How managers can protect themselves from burnout

Employees are exhausted and burned out one year into the COVID-19 pandemic. But there’s another group who is suffering in silence: managers and workplace leaders.

Fifty-nine percent of managers say they feel overworked and 72% say they are feeling more pressure to deliver during the pandemic, according to a survey by Limeade, an employee experience platform. Workplace leaders are also grappling with the stress of managing other burned out employees: 84% of managers feel responsible for the high levels of burnout of their workforce, Limeade found.

Read more: 10 companies with the worst employee burnout

Managers feel pressure to never show their own vulnerabilities, says Paula Davis, author of Beating Burnout at Work. But those instincts can quickly backfire and make it more difficult for other employees to share their own stress.

“Leaders have this feeling like they can never show that anything is wrong and they can never show weakness or fallibility,” Davis says. “In reality, that’s what builds trust with your team and opens them up to sharing their difficulties too.”

In a recent interview, Davis shared how employers can take care of their own mental health while building a safe and supportive workplace for their teams.

Why has COVID made burnout so pervasive in the workplace?

Burnout is caused by imbalances between your job demands and job resources, so what has happened is COVID has piled on a lot of additional demands, whether at work or outside of work. It’s also taken away a lot of our resources that we need to gain energy and motivation. We can't walk to a meeting with somebody and just vent for a little bit. We can't go meet up with friends at a restaurant for dinner to socialize. So that equation has become very imbalanced.

Burnout is closely tied to workplace errors, high rates of turnover and disengagement. Usually the cost to replace someone is one and a half to two times their salary. For a large organization, you’re talking about a problem that could cost tens of millions of dollars.

How can managers build a virtual work environment that’s supportive of employees and prevents burnout?

When we’re all spread out virtually and geographically and we don’t see each other every day, it can be harder to pick up on somebody’s cues that they’re not doing well. So managers need to build trust at a team level. That could include being flexible and approachable with people. Managers can be attentive by just recognizing when someone joins a Zoom call and saying, “Hi, how are you doing today?” They can also provide transparency and ongoing updates. Talk about your team’s common purpose: what are we all doing here?

The pandemic has been a wake up call for managers to ask, “Am I the reason why people don't feel comfortable at work?” So managers really need to look at themselves for what they can change to create this environment of trust.

How can managers protect themselves from burnout when they’re so focused on keeping their team afloat?

It really starts with leaders shoring up their own resilience because that gets noticed too. Studies have shown that managers who report higher levels of burnout and lower levels of professional fulfillment are rated as more ineffective by their direct reports. Leaders sometimes think that the way they’re functioning is not being noticed, but that’s not the case. So take a step back and understand your wiring. What are your core values? If you’re someone that thinks, “I need all the answers,” that’s going to impact whether you take a break or delegate responsibilities.

One of the best things leaders can say right now is something along the lines of, “I’m in this with you, I’m struggling right now too.” Leaders have this feeling like they can never show that anything is wrong and they can never show weakness or fallibility. In reality, that’s what builds trust with your team and opens your team up to sharing their difficulties too.