- Burnout has been a concern for decades, but Gallup surveys show it is becoming more widespread
- Burnout rates spiked during the COVID-19 pandemic, and have persisted since, leaving firms perplexed about how to reduce workers’ chronic exhaustion
- Research from business schools shows firms that fail to offer flexibility to workers, as well as leaders who are absent and/or display vulnerable Narcissistic traits, drive burnout
Burnout has been a concern for decades, but Gallup surveys show it has become more widespread in recent years. In the UK, the Trades Union Congress (TUC) finds that work days are becoming more intense, with mundane tasks like answering emails spilling over into uncontracted hours.
A staggering 91 percent of workers in Britain have experienced high or extreme stress in the past year, according to Mental Health UK’s Burnout Report. The condition describes a state of emotional, physical, and/or mental exhaustion caused by prolonged stress, and the effects can hit people’s careers like a sucker punch. Mental Health UK reports that one in five workers has had to take time off to recover from it. And this figure does not count the others who choose the route of quiet quitting instead, when workplace stressors begin to outweigh employee motivation and commitment.
While recovery strategies are essential for employees experiencing burnout, prevention is preferable – not only to protect staff wellbeing but to ensure companies can retain and continue to gain the very best in staff skills. In short, business leaders need to become better equipped to understand and respond to employee needs.
As such, business school researchers have approached the issue from many different angles, revealing a complex multitude of factors that can raise the chances of people being exposed to more extreme or long-term stress.
Here are three studies that shine a spotlight on possible causes of burnout.
Failure to adapt and offer flexibility
Companies that fail to adapt and offer flexibility to their employees can lead to long-term decline, ending in burnout, according to research from Aalto University School of Business.
Nikolina Koporcic-Nietola, Academy Research Fellow at Aalto, finds companies that cling to overly rigid work arrangements foster emotional exhaustion, cynicism, and a diminished sense of personal accomplishment among their workforces.
“Effective burnout management depends heavily on leadership empathy, open communication, and a supportive organisational culture. Leaders play a pivotal role in shaping the mental health of employees and facilitating burnout prevention and reintegration.”
– Nikolina Koporcic-Nietola, Academy Research Fellow at Aalto University School of Business.
The blow to morale also strikes at a firm’s bottom line, with symptoms of employee burnout manifesting in decreased productivity, increased absenteeism, and higher turnover rates.
According to the research, burnout is a problem with no quick fix. The reason lies in the nature of the challenge: burnout is a progressive condition that must be resisted through continual, proactive measures to preserve employee health and organisational performance.
“Effective burnout management depends heavily on leadership empathy, open communication, and a supportive organisational culture. Leaders play a pivotal role in shaping the mental health of employees and facilitating burnout prevention and reintegration,” says Koporcic-Nietola.
A leadership vacuum during crises
If good leadership acts as a balm to burnout, neglectful leadership does the reverse. Research from Durham University Business School finds that leaders who go quiet during times of organisational crisis increase workers’ stress levels and the likelihood of them experiencing burnout.
Peter Hamilton, Professor in HR Management at Durham University Business School, collaborated with colleagues at three other UK universities to examine the importance of senior leadership absence during crisis scenarios, focusing on ICU nurses during the COVID-19 pandemic as a case study.
“During a crisis, team morale and maximum output are crucial, so team togetherness is essential. Leaders who don’t get stuck in potentially create a workers versus management environment, leading to toxicity, increased stress for workers and likely a diminished workforce.”
– Peter Hamilton, Professor in HR Management at Durham University Business School.
Their findings show that AWOL leaders encourage greater workplace toxicity, raising stress levels and employee turnover, in addition to pitting workers against management.
In contrast, frontline workers whose senior leaders were present and supportive during a crisis displayed a more positive attitude towards their ability to cope.
“During a crisis, team morale and maximum output are crucial, so team togetherness is essential. Leaders who don’t get stuck in potentially create a workers versus management environment, leading to toxicity, increased stress for workers and likely a diminished workforce,” says Hamilton.
The study suggests senior leaders’ presence is less about reducing the workload on frontline workers and more about a symbolic gesture to lift spirits. In high-pressure situations, leaders should be seen getting their hands dirty, as this allays suspicions of a “them-and-us” culture in manager-employee relations.
Narcissism in the workplace
While leaders in absentia allow the burnout to flicker through the workforce, leaders in superbia pour gasoline on the flames.
Vulnerable narcissistic leaders are especially likely to make employees irritated during crisis situations, research from NEOMA Business School reveals.
Birgit Schyns, Distinguished Professor of People & Organisations at NEOMA, examined data on workers in the UK education sector, also during the COVID-19 pandemic. Her findings are based on an analysis of weekly staff surveys, in which respondents detailed their levels of irritation and COVID-related anxiety, as well as their experiences with leaders in the workplace.
According to Schyns, who also teaches at Durham, such “vulnerable narcissistic leadership” is characterised by instability arising from a leader’s covert feelings of entitlement.
“Resources are often already stretched thin in crisis situations. Vulnerable narcissistic leaders strain them further, for instance by giving employees no guidelines on how to accomplish goals or blaming others for their own shortcomings.”
– Birgit Schyns, Distinguished Professor of People & Organizations at NEOMA Business School
She found that employees subjected to vulnerable narcissistic leadership reported greater levels of chagrin, and their pique worsened during weeks when they were exposed to higher amounts of this hubristic behaviour.
“Resources are often already stretched thin in crisis situations. Vulnerable narcissistic leaders strain them further, for instance by giving employees no guidelines on how to accomplish goals or blaming others for their own shortcomings,” says Schyns.
The study suggests robust HR practices that create a system of checks and balances for conceited leaders are an important step in protecting employees.
Across the board, these three studies demonstrate an urgent need for companies to rethink management strategies and practices for increasingly exhausted workforces. Leaders must not only be present but hands on in their work, empathetic to employees’ struggles, and willing to offer flexible solutions that facilitate a better work-life balance.
The BBC reports burnout rates spiked during the COVID-19 pandemic, yet far from fading as expected, they have persisted and worsened with time.
Now, five years on from the chaos of the pandemic, whilst most of the typical pre-covid normalities of our lives have returned they have done so with some modern updates. For example, we can do our food shopping at midnight from the sofa and have it delivered to our doors rather than spending our weekends trawling the supermarket aisles, we can attend events virtually rather than navigating the time and expense of the commute, or request virtual medical appointments and avoid the waiting room. We can keep in closer contact with friends and colleagues through video calls instead of phones and texts, we can study internationally from the comfort of our homes, and we can do all of this whilst fitting the 9-5 into our days – albeit sometimes not strictly between the hours of 9-5. Management must also reflect the same flexibilities and adaptations if it is to better fit with how the rest of our lives are structured.
Companies seeking to reduce levels of chronic exhaustion among their employees must view these statistics as an opportunity to take action, finding new ways of working rather than relying upon increasingly outdated practices.
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