👥 Serves: 1 person, 11-25 people, 2-10 people, 26-40 people, 41+ people

🎚 Difficulty: Medium

⏳ Total time: Ongoing

🥣 Ingredients: An open mind

🤓 Wholebeing Domains: Community, Discomfortability, Liberatory Learning

💪 Wholebeing Skills: Accountability, Agency, Boundary setting, Equity, Fairness, Liberation, Relating to Others, Stress management

👣 Steps

Step 1 – Understand the root causes of burnout (15’)

Burnout experts Christina Maslach, Susan Jackson, and Michael Leiter identified six main causes of burnout. Understanding them can help you recognise which causes may be impacting you and how to prevent burnout for yourself and your team.

1. Unmanageable workload: Consistent over-working can lead to burnout. Sure, most jobs often experience busy times or periods where you are working extra hours. This is often compensated by regular periods or “easier” months which allows your mind and body to reset. However, if your work is consistently high pressure and stressful, it can become problematic without the right measures in place. This is also true for job expectations. If someone is not adequately trained or unable to fully grasp their job roles, they can become easily stressed and struggle to prioritise tasks.
2. Perceived lack of control: It is important to feel a sense of control, autonomy, and choice in your day-to-day work. Shifting priorities, monotony in your tasks, lack of autonomy in your role, and feeling micromanaged are all exhausting and can lead to burnout. 
3. Lack of reward or recognition: Motivation is an important driver for people. When it comes to work, there are two types: intrinsic and extrinsic. Intrinsic helps you to keep going as it offers you a sense of personal validation. Extrinsic motivation comes from rewards such as adequate pay or time off. If your work doesn’t provide you either, it is easier to experience burnout. 
4. Poor relationships: When morale is low within a team, it can be contagious. It is also challenging to work closely with others when you don’t have a sense of community and collaboration is not valued. Most people do their best work when they feel valued and appreciated within the community. 
5. Lack of fairness: Within an organisation, employees want to enjoy a culture that is fair, honest, open, and respectful. If employers are not being heard, or there is secrecy, unfair favouritism, and/or budget cuts that impact the staff, it can quickly lead to burnout. 
6. Values mismatch: What is important to you? What could you not live without? Do you value having enough time to finish tasks? Do you value flexibility/remote work? If a company’s values aren’t aligned with you, this can result in burnout.

Step 2 – How to address unmanageable workload

As an employee:

• Let go of perfectionism with our recipe “Coping with unhealthy perfectionism”.
• Assert strong boundaries – say no to new projects or tasks that you cannot take on. Check out our recipe “Drop the to-do list guilt” for guidance.
• Prioritise your tasks and delegate others to relevant team members. Also consider our recipe “Done list” to change your approach to to-do lists.
• Take your lunch break away from the desk.
• Turn off your phone at the end of the workday. For additional tips, read our recipe “11 ways to improve digital boundaries”.
• Work on time management with our recipes “Tips for time management” and “Pomodoro© Technique for wellbeing”.

As a manager:

• Check-in with your team regularly. Consider building in regular check-ins at the start of meetings or workweeks. An example of such practices can be found in our recipe “EQ check-in”.
• Ensure your team is taking lunch breaks away from their desk. 
• Respect and support boundaries.
• Offer training for time management, priorities, and managing stress.

Step 3 – How to address perceived lack of control

As an employee:

• Feeling like you lack control will require a conversation – followed by action. If, for example, your manager is constantly changing the priority of a task and treating new problems/challenges/tasks as a high priority, you should discuss with them this changing priority and how it impacts your ability to work. Try to work together to discuss alternative methods while remaining as flexible and as open-minded as possible. However, do not agree to something you know will cause stress later down the line. Whatever agreement you come to, continue to follow up on the action made by the employer.

As a manager:

Consider the following techniques to ensure you are working with the team to tackle burnout related to a perceived lack of control:

• Ensure the team has a say on how tasks are completed, how problems are tackled, and the pace of their work. Our recipe “Creating the right work spaces” shares some tips on useful practices. And for a powerful format to include everyone in the conversation, check out our recipe “Council circle”.
• Ensure workers feel they have the necessary skills required to be successful and to reach their long-term goals. If skills are lacking, allow for opportunities for development/training/growth. You might wish to invite a wider reflection on learning with our recipe “Learning how to learn” or help employees identify their assets with the “VIA Character Strengths” recipe.
• Use 1:1 meetings for team members to share the way they like to complete their work, instead of just focusing on performance.
• Ensure team members have autonomy over their days and job and allow for flexibility. Have you considered shortening the workweek? Read our recipe “Creating a 4-day workweek” for inspiration.

