Burnout to me is when effort and energy cost begins to yield diminishing returns in terms of results and satisfaction in work. Much like the burnout of tires when power delivery to the wheels is high, yet acceleration and forward velocity are low. It could be said then, that professional burnout is analogous to a loss of traction.
Psychological journals and productivity gurus point to our individual responsibility to prevent burnout by managing our time and finding purpose. Until a year or two ago, I would have aligned with this position. However, we are human and we tend to be products of our environment. Given that most of us spend the majority of our waking hours working, it makes sense that organizational culture at work can create an environment that encourages systemic burnout and, thereby, attrition and reduced team performance.
What is Organizational Burnout?
There is no ‘official’ definition for organizational burnout. I could not find any peer-reviewed research. I would love it if one of you found something and made these statements false. However, I have been part of “high burnout” organizations and read Nick Petrie’s treatise on the subject and I am aligned with his definition: Organizational burnout occurs when the organization’s decisions sacrifice the wellbeing of the team, intentionally or unintentionally. Organizational burnout is a burnout-prone culture.
Nick Petrie focuses on “overworked” types of burnout. His theory is that there are seven attributes of a high-burnout organization:
1. High workload, insufficient resources
2. A culture of fear, threat, or emergency
3. Treating people like expendable resources
4. A system designed for insecurity
5. Lack of support from above
6. The talk doesn’t match the walk
7. People don’t talk about burnout around here
I would like to add a couple more to cover the “underworked” types of burnout:
8. Poor communication/vision
9. Unclear expectations
10. Little opportunity for growth and purposeful contribution
Of course, as a manager, achieving a balance between pushing your employees to achieve and burning them out is delicate. Everyone’s capacity and needs are different. On top of that, implementing all of the right techniques from individual burnout advice columns and time management gurus won’t solve the ten points above.
Organizational Burnout Story Time
The average tenure for FAANG (Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, and Google) employees is two to three years, an annual turnover of 13.2%. Amazon’s is even lower with an average tenure of one year. While recruiting will tell you that this is due to the rate of hiring, I now believe these organizations are primed to burnout. As an example, I was recently part of a project that was ultimately cancelled. However, long before it was cancelled, we had stalled. I attribute this to three factors:
Burnout from chasing shiny objects
First, we kept chasing the technical desires of the most recent customer/partner that looked like they might sign a contract with us rather than focusing on developing our core product. None of them ended up signing a contract, and this approach – referencing the list above – created an environment of constant emergency (#2) and poor vision (#8). One could argue that we did this because we didn’t have the resources to create a comprehensive product. We hoped that by creating the part of the thing most important to a customer, we might buy ourselves the time to come back and do it right. Arguably this indicates a poorly solved high workload problem (#1). Team motivation tanked.
Burnout from unrealistic or non-existent planning
Second, while we had a short slick-sheet-style narrative about what we were building, we did not have a realistic, phase-based plan for how to get there that actually solved for the resources we had (#1 & #9). Sometimes it felt like we spent more time talking past each other, justifying mismatched priorities, and collecting a paycheck than we did building. Because we lacked focus, different teams worked on different priorities that never did match up to create a holistic customer offering.
Burnout from unnecessary turbulence
Third, the organization underwent leadership changes and peer organizations experienced layoffs without warning, contributing to an environment of uncertainty and doubt (#3 & #4). Unfortunately, the project’s leadership declined to provide a clear narrative as to the status and future of the project for many months, so long before the project was cancelled, team members had already begun underperforming and seeking other employment (#8 & #9). Team leadership disengaged when it was needed the most. Would the project still have been cancelled if we hadn’t succumbed to organizational burnout? Possibly, but then an organization that is set up to avoid organizational burnout would have made many other different decisions that may have prevented cancellation as well.
Indications and Warnings of organizational burnout
Several warning signs can point to the presence of organizational burnout. Much like a physician diagnosing a medical condition, any symptom in isolation can point to a number of issues, or nothing at all. However, when multiple indicators arise, you likely have a problem on your hands.
Noticeable decline in results
Results! This is a managers number one indicator. If the team isn’t delivering the expected results, what is the root cause? Unfortunately, this indicator is somewhat like a human patient with a fever. A fever indicates that the body is fighting some kind of infection, but more work is needed to figure out what that infection is. Are the expectations too high? Are they too low? Do you have poor skill or employee fit?
Prevalence of short tempers
Are employees on a hair trigger? Like results, this is a broad indicator of a problem. A hair trigger could indicate that you need to decrease pressure (as high-pressure environments often bring out the worst in people), or that you have a disruptive employee that really does set everyone else off.
Strongly divergent individual goals
We will only get to the destination by all rowing in the same direction. My favorite way to find out the health of an organization is to ask folks at all levels what the objective of the team is and what they are doing to contribute to it. Each individual will have a different perspective depending on their level and exposure, but the closer these answers align across the organization, the healthier it is likely to be.
Increasing turnover rates
What is the turnover rate for the organization? Here, just a number is adequate. Turnover is natural, however if this number is trending up, then the organization likely has a burnout problem – the team’s passion for the work is declining. If this number is trending down, then the organization (or the job market) is doing something to influence team members to stay. Unfortunately, I do not trust exit interviews to help here as employees normally will protect their “bridges” on the way out of an organization. Even worse, if the turnover rate is high due to layoffs, everyone who remains is likely struggling to support the same workload with fewer people in an uncertain environment.
Increasing use of increasing wellness days and abnormal PTO
Employees are sick more often than they used to be and take vacations at odd times. This one is tricky, because, of course, people get sick and they take vacation. And they SHOULD take time off for these things. However, similar to turnover rate, you are looking for trends. Taking vacation during typical school holidays isn’t interesting. Increased sick time the same week a new COVID strain is discovered, or the week after kids return to school, is not interesting. A 50% increase in sick time with no apparent cause is worth paying attention to. The problem probably isn’t employee hygiene practices.
Increasing cynicism or apathy in casual conversation
What is the tone of water cooler talk? HBR highlights cynicism (in addition to exhaustion and inefficacy) as one of the three components of burnout. I noticed that the tone at the water cooler reflected these three components. I know most of my workplaces have cynical watercooler talk, but when that watercooler talk adopts a muted tone, you know you have a problem. In the Marine Corps we had a phrase “When the complaining stops, worry.” As long as employees are still complaining, you have feedback to continuously improve on – and you know that they care enough to complain. When the complaining stops, they probably believe you are not listening (ie, your talk and walk do not match) and they no longer care.
We've identified organizational burnout – What do we do?
Our next post will explore six actionable tips to prevent organizational burnout. Before reading it, consider how to create a culture that is the reverse of the 10 points above. Is there anything you can do to create a unifying vision, clear expectations, and support to enable your employees to deliver on those expectations? How can you invest in team development, not just team productivity? For a starting point, check out this article on creating more flow at work.
Additionally, consider a custom professional development program to help your leadership team navigate through turning your culture around. Improve your retention. Increase employee and customer satisfaction. Deliver value. Don’t hesitate to reach out so we can help you continuously improve.
