HR, Are Your Managers Burning Out?

By Anya C. Gonzales, Marketing Associate at Jhana

Managers are expected to accomplish a lot. Not only do they manage the needs of their teams, they also have to manage the expectations of their bosses and the company. In a desire to do well, managers can ignore the pressures of their role, which can cause prolonged stress and even burnout.

Stress and burnout are often treated interchangeably, but burnout is much more serious. According to Psychology Today, stress is a reaction to a stimulus that disturbs our physical or mental equilibrium. Actually, a little stress is good because it can help increase productivity and efficiency.

However, stress at work can lead to burnout when it becomes long-term or chronic. Christina Maslach, an American social psychologist and professor of psychology at the University of California, Berkeley, defines workplace burnout as “a prolonged response to chronic emotional and interpersonal stressors on the job.” Common symptoms of burnout include disengagement and lack of motivation.

According to a 2015 study, 53 percent of surveyed U.S. and Canadian workers say they are overworked and burned out. Fully 40 percent of those surveyed said burnout was motivating them to look for another job . The cost of losing just one employee to burnout is high. According to TLNT, replacing a mid-level employee costs at least 150% of their salary. If an organization loses 12 employees per year to burnout, with an average salary of $80,000, this loss could easily cost the organization $1,440,000. That’s a lot of money.

It’s easy to see why burnout is so pervasive in the United States. We work more hours than equivalent workers in Australia and most of Western Europe, do not have guarantee paid vacation and do not offer paid parental leave. Managers can be especially susceptible to burnout because of increased responsibility and increased authority. Worse yet if their training (or lack thereof) fails to prepare them with the leadership skills they’ll need for success.

Today’s HR leaders are inundated with requests and responsibilities, so it can be easy to miss managers who are on the verge of exhaustion. Don’t wait until managers start quitting en masse to address burnout at your company. Fortunately, there are many ways that human resources can partner with managers to help avoid the costs of burnout, such as:

• Make management training accessible
  Moving from an IC role to a leadership role is difficult. Managers must learn and master a completely new set of skills. Don’t expect them to do it on their own. Give them plenty of resources to help them build and practice the skills they need to be effective.
• Foster management communities within the company
  Just like you and me, managers want community! Set up regular time for managers from different departments to meet, talk and share stories and ideas. If you’re unable to build communities internally, provide managers with a list of local meet-ups, forums, and online communities they can join.
• Make sure managers understand the importance of delegation
  Sometimes managers forget they don’t have to do it all! Encourage them identify the right tasks to delegate to their teams, and teach them how to delegate well.
• Be observant about attrition and retention rates
  Don’t wait until managers are running out the door before looking at your company’s attrition rates. Hold exit interviews to see if there are trends around why people are leaving. If the same issues recur frequently, bring it to senior leadership’s attention.

Managers play a vital role in any organization’s ability to meet its strategic goals, so it’s critical that HR leaders not only pay attention to managers’ health but also provide adequate structural support within the organization to ensure leaders are well-supported and given the tools they need to succeed.