Muted with Stress

Imagine that you're planning a group vacation or a trip somewhere, and you're in charge of those people's satisfaction. You've asked the group members about their wants and expectations (knowing that not all will be met, but you'll do your best), you budgeted the trip and booked tickets and accommodation, and now you've embarked on the journey – just to find out that it's not working as planned…

The people are constantly tired, they can't enjoy themselves, they seem to be disengaged and even disconnected from the rest of the group, they regularly look bored or concerned throughout the activities, and even worse – they start talking about leaving the group and traveling solo.

Would you adhere to the original trip plan, or would you pivot as soon as possible?...

While traveling to remote destinations is far from being the common routine in the last 20 months since COVID hit, the need for planning new working policies and routines – also go by a whole new jargon of WFH (Work from Home), RTO (Return to Office) or Hybrid (a combination) – has become inevitable.

Yet despite organizations planning and setting up those new routines, something is still not working well. This is actually an understatement: A recent global study conducted by Tinypulse has found that 72% of employees are feeling exhausted while working in a hybrid model, and HR are estimating that the percentage is even higher. An equally alarming finding shows that over a third (36%) of employees are feeling burnt out, as a result of the current state of work.

Why is this happening? Or better asking: Where is the gap?

Assuming that organizations have planned, surveyed their own employees, budgeted the plan, created the proper setup and infrastructure to facilitate this change – shouldn't the execution of a hybrid-work model work properly and yield different results than those revealed?

The answer lies within the false assumption that the new hybrid model was actually researched and prepared properly rather than lying on a broken infrastructure.

Where did I leave my laptop?...

There are a few main reasons why employees are far more exhausted while working "hybridcally". Amongst the list, we can find the ever-changing setting, the need to juggle between the two environments, the stress of "what have I forgot to bring from home to the office and vice-versa", unstable routines, dissolved boundaries between work and personal life, and so on.

Think about it for a minute:

When employees who suffered a significant spike in the level of uncertainty due to COVID are now experiencing even greater instability – wouldn't it make all the sense in the world that the stress and burnout levels are skyrocketing?

Yet despite this very likely prediction (which is now the proven reality), many organizations have failed to provide the nourishing conditions to cultivate such a hybrid environment and preventably alleviate stress. Even if this approach was indeed planned in advance yet has proven to fail, where are the famous pivoting skills and agility mindset that organizations pride themselves on? Are those only good for services given to clients, and should be neglected when it comes to employee wellbeing and level of engagement?

Spread the old glue called "trust"

Organizations are made of people. Call them employees, workers, workforce – those are distancing words that cloud people's true needs – to be treated as human beings who bring their entire Self to work, not just the "productive persona". When workplaces forget the fact that humans are complex, they tend towards a linear process with a fixated mindset that is originated in past routines and norms.

What should organizations do differently to nourish the human fabric and increase the likelihood of the hybrid model to actually work, and work well?

First, we can't say anything before we say "Trust". Old-fashioned as it sounds, trust is still – and probably will always be – the foundation of relationships. You cannot expect employees to perform well, to stay engaged, and thrive – without giving them full trust and autonomy. Micro-management is one of the common causes of employee burnout, and the faster we eliminate this habit – the faster we will move into a healthier organizational culture.

Yet giving trust and autonomy does not mean cutting all the support oxygen supply that employees need. Those are not mutually exclusive, and when managers don't suffocate employees with over-supervision, they can and should still provide proper professional support. Just asking employees what resources they need is by itself vital.

This brings us to the next point: offering personal connection and a socially inclusive atmosphere, even while working remotely and especially when working hybridically, can go a long way. No one wants to feel left out when they're in the office; can you imagine how frightening it could be for employees to feel left out when they are out of the office? They can't even tell what's going on if they work from home one day and go back to the office the next day, just to find out that [fill in the gap] happened or decided while they were away.

The irony? There's enough technology today to facilitate proper communication from everywhere; but these means should assist rather than replace human-to-human communication such as checking in, updating, asking employees for their opinion, and so on. It's not just FOMO (the Fear Of Missing Out); It's also the need to be heard, seen, and acknowledged that humans crave. When not being met, this need could lead to severe burnout at work.

Ever connected, not always fully present

Last but not least is Presenteeism, which has become a true illness in that regard. Presenteeism is defined as showing up to work while being emotionally or physically not well, but it could also refer to being present without being productive. The causes are varied: employees want to prove loyalty and productivity, to secure their position by being visible ("on the radar"), to not be perceived as lazy, and so on. The result, however, is more harmful than imagined: reduced productivity and effectivity that cost organizations a huge toll, alongside employees' levels of stress and burnout that increase consistently. We are talking about estimation in the range of 255-304 billion euros annually in the EU28 countries, according to Mindmatters and NHWS findings.

Since we understand the causes of presenteeism, it should be quite clear what could be done differently to tackle the problem, starting from conveying the message that breaks are essential, to allowing employees to define flexibility, especially when working remotely, all the way to revolutionizing the sick-leave days' policy towards a mutually respectful agreement: you don't show up to work while being physically or emotionally not well, and your compensation cannot be hurt.

Scary moves for employers? It's even scarier to lose 36% of talented employees due to burnout.

In order to tackle employee stress and burnout and to significantly increase the level of wellbeing and engagement, organizations need to take bold steps. Whether it is to openly ask "what do you need?" and embrace the replies (even when they aren't comfortable to digest), or to change the work relationships into respectful agreements that are based on trust rather than "policing" – organizations still have a way to go.

The bolder the approach and solutions get, the more likely organizations are to step more prepared into the future of work, which is already here, as we speak. 

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Explore how to create a culture shift towards a burnout-free organization.

More resources for individuals:

-Strategic Burnout Prevention E-course

-The book "Burning Out Won't Get You There"

The author wants to thank Tinypulse for their enlightening survey findings.