According to a 2021 study conducted by Indeed, 52% of employees say they are burnt out. Either from working longer hours or an inability to unplug from their daily work tasks.

Burnout Affects More Than 50% Of Employees

Company's must prioritize the wellness of their employees and team members in more long-term efforts that implemented all-year long work-life balance.

Combat Burnout With Year-Round Wellness Initiatives

Leaders must model communication standards with employees. By avoiding vontact with employees after hours and during paid time off. Employees feel psychologically safe when leadership model recommended guidelines.

Leaders Must Model Healthy Communication Boundaries 

Instead of conducting weekly update meetings in person, project updates should be shared digital. For example, on a Trello board or other project management software the whole team can access.

Eliminate Unnecessary Meetings With Technology 

Discover ways to combat burnout and prioritize team wellbeing all year long.

Ideas for growing as a business owner & thought leader

Entrepreneurship

Why The Biggest Risk To Your Business This Year Is Burnout (And How To Tackle It)

The pandemic has forced us to take a hard look at the modern workplace. Options such as all-remote or hybrid are becoming part of work mainstream. Another idea is shrinking the workweek. Proponents argue that the reduced hours working model can address current work negatives and make employees more productive, happier and healthier.

Reevaluating the modern workplace

The standard workweek of 40 hours is not set up for efficiency. Energy cannot be sustained for a solid eight hours per day. <ul><li dir = "auto">A 2014 study suggested productivity drops after working 50 hours a week.</li><li dir = "auto">Other experts suggest that 35 hours is the optimal work time before productivity starts to decline.</li></ul> Research shows people get more done when they work fewer hours. One high-profile study in Iceland found that productivity remained the same or improved when working either 35 or 36 hour weeks.

An argument for a shorter workweek

Working fewer hours leads to happier, healthier, and more engaged workforces. <ul><li>Shorter hours allow people to feel more rested and better able to juggle caring needs.</li><li>A 2021 study found that reduced working hours kept burnout, boreout and depression at bay.</li><li>A 2017 study showed reducing working hours by 25% improved sleep and lowered stress.</li><li>A 1990 study showed working only six hours a day improved workers' family lives.</li><li>A 2019 study found happy workers are 13% more productive.</li></ul>

Benefits of a shorter workweek

There are different models for a shorter workweek. The four-day week reduce working hours by 20%. Everyone at a company might take the same day off, or people can take two afternoons off. Or, the workweek can be reduced from 40 to 36 hours. Importantly is that salaries remain the same. Shorter working hours won't work for every role in every industry. While experts urge to exercise caution when implementing these models, they also think now could be the best time to try.

The future of shorter working hours

More than ever, workers want to work fewer hours, saying they can be just as effective in less time – and happier, too. They may be on to something.

Stashed ideas

The case for a shorter workweek

Leaders and members should be wary of adding more change to a rapidly changing situation.In a turbulent environment with intense volatility, uncertainty, workload, and urgency, it’s important for both leaders and members to stay in their respective lanes and maintain the expected flow of information. In these settings, things are changing so fast that by the time an individual switches back to their assigned tasks, they’ve lost situation awareness and contributed to the chaos and confusion.

Beware of switching lanes in turbulent environments

Leadership

As teams are increasingly working in more fluid and interconnected multiteam arrangements, it’s common for leaders and members to be tempted to manage the other teams that influence their input or output.&nbsp;But it’s unlikely that a team leader will have a detailed enough understanding of the precise situation another team is facing to jump in and immediately lead effectively. It’s even less likely that a member will have sufficient knowledge of both teams’ situations and be able to manage the change in information flows (like who gives directions or who needs to be updated).

Beware of crossing team boundaries

Successful lane switching is about more than just knowing when and where it’s okay to switch — what you do as you return to working on your assigned tasks also matters.As leaders are not yet omniscient, status update check-ins are important, especially in times of change. These check-ins can be done one-on-one or, if the situation is sufficiently stable, take the form of team huddles with rapid-fire status updates.

Be sure to update when switching back

Research from first responder incident simulations suggests it’s not always a good idea.

