Burnout is increasing across industries, but now over half of all managers are reporting that they feel burnt out.
Key Details
- Around 53% of managers are reporting feeling burnt out—a higher number than the employees in general, according to Microsoft’s Work Trend Index.
- Managers have faced new challenges over the last several years, guiding and supporting employees through the pandemic and developing new ways to motivate and retain workers while struggling with a labor shortage.
- While managers have been working hard to watch for their team’s burnout symptoms, business leadership needs to look for signs of burnout in their managers.
Why it’s news
Employee burnout is a significant problem across several industries, but manager burnout could represent a more complex problem. While every employee is valuable to a company, losing a manager to burnout can introduce confusion and disorder to a business.
Burnout often occurs when managers experience constant stress, begin to feel continual exhaustion, and perceive that they are accomplishing little professionally. There are six reasons for burnout, according to Microsoft’s Dawn Klinghoffer and Katie Kirkpatrick-Husk:
- Unsustainable workloads
- Feeling of lack of control
- Not being rewarded for work
- No supportive community
- Perceived lack of fairness
- Value and skill mismatches
Limited resources and a high workload contribute to much of the manager workout companies are seeing today. All workers are dealing with similar stress levels, but managers have the added responsibility of taking care of their team members.
With added workloads brought on by the pandemic and shifting employee priorities, managers require more support than in years past. However, managers are receiving less support from company leaders, according to Microsoft’s Work Trend Index. Offering necessary support is vital to retaining good managers and keeping their teams. If managers are too burnt out to support their teams properly, companies can see a trickle-down effect on the rest of their employees.
Looking for early warning signs and listening to managers before burnout becomes an insurmountable problem is critical to maintaining a healthy management team. Microsoft suggested several key areas business leaders can watch for to assist managers before burnout becomes a problem.
- Find ways to connect managers’ work with what gives them meaning.
- Promote career development and further learning while being transparent about potential ways to move up in the company.
- Flexibility in the workplace can give managers a sense of control and help reduce feelings of exhaustion that may otherwise feel overwhelming.
- Provide support and room to speak up about things that need to change within the company.
- Give managers the support to place boundaries and practice self-care.
Supporting managers and preventing burnout begins with listening to a manager’s needs. Often, what they need is support from leaders above them to speak up about the things that are not working for them.
