To Survive The Recession, You Must First Tackle This Chronic Workplace Issue That's Only Worsening. Here's How. Proven strategies that will help your business and its leaders both spot and recover from an overextended staff.

According to a January 2022 article from the American Psychological Association, employee burnout is hitting record highs around the globe, and in every industry — with "…nearly 3 in 5 employees report[ing] negative impacts of work-related stress, including lack of interest, motivation or energy." This not only harms employees but your business will likely be hit hard too, in the form of reduced productivity, errors, healthcare costs, incivility and attrition. To recession-proof your business, you need to help your people heal from burnout, and then shift your culture to eliminate the causes using the science-backed strategies provided.

What is burnout?

Put simply, this term is defined as a medically diagnosable condition of emotional, physical and mental exhaustion due to long-term stress. Authors of Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle (Ballantine Books, 2019), sisters Emily Nagoski, Ph.D. and Amelia Nagoski, D.M.A. have identified its three main components:

• Emotional exhaustion: Defined by symptoms such as chronic fatigue, insomnia, impaired concentration, depression and anxiety, heart palpitations, GI pain and generally increased illness.
• A lack of accomplishment: When you feel that nothing you do makes a difference and leads to apathy, hopelessness and irritability, which can create a drop in productivity and performance.
• Depletion of empathy: Which comes from caring too much for too long and leads to detachment, pessimism, loss of enjoyment and isolation.

Related: The Untold Truth About Mental Health In The Workplace

Burnout is the result of being overworked and having insufficient rest. According to an April 2022 article in the New York Times, "…time spent working after traditional hours has grown 28% since March 2020, according to data from Microsoft Teams users," with noted increases in evening and weekend work hours.

During lockdowns, many people began overworking, since they could not go out with friends, take vacations or engage in many self-care activities. And even as restrictions eased, many found themselves locked in that habit: working too much and playing too little.

Related: 5 Strategies for Effectively Managing People in the New Hybrid World

The consequences of overwork impact both emotional and physical wellbeing. The World Health Organization's 2021 WHO/ILO Joint Estimates of the Work-related Burden of Disease and Injury report includes the shocking figure that 750,000 people die yearly due to overwork (defined as more than 54 hours per week).

And it's not just front-line workers paying the price, either. Deloitte has reported that three-quarters of all executives felt their wellbeing suffered because of the pandemic and that nearly 70% have considered leaving to find an organization where theirs is nurtured better.

But while seeking to improve their own health, executives tend to be out of touch with their employees' experiences. For example, executives estimate that 89% of employees would rate their mental health as good or excellent, but only 59% actually did so, according to the above-mentioned Deloitte article. This overestimation pattern repeated itself across three areas of wellbeing: physical (89% vs. 65%); social (84% vs. 51%); and financial (81% vs. 40%).

According to the 2022 Workplace Mental Health & Well-Being report from The U.S. Surgeon General's office, more than three-quarters of employees "reported at least one symptom of a mental health condition [in 2021], an increase of 17 percentage points in just two years." And 84% said that the workplace had contributed to their mental health challenges.

This often comes in the form of workplace stress, which occurs "…when the requirements of the job do not match the capabilities, resources or needs of the workers," as reported by the National Academy for Medicine.

Paying the price

While it's clear that burnout is on the rise and negatively impacts employees, its wider costs are not always easy to see. It's possible that you're losing thousands of dollars across a variety of areas, including:

• Turnover: The Society for Human Resource Management has estimated that replacing a technical worker or high-level leader can cost up to 250% of the associated annual salary, plus benefits. And while costs with respect to replacing a front-line employee are lower (typically 50% of salary), they can quickly balloon if you have high turnover month over month.
• Reduced productivity: As people overwork and burn out, they are biologically wired to scale back on energy expenditure, which reduces productivity, impacting both quantity and quality. Eventually, it can take the form of "quiet quitting," in which people not only stop going above and beyond basic job expectations, but fail to meet them.
• Reduced innovation: Creativity requires both physical and emotional energy, so it naturally suffers when people are exhausted. And if you're in a competitive industry, a dip in this area might be the difference between success and failure.
• Increased health costs: When employees are not thriving, costs show up in absenteeism, illness and medical bills. The National Association for Mental Health found that 33% of workers miss time because of stress, while the CDC Foundation reports that absenteeism alone costs employers $225.8 billion annually or about $1,685 per employee.

Addressing burnout decreases these costs, which can also be a bulwark against inflation, and a possible recession. In any case, efforts in any of these areas will create a measurable return on investment.

Related: Employers Should Fear The Truth Behind Quiet Quitting. Here's Why.

Leader strategies for addressing burnout

The sooner you help people recover from the consequences of overwork, the sooner you'll see positive shifts, and the beginning of a new year is a perfect time to engage in this process.

1. Give people time to heal and rest

The only thing that heals burnout is rest. According to Dr. Saundra Dalton-Smith, there are seven types of rest (physical, mental, sensory, creative, emotional, social and spiritual), and we need a balance of them to truly thrive. Consider how you can support your staff members in ticking every box.

2. Align culture and policies

Time off only heals if employees know they can truly unplug from emails and projects. Think about whether you have created a culture where people are expected to be responsive 24/7, even while on vacation.

3. Promote access to nature

Scientists have discovered that time in nature (at least three times per week for a minimum of 20 minutes) is healing, and that proximity to water offers additional benefits. Consider how you can promote access to the outdoors through workplace programs.

Related: Why Women Are More Likely to Experience Burnout (and 6 Ways to Prevent It from Happening

4. Invest in resources that matter

If budgets are tight, put resources into what will help the most. The following programs yield results reliably:

• Access to paid self-care programs like therapy, coaching, mindfulness training and healthy behaviors like exercise and nutrition.
• Thoughtful hybrid work schedules that only bring people to the office for tasks that actually benefit from in-person effort (such as brainstorming, team building, decision-making and conflict resolution).
• Manager training, as studies show that people tend to leave their boss, not their company. So, make sure that managers know how to provide appropriate support and build psychological safety and other elements that reduce fatigue and stress.

While these strategies will help recession-proof your organization in the short term, they will also set you up for much longer-term success.