Are your employees at risk of burnout? (Spoiler: statistically speaking, yes.)
Did you ever think about the risk your team faces from burnout? As an occupational issue, burnout is a serious challenge for employers and employees alike.
It’s also becoming practically an epidemic in Switzerland, with 21% of employed people noting that they feel stressed at work, and half of this population also identifying with emotional exhaustion, according to Helsana. The Swiss health insurance company also notes that there is no gender gap in these statistics about stress and emotional exhaustion, with an equal number of men and women making up the percentage. Another revealing fact is that work absences for psychological reasons have increased by 70% from 2012, and six out of ten of these absences are attributed to burnout or depression.¹
One of the most troubling aspects of burnout from an employer’s point of view is the long time out of work. The average length of the absence when it’s for psychological reasons is 18 months—twice as long as other illnesses. Collectively, this has resulted in costs of CHF 10 billion per year as of 2012 due to stress. One contributing factor is that patients are often assigned a 100% sick leave by their doctor, while continuing to work part-time might be a better option for both employer and employee.¹ One potential explanation for why this occurs is a lack of support and resources to truly help patients overcome burnout. Our programs work to provide immediate, lasting help that will allow your employees to regain their ability to work, and, indeed, perhaps never stop working to begin with. After all, by the time your employee has arrived at the doctor to declare their sickness, it is probably already quite advanced. We aim to reach your employees long before they reach the breaking point.
Taking a closer look
What exactly are the causes of this debilitating and troubling occupational ailment? According to a board member at Swica, we can look to “high deadline pressure, weaknesses in the corporate culture and the rapid change in the working world.” ¹This means that employers play a large role in preventing burnout—or increasing the risk of it amongst employees—as a result of the working culture. According to the World Health Organization, burnout is something that belongs directly to the working world and results from “chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed.” ² The organization has also officially listed it in its comprehensive catalog of diseases and their symptoms. Dealing with burnout in your company by adapting the working culture and providing support for your employees in the form of wellness programs is a win-win: you will prevent huge financial losses and your employees will feel much happier and at ease in the workplace.
Now that you understand the severity of the situation, you may wonder how to identify and prevent burnout for your team members in your own workplace. You can recognize burnout in your team members by the typical symptoms of cynicism, lack of energy and productive drive,³ and low self-esteem. The effects of this are clear: not only is the person with burnout deeply affected, the whole team will also feel the effect, too, as interpersonal relationships will suffer and working deadlines won’t be satisfactorily met. Not to mention, sick days will become more common as the affected person will struggle to find the energy and motivation to come to work. In addition to the psychological challenges, burnout also has a severe effect on the body, too, leading to symptoms like insomnia, headaches and digestive issues, according to the New York Times.⁴
This might sound bleak, yet a revival from a burned-out state is completely possible with the right tools and help. With our program geared toward addressing burnout, your team members will develop a greater sense of self-awareness, learn tools for mindfulness and relaxation and gain strategies to get their energy back.
One of the most important keys in a recovery from burnout is finding ways to restore the affected individual’s energy, and food can be an important component of this. That’s why our recovery from burnout program holistically addresses stress relief, breathing techniques, body-mind organization, and nutritional concerns. Additionally, because the body and mind are both affected by burnout and significant players in the recovery process, we share resources to shift the psychophysical landscape from one of despair and exhaustion to one of strength and rejuvenation.
Our program isn’t just a method for recovering from burnout, it’s also preventative, which means that it’s universally applicable for your team to both aid in the recovery of those who have reached burnout and prevent further cases of it.
The returns in preventing and resolving cases of burnout are immense, as your employees will not only perform significantly better, they will also feel more satisfied and purpose-driven at work. This allows team spirit to rise, as everyone works towards and reaches common goals.
Now that you understand what burnout is, why it’s important to dedicate resources to preventing or resolving it and what benefits it will bring to your team, are you ready to get started? Click the button below to learn all the details. We are very much looking forward to sharing our resources, strategies and exploratory exercises to help your employees find their way again.
Sources:
Steck, A 2020, Burnout: Arbeitsausfälle steigen auf Rekordhoch, NZZ Magazin, accessed 17 November 2022,<https://magazin.nzz.ch/wirtschaft/burnout-arbeitsausfaelle-steigen-auf-rekordhoch-ld.1533349?>.
World Health Organisation 2019, Burn-out an "occupational phenomenon": International Classification of Diseases, World Health Organization, accessed 17 November 2022, <https://www.who.int/news/item/28-05-2019-burn-out-an-occupational-phenomenon-international-classification-of-diseases>.
Maslach C and Leiter M.P., Understanding the burnout experience: recent research and its implications for psychiatry, National Library of Medicine, National Center for Biotechnology Information, accessed 17 November 2022, <https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4911781/>.
Dani Blum 2022, How Can I Tell if I’m Depressed or Burned Out?, The New York Times, accessed 17 November 2022, <https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/23/well/mind/burnout-depression-symptoms-treatment.html>.
