The World Health Organisation (WHO) defines burnout as a “syndrome conceptualized as resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed”. Burnout can lead to feelings of exhaustion, reduced responsibility in the workplace, disconnect from work and decreased productivity. This is a mental health concern that only refers to a workplace context, so its presence and severity can have serious consequences for individuals, teams, and organisations. As such, burnout should be at the forefront of employers’ attention during this major transition back to the office. Pre-2020, 76% of employees reported experiencing burnout at least sometimes – now imagine if that many people (and maybe more) largely report that experience AT THE SAME TIME – brought about by the transition of the return to the in-person workplace... potentially a considerable impact!
Burnout, however, can be avoided, both at an individual and organisational level. If you sense yourself beginning to experience symptoms of burnout, speak to your employer and explain your concerns. You can then take steps to alleviate the pressure and stress you feel by temporarily reducing your workload, taking needed time off to focus on yourself and recharge your batteries (a great resource for physical and recharge strategies is Dr. John Briffa’s book “A Great Day at the Office”), being strict about creating boundaries between work activity and down time, and speaking to your colleagues about your stress or exploring different mental health options. There are no heroes in the battle against burnout – we all need comrades in this fight. Other ways to support your wellbeing include adopting new micro-habits, such as breathing work – top tip here is to try the Wim Hof method, which has proven to be a game changer for many of our clients! Pursuits such as yoga, meditation, exercise, and reading can also combat the build-up of work-related stressors that can lead to burn out.
“ 76% of employees reported experiencing burnout at least sometimes”
Supporting our own wellbeing to prevent burnout is an important starting point, and then considering how we as leaders or organisations can support our people navigate this minefield is the next call to action. Leaders and managers can adopt practices to support employee wellbeing in the return to the office by focusing on psychological and physical safety. This is particularly important in relation to individuals’ concerns surrounding COVID-19 and the transmission of the virus, which are some of the most commonly reported worries. Investing in visible care of physical safety, such as the installation of air filtration systems, providing on-site COVID-19 testing and consistently following/communicating all government guidelines, are practical ways to show that physical safety in a key priority. Taking things slowly through the adoption of flexible work environments and hybrid working arrangements, which allow employees to transition back to the office in their own time, can foster psychological safety by modelling care for individual circumstances in this context of change. Big caveat though – this can backfire if the organisation or you as leader are not keeping up communication and inclusion for those working remotely. Probably most importantly for leaders – what you model gets adopted. So, taking time off to mind your wellbeing, sharing your own feelings of burnout and how you are working through that and opening the conversation to listen to your team’s concerns surrounding burnout and the return to work are powerful steps leaders can take.
The Good News for Leaders
The good news is that implementing these measures to promote wellbeing and reduce burnout have huge benefits – at individual, organisational and societal levels! For example, employees who reported positive mental health effects after returning to in-person work were twice as likely to report being more engaged and present and they were three times more likely to report having more productive hours. Furthermore, the majority of employees who experienced negative mental health impacts after returning on-site reported that policies which increased workplace safety and flexibility of work could help reduce their stress, so these strategies do actually work! A meta-analysis of available evidence found that for every dollar companies spent on wellness programs, healthcare costs fell by about $3.27 and their absenteeism costs fell by about $2.73. So, helping employees navigate this transition back to the workplace, through stress prevention, mental health promotion and burnout avoidance can have multiple and multilevel benefits – worth considering as we bring our players back onto the pitch and return our teams to full energy champions.