Career

When to Take On Tasks That Are Outside of Your Job Description

In an ideal workplace, teams would work together in harmony, celebrate each other’s accomplishments and support each other, while spending quality time together. The reality is that 85 percent of employees across levels report conflicts at the workplace.
The Team leader plays a great role in controlling conflict, but needs to understand that not all conflict is bad. Conflict fuels change, and is necessary for emotional, intellectual and moral growth of the team members.

An Ideal Workplace And The Need For Conflict

Teamwork

Team members have all kinds of working styles, from the quiet introverted ones to the aggressive, loud ones. Keeping the various types of people happily working together is a challenge for any manager.A Leader can facilitate working together by:<ol><li>Creating personalised instruction manuals about work preferences, feedback preferences, availability hours and other details of the entire team.</li><li>Finding out the strengths of the employee and providing them engaging work that lets them make use of their skills.</li></ol>

Different Working Styles

Some team members start to become envious if others get promoted instead of them. This can breed toxicity in the workplace.A leader can minimize damage by:<ol><li>Find out other growth opportunities for the disheartened employees like making them in charge of new projects, committees and special events.</li><li>Instead of letting the other employees find out through company-wide emails, tell them yourself.</li><li>Keep a close eye on team interactions and address any problems that arise.</li></ol>

Team Promotions

Sometimes there are workload issues, bottlenecks and mismanagement of information, leading to missed deadlines and lost productivity.&nbsp;The leader can:<ol><li>Seek regular feedback, making each meeting a productive time to uncover bottlenecks and roadblocks.</li><li>Use the right kind of tools, suggested by employees themselves, to work efficiently.</li><li>Use the ‘five whys’ technique where one moves towards first principles, addressing the real problem. Ask ‘why’ five consecutive times to get to the root cause of the problem.</li></ol>

An Unworkable Process

According to a survey, all employees have been annoyed by some coworker/team member. People with different personalities often gravitate towards hating others who are not their type or annoy them for reasons personal to them.As a leader, you need to:<ol><li>Talk to each team member and find common ground, leading to a possible solution.</li><li>Lead by example and show your employees that you practice what you preach.</li><li>Set boundaries and demonstrate what kind of conduct is not acceptable.</li></ol>

Team Members Hate Each Other

Not sure how to smooth rocky team waters in a way that’s productive and positive? Let’s take a look at some of the most common team conflicts, along with advice for addressing each one. 

4 Common Workplace Conflicts (And How To Deal)

The pandemic normalised remote working, and despite the fears of most organisations, there was no demonstrable loss of productivity.
Now, the global workforce wants to retain increased flexibility as societies open up again. Yet, many organisations are resisting this more flexible future. They argue that employees&#39; wellbeing is compromised by remote working, for example, Zoom fatigue.

Normalising remote work

The problem is that although most office workers are currently working from home, they still work in an office-centric manner. Most of our work practices are based around location: when we work, where we work, how we work. Worse is that these practises were designed decades ago. The pandemic has given us the unique opportunity to question these structures.

Remote work itself is not the issue

<ul><li>The "when" of work. The 9-5 workday was formalised for factory workers by Henry Ford in 1926. Most of us don't work in factories. Moreover, the linear day is unsuitable for the remote environment.</li><li>The "where" of work. The dominance of the office was needed in a time without home internet or laptops. We are long past needing to prove that work can be done away from employer-owned space.</li><li>The "how" of work. It is an assumption that a meeting is the best way to collaborate. This idea comes from the 1950s. Collaboration can happen asynchronously.</li></ul>

Rethinking the "when", "where", "how" of work

The outdated, office-centric work designs are making us tired. We are working within systems that are not built for our current environment. Reverting back to the office full time is also not the answer. We need to stop designing work around location and start designing work around human behaviour. Data shows that employees will work better, stay at their organisation longer and keep healthier.

Designing work around human  behaviour

Do we need to go to offices? Work 9 to 5? At this unique moment in history, employers can rethink everything, says researcher Alexia Cambon

wfh

Burnout Affects More Than 50% Of Employees

Why The Biggest Risk To Your Business This Year Is Burnout (And How To Tackle It)

Reevaluating the modern workplace

The case for a shorter workweek