There are struggles that the workplace inherently presents to most people (whether that workplace is in the traditional office space or in the home) that can lead to the too-familiar-to-some feelings of burnout. As these struggles aren’t likely going to go away at any point (never mind anytime soon), it is important that you have strategies to help minimize their impacts.
Let’s go over a few things you can encourage your team members to do so they can accomplish this for themselves.
How to Help Minimize Burnout
There are a few ways that you can reduce the amount of burnout that you and your team experience. For instance:
Take a Moment and Refocus Yourself
Mounting pressure can easily take you off your game, which should be seen as a signal that it is time for a break. However, not all breaks are as beneficial as others. Rather than pulling up your social media feeds and mindlessly scrolling, try taking some slow, deep breaths and clearing your mind for a few minutes until you’re ready to return to full productivity. Properly recovering from these moments will help.
Build Communications Between Teams
You know the old saying, “no man is an island,” that refers to the fact that each and every person relies on the network of people around them? While it’s a pretty safe bet that John Donne wasn’t thinking of the modern workplace when he wrote those words back in the 17th century, the same concept holds true. It is important that your different employees and even departments have the confidence that they can rely on one another as needed, so establishing the precedent of communication is crucial.
Basically, you want to take it upon yourself to encourage your employees to work with one another at every available opportunity. Not only will this help to lighten the workload on the team as a whole, but it will help form bonds between your team members that will help to reduce the likelihood of burnout.
Pick Up a Low-Pressure Hobby
A major contributor to feelings of burnout is the tendency many have to take the pressures associated with work into personal time—after all, if you never get any relief from stress, that stress is going to wear down on you faster.
To resolve that, recommend that your team members pick up personal hobbies or pursue interests—anything that gets their mind off of work, really—as these kinds of hobbies can help you recharge your batteries.
Establish Procedures to Reduce Stress
One of the nice things about workplace processes is that they tend to largely be the same each time you carry them out. This means that these processes can be streamlined and ideally automated, taking pressure off of your team members and simplifying their workflows. Both of these effects can benefit workplace engagement and slow down the “burn” of burnout.
Fighting Burnout is a Prescient Business Need
If you aren’t actively working to keep your team engaged, burnout will almost certainly start to creep in and negatively impact your operations. In addition to the above efforts, the right IT can help to keep your team engaged and effective—and we’ll help you put them in place. Give us a call at 978-798-6805 to learn more about the business solutions we have to offer.
