For some people and for some teams, remote work is great. A distributed team is the only way to go. They love it and it works for them. For others, it doesn’t.
As many conveniences as remote work brings, there are justas many inconveniences—little things that make disconnecting and managing a work-life balance just that much more difficult. And if you don’t think any of this applies to you or your team, we just ask you consider this possibility:You may be wrong.
Indeed, team burnout tends to go unnoticed until it’s too late. Issues that may seem minor, or that may be hard for people to fully express, build up. We could all use a few tips to combat burnout before it gets out of control.
3 Tips to Combat Burnout Before It’s Too Late
With the right strategies, you can help ensure your team stays satisfied, engaged, and burnout-free. Burnout can come on swiftly, so it’s important that management and team leaders stay on top of it.
1. Separate “Work” and “Life”
We know the rigors of day-to-day business can cause all sorts of headaches and lead to round-the-clock communication. And it’s harder than ever right now when we’re working from home. Whether or not you’re working from home, striking the right work-life balance is a challenge. And when you don’t have the benefit of a commute, it becomes that much harder.
Support your team by trying out “no email” hours, and determining a range of hours (or weekend days) where your team is expressly encouraged not to work. If an email can be sent at 8:45pm, it can be sent at8:45am—and probably with less stress involved.
2. Allow for Mental Breaks
When you’re working, sometimes it’s a challenge to take a moment and just relax. We’re constantly wondering what we’re missing, we’re worried about the pile of work in front of us, we’re thinking all the time. And don’t get us wrong. We appreciate hard work. But we also appreciate the difference between working hard and burning yourself out.
Giving your team space to take breaks, balance their tasks, delegate, and unplug is important to combating burnout. In 1:1s, make sure to inquire about how they’re feeling about their workload and offer solutions to unburden them if you can. Or if you have the leeway, a Friday half-day goes along way.
3. Build Community
Zoom fatigue is real, but so is building community on a team.And especially now that we seem to be approaching the end of mandatory remote work, it’s worth looking at team building opportunities that allow your team to connect again.
We’re not saying happy hour is the solution to all your team’s burnout woes. (Even though we love a good happy hour.) What we are saying is that finding avenues to connect your team goes a long way to reengaging them at work. Throw a “Get ToKnow You” stream in Ledger. Try an office Fantasy Football draft. Simple things make a big difference.
Making Burnout a Thing of the Past
Burnout happens. That’s just a fact of life. But another fact of life? It doesn’t have to happen as much as it does.
With intentional actions, you can help your team avoid burnout and empower them to bring the best of themselves to work each and everyday. It helps the bottom line, it helps your communication, and most importantly, it helps support your team. In our opinion, that’s one of the best outcomes there is.