Step 4 – How to address lack of reward and recognition

As an employee:

• Consider, what will make you feel valued and respected at work? 
• Discuss a promotion with your manager – do your market research beforehand so you share what your value is! 
• Take advantage of your organisation’s benefits – whether financial, such as pension contributions, emotional, like discounted therapy, or physical, including discounted sessions.
• Share your ideas on how you would like to be rewarded for hard work/contributions.
• Enjoy your paid time off regularly, without guilt.

As a manager:

• Arrange a day out for the team, where they are away from the office enjoying a meal/event out regularly.
• Send out a survey to team members to determine how they prefer to be praised – is it with a gift, a meeting shoutout, or time off? 
• Reward team members regularly and with priority.We have a lot of gratitude-based activities that you might want to try out: “Gratitude bingo”, “Gratitude fountain”, “Gratitude walk”, “Sugar cubes”, and “The gratitude alarm”. 
• Ensure there is sufficient and relevant support and benefits for the team.

Step 5 – How to address poor relationships

As an employee:

• Connect with your team through regular face-to-face and/or online meetings to discuss events outside of work. A few suggestions for activities: “36Qs for increasing closeness”, “Connecting through music”, “Empathic conversations”, “Positive introductions”, and “The life map”.
• Praise your teammates after a stellar presentation or task performance. Or why not turn “gossiping” into a positive and rewarding experience? Find out more in our recipe “Positive gossiping”.
• Bring in treats such as home-made baked goodies for special events.
• Take regular tea/coffee breaks.
• Enjoy team walks outside. 
• Celebrate and acknowledge cultural events/dates/festivals. 
• Do something kind for a team member – some inspiration can be found in our recipe “Inner happiness”.

As a manager:

• Foster an inclusive and diverse team that prioritises the voices of everyone. 
• Facilitate sessions outside of the workplace that focus on collaboration and fun, such as a “Collaborative painting” jam, a “Community bingo”, or the creation of “Zines”.
• Offer free weekly yoga/meditation sessions. 
• Create a workspace where the team must collaborate regularly with one another. Check out our recipes “Action learning set”, “Collaboration questions”, and “Wicked questions” to spark ideas.
• Arrange thoughtful gifts for team members.
• Encourage group lunch sessions.

Step 6 – How to address lack of fairness

As an employee:

• Discuss how you are feeling with your manager.
• Ask to have your name added to a report you put work into, if it was not included.
• Ask to be a part of different presentations.
• Ask for additional training sessions to grow your skill set.
• Ask for a variation in your shift times.

As a manager:

• Be aware of any biases. Did you consider how bias might impact performance evaluations, for instance? Read our recipe “Identifying bias in performance evaluations” for guidance. Or how women of colour might experience micro-aggressions on a regular basis? Find out more with our recipe “Stopping micro-aggressions for women of colour in employment”. Or the impact of words on mental health? Check out our recipes “Talking mental health in the workplace” and “Words matter”.
• Treat staff equally and respectfully. Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) require constant work and we have a few recipes to support you: “5 steps towards ‘critical wellness’ to overcome racism”, “Gender equality through a norm-critical workplace”, “Including and empowering women of colour at work”, “Privilege walk”, and “The DO’s and DON’Ts of allyship”.
• Keep an honest and open workspace.
• Have the wider team involved in decision making.

Step 7 – How to address mismatched values

As an employee:

• You will want to reflect on what values are important to you. Consider questions such as, what values do you respect? Why? 
• Try and guide your team/smaller group with the values that mean the most to you.
• Practice gratitude and deep listening to your colleagues to understand their values. Try out our “Active listening” or “Cultivating presence” recipes.
• Don’t be afraid to boldly speak up about your values, and speak up for what is right.
• If at the root the values of the organisations simply do not alight with you on a deep, personal level, it may be time to consider seeking alternative employment that is more aligned with what’s most important to you.

As a manager:

• Share the company’s mission/values and ensure all work is in line.
• Have open discussions about values, morals, and personal philosophies. This is part of a larger effort to move towards New Work (see our recipe “Introducing New Work into your workplace” for more details).
• Establish an environment that values open discussions. Our recipe “Asking powerful questions in your organisation” is a great place to start!