Employee Burnout, how managers can help employees (and themselves) cope better
This is part three of my series on managing employee burnout. I think it is essential that we also address ineffective leadership styles and teach our managers and supervisors how to support employees in the field. As a former manager and program director, I am aware of the competing responsibilities many managers have of providing support and making sure employees are doing their jobs and meeting deadlines and budgets of agencies. First, let me say it is essential that you yourself regularly engage in and encourage your employees to practice self-care. When it comes to the DBT skill focused on reducing vulnerability to emotional reactions (i.e. increasing burnout)this means making sure you are taking care of any physical symptoms, eating a balanced diet, exercising regularly, avoiding mood altering drugs and alcohol, and getting enough sleep. Even as I write this I am laughing because as a mom of three kiddos five and under, many of these can be tough to obtain. But, one can start small by adding more fruits and vegetables into their diet, taking a walk daily, or starting a regular routine to help you sleep better at night. This helps to improve your mood and physical well being. At my previous place of employment, we had a step challenge which got extremely competitive and borderline ridiculous. Is it bad one of the reasons I felt relieved the day I got laid off was because I didn’t have to continue trying to meet the impossible goal of 30,000 steps a day? I digress, but managers and supervisors that engage in and encourage their employees to engage in regular self-care can help restore balance to life in this crazy time.
Another way managers can help support their employees is by listening to them and actually providing support instead of adding to their burden. I had a client who recently told her supervisor she was struggling to meet the daily requirements on her due to her small child being home all day. Instead of working with this employee to problem solve, the manager started requiring more daily meetings and put her on a corrective action plan. This just made the employee (of course) feel like she was being punished and pushed her closer to the emotional edge. Why not explore the barriers to getting her work done and come up with some solutions, such as putting together a more reasonable schedule and helping her out with some of the responsibilities she is struggling with? Managers are really missing the mark on this as all this does is reduce motivation and drive to produce quality work.
Another surefire way to reduce burnout is to reduce micromanagement of employees. By spending so much time and energy making sure employees are on the clock from 8a-5p, why not give employees the benefit of the doubt? If particular employees are not getting their assignments done, then help them with time management and to explore barriers to this, but if an employee is getting their work done and is a salaried employee, cut them some slack and give yourself a break as well. I know I am speaking in general terms and every job has different duties and requirements, but as a former director and a former employee, I know that feeling micromanaged and distrusted is the surest way to send me packing my bags and looking for another job ASAP.
Be a decent human being first and a manager/supervisor second. I know, I know this seems like common sense, but so often we get caught up in making sure we are meeting our budgets and requirements, we forget that we are human and so are our employees. This makes me think of one of the 7 habits from The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, “seek first to understand, then to be understood”. In DBT we call this willingness vs. willfulness. Whatever you want to call it, be willing to understand where your employees are coming from and don’t make assumptions without trying to understand first. Now, if the employee really is lazy and unmotivated, maybe you need to start looking at and improving your hiring practices. But, in these hard times many people are struggling with issues you might not be aware of. When I was pregnant last year, I became really upset with the OB coordinator because I found her to be rather short and invalidating. What I learned much later is that her son had died in a motorcycle accident on her birthday and she was not in a good place emotionally. Had I known this during our interaction, I definitely would have treated her with much more understanding and empathy. The bottom line is, you never know what someone might be struggling with unless you ask. Similarly, you never know what might motivate someone to do better unless you ask. So let’s start asking how to help and stop assuming we know how to fix a problem.
If you enjoyed this article and want to learn more about me or are interested in learning more strategies to help yourself and your employees, feel free to contact me by clicking the link below:
My website is marlarstarneslcsw.com
