Dr Michael Leiter, a professor at the Centre for Organisational Research and Development at Acadia University, offers strategies for enabling employees to constructively engage at work and avoid burnout.

Many people experience burnout during their working lives. It can result in isolation, depression, lack of energy and loss of interest in life, and it is a growing problem.

Dr Leiter believes that there are three major reasons for employers to address burnout:

1. To reduce disability claims and have a positive impact on the company’s bottom line.
2. It is the employer’s moral and legal responsibility to assist the employee and to address the problems leading to the burnout, including abusive workplaces or unsafe work assignments.
3. Employees who bring creativity and focused customer relationships to their work make the difference between success and failure.

Preventing burnout is an essential part of building engagement.

Burnout can result in:

• Exhaustion - a chronic lack of emotion, cognitive, social or physical energy
• Cynicism - a lack of involvement or caring, physical or emotional distance
• Low efficacy - lack of confidence or sense of agency

Engagement is the opposite. It is energetic, dedicated, confident and connected with work.

Burnout is more likely to occur when there is little appreciation for an employee’s work, when the employee is passed over for advancement, or when the workplace has a level of incivility and disrespect.

The impacts of burnout are varied and Dr Leiter listed the following:

• Physical - hypertension, gastrointestinal disorders, sleep disturbances
• Psychological - anxiety, depression, lack of confidence, hostility
• Social - strained working relationships, withdrawal, incivility
• Organisational - absences, present he is, turnover, lack of interest in work
• Performance - stifled creativity, low organisational citizenship

Contributing factors  include:

• Excessive workload demands
• Tedium
• Offensive tasks
• Work interfering with personal life
• Insufficient control or recognition
• Poor sense of community (incivility, abuse)
• Injustice
• Losing confidence that core values are shared with the employer
• Unhealthy lifestyle
• Impulsiveness
• Workaholic tendencies

Fortunately, there are also ways for employees to avoid experiencing burnout. 

This can be done through prioritising work assignments, maintaining a healthy exercise and nutrition regime, gaining sufficient sleep, maintaining relationships and activities outside work, and through seeking positions which are aligned with the employee’s values.

The HR department can support employees through developing clear measurable outcomes, sharing control in decision-making, providing fair reward for performance, promoting workplace respect and ensuring that HR policies are aligned with management ideals.

Above all, the primary cause of burnout is a chronic mismatch of people with work. Preventing burnout means finding better alignments.

Dr Leiter's full webinar can be found here.