How to Tell Your Boss You Are Burnt Out If you're burned out at your job and are looking to enhance your career, it may be a good idea to have a conversation with your boss.
By Steve Taplin
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
If you're burned out at your job and are looking to enhance your career, it may be a good idea to have a conversation with your boss before joining the trend of the Great Resignation. The pandemic has created an entirely new world for our society, and with that came changes to the workforce. People are now starting to see what their labor is worth and what their time is worth, especially with so many places either shutting down or implementing new work from home and hybrid policies. Society is also becoming more comfortable with acknowledging when something about their lifestyle isn't okay or making them happy and actively making the changes to fix it.
Related: "The Great Resignation," And The Future Of The Workplace
According to the Wall Street Journal, Dr. Kelly did a research study that examined a group of overworked employees in an IT division at a Fortune 500 firm before the pandemic. Kelly found team interventions made a difference in avoiding burnout in the workplace. Employees whose managers were checking in on them to see how they were doing not only personally, but also professionally, and were given the flexibility to work how they wanted, had significantly lower levels of burnout and psychological distress than a control group. They were also 40% less likely to quit.
Based on this research, it may be a good idea to initiate a conversation with your boss and communicate with them about what they can do to make your career more enjoyable. The results of this conversation may surprise you, and may even influence your desire to stay employed under the same boss.
Many people are looking to have the same kinds of conversations in their place of employment. It's not an easy conversation to have, and ultimately, it is their job to start these conversations. However, if you feel that your boss isn't doing that, and therefore you don't feel supported to be the best employee you can be, it may be time to take initiative. It wouldn't hurt to start by telling them that you're struggling, which can then lead to a conversation about what they can do to best support you.
Related: Why the Great Resignation Could Lead to a Franchising Boom
Part of the issue is that every employee comes with their own needs for support, which also means that even if your boss is providing support and your company is doing things surrounding improving mental health, the things they are doing may still not necessarily be for you. If that's the case, now is the time to also communicate that you understand they are trying to help, but you need a different kind or level of support.
Some of the things that are changing the current workforce are people wanting to be with their families more and people wanting to travel. This also means that places of employment may need to change how they function in order to keep up with their workforce.
During the pandemic, it was mostly technical support jobs or software jobs that were able to restructure into work-from-home models. Now, more places are starting to open up to those opportunities, as it has been proven to be good for the mental health of the workforce to be able to have the freedom to work from home.
It's a good idea to speak to your boss before you start feeling burnt out. This can save you the hassle of looking for a new job, and potentially even one that either doesn't pay as well or is lacking support in other aspects. If your boss values your time and labor, they will be willing to work with you and fight to keep you by their side.
