Understanding burnout and its causes (10 min)
Meet Kim Schlüter, psychologist at OpenUp. Throughout the course, Kim will explain the causes of burnout and discuss solutions:
How does burnout develop?
Burnout can happen to anyone – whether you are a manager, an executive, work in the office, or work with your hands.
Unfortunately, it also happens regularly: 88% of UK employees have experienced burnout in the last 2 years. And, according to a Deloitte 2023 survey, 77% of UK respondents say they have experienced employee burnout at their current job, with more than half citing more than one occurrence.
As a manager, you play an essenital role in preventing burnout. Not only to prevent absenteeism, but also to help eliminate burnout in the first place. By offering the right support, you can help your team become more resilient.
What is burnout?
An accumulation of factors
Remember, burnout looks different for everyone. Rather than arising from one cause, it is often a result of multiple factors:
- Too much to do in too little time
- Fear of losing your job
- Conflict with a colleague
- Lack of support from a supervisor
- Caring for a sick family member
- Moving, getting married, becoming a parent
- Financial stress
- Difficulty saying no
- Personality traits such as perfectionism
- Low self-confidence
Exercise: reflection
📝 What resources does your organisation offer to support employees in their work? Make a list and list as many as possible.
Next, circle the resources that you as a manager can directly influence:
- How many are there?
- Can you think of additional resources you can offer your team members?
- Can you offer your team guidance through your leadership and coaching?
Over the next 2 weeks, try to put one of these additional resources into practice.
As a manager, what can you do to prevent a build up of stress that may result in burnout? We will discuss that in the next lessons.