Mental health: In the age of engagement, beware burnout
I've heard so many conversations about how organisations can manage low engagement levels, and now I think we need to widen the conversation to consider what we do when we think employees are working too hard.
So, this isn't another blog about the benefits of driving an engaged workforce; Gallup has been measuring engagement for over three decades and HR professionals have been talking about how to engage their employees for even longer.
Many organisations quite rightly recognise and celebrate examples of engagement done well and for those of us who spend our working lives bringing about improvements to everyone's employee experience, we use engagement measures as one of our key outcomes.
Whatever your approach as an employer or a manager - whether you are trying to achieve higher scoring employee feedback, or want to give every one of your employees a sense of happiness and belonging there is help available to enable you to deliver an exceptional experience to your workforce.
What happens to the over-engaged?
Our market has so many solutions that are designed to improve employee engagement levels and obviously I have my preference...! But for once I don't want to talk about this; instead I think we need to talk about what happens to an individual when they become over-engaged.
Gallup tells us that the US workforce is experiencing an engagement crisis - 51% not being engaged at work, and another 16% being actively disengaged. I'm sure we all have experience of witnessing the impact this 16% can have on our organisations; damaging productivity, stifling innovation and often having a toxic influence on our culture.
A lot of effort is expended working to influence, change and transform this group. It's the other population that I never see counted - the over-engaged - and I worry that because we don't measure this group, we run the risk of forgetting about them.
There's also a danger that lies in bringing together engagement and happiness as directly linked for all our employees. I don't think that "engaged employee" necessarily equals "happy employee".
When to intervene?
In fact, I think some of the hardest working, most engaged employees are those who we ought to show more concern for. We are well-versed in spotting the signs of a disengaged employee; behaviours like low productivity and showing little interest in the organisation are easy to spot, but I'm not sure how many of us would know when to intervene with an employee who cares too much.
On any given hour, day, week, month or quarter all of us exist within the upper and lower boundaries of engagement, and these boundaries shift as our circumstances change. In an ideal world, we all stay in the ideal space of a perfectly engaged employee - a healthy, sustainable level of engagement with our work, workplace and colleagues.
Obviously, everything isn't always perfect; an unresolved disagreement with a colleague or lack of recognition from our manager might cause us to drop down a little; a successful project or a promotion will likely raise us up.
The warning signs
If we spend a long time under-engaged or disengaged we might eventually decide to move on to a different organisation, or perhaps that decision gets made for us. What happens if we spend a long time over-engaged is much scarier.
If you're over-engaged then you're likely signing up for additional projects, skipping lunch, staying late, saying yes to every business trip despite the effect this might have on your family, logging in from home or checking emails out of hours. The conference call comes before the Christmas assembly. Additional work in the evenings before life admin. You are emotionally over-invested in the success of your organisation. Its needs will come before yours.
Our lives require an incredible amount of emotional energy to navigate and we only have a finite amount of this; to give more of that energy than is needed to your employer leaves less for the rest of your life.
Getting the balance right
Finding the balance is not easy but I think it's absolutely key to our health and happiness; you might love your job but over-engagement may not love you back. Patterns of over-work eventually manifest in our health; those who work long hours risk developing stroke a third greater than those who don't. Recent research has added heart disease and dementia to that list.
More time in the office means less time for those activities that are beneficial to our physical and mental health, and focus on work over home can add unnecessary strain to our personal relationships. The signs of burnout are creeping; initially subtle and often go unnoticed or are easily dismissed. A loss of sense of humour and increasing sense of listlessness are often early warning signs, and we'll only spot these in our people if we see them as just that - people.
In a staggering interview with the New York Times, one CEO admitted to texting potential employees on Sundays to test how quickly they respond, expecting a response within just three hours. There are times when we need to work hard, focus and drive an outcome. But if you don't work to identify the pressures on your best people they risk falling into the trap of being over-engaged and the ensuing burnout that can accompany it.
Ultimately, we can only truly look out for our people if we lead by example and look after ourselves; put our health first always and unapologetically, enforce annual leave, enable people to restore balance, and make time for the things that really matter. Work already takes up so much of our lives; we need ensure it's a paced marathon, not a burning sprint.
Matt will be discussing how to deliver a great employee experience, every day, at REBA's Innovation Day on 7th November.
Matt Macri-Waller is founder & CEO of Benefex.
This article was provided by Benefex.
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