Hi there,
I think we can all agree that the interplay between individual and organizational elements is a nuanced symphony that significantly impacts performance, job satisfaction, and overall well-being.
Understanding this complex relationship is crucial for fostering a healthy work environment and promoting sustained healthy high performance.
First Things First: Debunking the Most Common Myth about Burnout
The pressures of modern life, especially in competitive work environments, can create an environment where individuals feel compelled to keep pushing themselves without pause.
This constant pursuit of success without adequate self-care can lead to burnout, undermining productivity and our health and wellness.
In our society, there’s a prevailing belief that associates burnout with weakness or a lack of resilience.
We often feel the pressure to appear constantly strong and put-together.
Prolonged strength and resilience can, in fact, lead to burnout.
Most people think you get burned out if you are weak, or to use the corporate language, not resilient enough.
But the truth is, most of the time, you get burned out because you’ve been strong and resilient for a very long time.
If you’re reading this post, you most likely work in a stressful and demanding job with a lot of moving parts that make it feel like it’s always go-go-go, so you can see how without adequate self-care, you can burn yourself out (if you haven’t done so already).
3 Key Responsibilities of “Organizations” to Deal with Burnout
1. Creating a Psychologically Healthy Work Environment
Organizations bear the responsibility of creating a workplace conducive to employee well-being and healthy high performance.
The physical and psychological aspects of the work environment significantly impact performance and job satisfaction.
A well-designed workspace and positive organizational culture contribute to a healthier atmosphere and enable employees to become healthy high performers.
2. Setting a Realistic and Predictable Workload
Scientifically, excessive workloads are correlated with increased stress and burnout.
Organizations should try to strike a balance between challenging employees to promote growth and overwhelming them with unmanageable tasks.
Efficient workload management is crucial for sustaining high performance over the long term.
In most cases, implementing task management strategies and utilizing project management tools can optimize workload distribution and improve team efficiency.
There is no way to remove uncertainty from business or even life in general.
However, it is important to remember that our body and mind feels more safe and calm (and consequently works better) when they are dealing with fewer uncertain elements.
Although navigating uncertainty is a critical skillset for leaders, maybe the more important skillset for leaders is the ability to minimize uncertainty for their team members so that they can focus on their job better.
3. Offering Support Wellness Programs
There is no doubt that organizations thrive only when their employees thrive.
By going over and above the minimum EAP/EFAP programs and starting to offer more comprehensive well-being programs, focused both on physical and mental health initiatives, organizations can unleash their employees’ potential and increase their talent attraction and retention.
Additionally, organizational policies such as offering flexible work arrangements, remote work options or flexible hours, can potentially lead to increased job satisfaction and reduced stress.
3 Key Responsibilities of “Employees” to Deal with Burnout
1. Engaging in Self-Care Activities
Employees play a pivotal role in their own health and wellness.
Scientifically, engaging in physical exercise or body movement activities as well as mindfulness meditation can reduce stress levels.
By prioritizing self-care, employees contribute to their resilience, better equipping themselves to navigate the challenges of the modern workplace.
It is important to acknowledge that organizations play an important role in enabling employees to engage in self-care activities by setting reasonable workload and encouraging employees to disconnect from work after working hours to recover from work stress.
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2. Setting Healthy Boundaries
Establishing clear boundaries between work and personal life is very important.
Maintaining good work-life balance can lead to higher job satisfaction and lower levels of burnout.
Employees who set boundaries effectively are more likely to sustain long-term career satisfaction.
Implementing strategies like time blocking can help employees set realistic boundaries and enhance productivity.
It is important to point our that “boundary-setting” is easier said than done.
Some company’s culture encourages against setting boundaries by constantly asking for more and more and overstretching their employees.
Most employees can set healthy boundaries in a supportive culture, but employees are different in their ability to set boundaries in an Unsupportive work environment.
Besides the work culture, people who identify as perfectionists, workaholics, or people-pleasers usually have to go through a whole different battle to hold themselves back from over-commitment.
3. Seeking Support
Recognizing the importance of seeking support when needed is a strength.
Encouraging and supportive workplace culture values open communication and provides avenues for seeking support that is essential for employee resilience.
Although I listed this as a responsibility of each individual employee, organizations can positively influence this factor by offering internal “peer support” or “mentorship” programs.
Establishing these types of programs that are focused on social support within organizations can increase positive support seeking behaviors and facilitate employees’ professional development.
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Burnout Is NEVER Your Fault. It Can Be Your Responsibility
As I mentioned earlier, a common misconception surrounding burnout is the idea that it solely reflects an individual’s inability to cope with stress.
However, burnout is NOT a personal failure but a shared responsibility involving both the employees and their work environment.
What I am trying to say is that you should NEVER blame yourself for getting burned out. Even though you may have contributed to getting yourself into this mess, you didn’t do it singlehandedly.
Getting burned out is NEVER your fault. However, it can be your responsibility to protect yourself as much as possible and focus on your healing and recovery journey.
In conclusion, a deep understanding of the interplay between individual and organizational elements is essential for creating an environment that is conducive for healthy high performance.
Both employees and employers can contribute to creating this environment by recognizing and fulfilling their respective responsibilities.
Want to know how other professionals sustain their Healthy High Performance? Periodically, we bring a group of professionals together and offer an online course. If you are interested, you can click here to sign-up for its waiting list. We will send you more information on how to register for the program.
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