The Ledger No. 31: Work-related Stress & Fatigue

Welcome to The Ledger where we sum up the latest finance and accounting news and trends for you. On this week’s entry, we’re diving into the topic of how to avoid work-related stress and fatigue in the workplace and how managers can promote a healthy workplace. Read on to explore why taking your employees for granted could lead to high turnover, how to avoid ‘compassion fatigue’, how to motivate your teams in this new year and why email fatigue is on the rise.

Focus Your Retention Efforts On Your Most Highly Engaged Employees

Wait… shouldn’t your most engaged employees be the least likely to jump ship?

According to Jacinta Jimenez, psychologist, speaker and author of The Burnout Fix, “when we love what we do and we’re very excited to work and we’re passionate, we can sometimes be so wrapped up in it that we neglect to take care of ourselves or set boundaries.” It’s a problem that managers need to keep an eye on. In fact, a recent Monster.com survey of 649 employed US workers showed that 95 percent of them were considering leaving their jobs. Moreover, a 2018 study from the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence and the Yale Child Study Center found that nearly one in five workers showed signs of high engagement and burnout. That’s doesn’t mean that every high-performing employee will quit, but it does mean they’re at risk. Julia Moeller, the study’s lead author and Emma Seppää, a Stanford psychologist, said it best – “companies may be at risk of losing some of their most motivated and hard-working employees not for a lack of engagement, but because of their simultaneous experiences of high stress and burnout symptoms.”

To learn more about the hidden link between engagement and burnout, read the full article on BusinessInsider.com.

Burnout Is Killing The Global Workforce

While many of us have probably got the hang of video meetings and the day-to-day interruptions that come with working remotely, your patience is probably hanging by a thread almost two years later. In fact, your coworker’s toddler screaming in the background grinds your gears more than it should. Moreover, 70 percent of CEOs say it’s hard for them to consistently demonstrate empathy in their working life. Katharine Manning, attorney and author, said it best – “The signs can be different for different people… but it happens, it’s time to double down on solutions.”

So how can leaders foster empathy in the workplace?

• Take a self-inventory – ask why.

• Find out what needs aren’t being met.

• Avoid perfectionism – strive for normalcy.

• Communicate your own behaviors – set boundaries.

• Take time for yourself.

To explore how to avoid ‘compassion fatigue’ as the pandemic trudges on, head over to FastCompany.com to read the full article.

How To Motivate Your Hybrid Team - Avoiding Work-Related Stress and Fatigue

The past two years has been like a rollercoaster – ups and down and many loops along the way. And if the Great Resignation told us anything, it’s that your employees are stressed and fatigued. Moreover, many studies have shown that motivated and engaged employees perform better, stay in their jobs longer and are less likely to experience burnout. But what happens when you – the manager – are fatigued and more importantly, how can you lead?

• Foster connectedness by utilizing everything at your disposal to promote company culture; whether that’s hosting monthly in-person gatherings for your employees, virtual happy hours, etc.

• Be transparent with your team in order to build strong connections and loyalty.

• Reinforce each individual on your team by showing them the important role they play in the company.

• Highlight great work, give feedback and praise during normal interactions and make sure your employees feel heard.

• Prioritize mental health by giving them access to online resources and safe spaces where employees can talk.

• Think outside the box and take risks; innovation comes from change.

To dive deeper into how to take care of your hybrid team, read the full article on FastCompany.com.

Email Fatigue Is Real And Could Be The Reason For Burnout - Eliminate This Work-Related Stress

Did you know that much of our day is spent cycling through emails?

You know the feeling… you either see (or hear) the notification come through and you stop what you’re doing to answer. It happens to the best of us. Even more, we can’t see to turn off the urge to check our email every five minutes – even when we’re on vacation (thanks to our handy cell phones). A recent Wakefield Research for email platform Superhuman found that 89 percent of office workers said daily tasks such as sorting through an inbox of unopened emails or navigating incoming Slack or Teams messages is one of the most unpleasant parts of working remotely. It’s no surprise employees are suffering from email fatigue. Carla Bevins, an assistant teaching professor of business communications at Carnegie Mellon University’s Tepper School of Business touches on this issue: “When we hit information overload, it decreases our productivity and ability to make decisions – often referred to executive functioning.” Here’s what Galia Aharoni Schmidt, founding partner of Aharoni Business Law advises:

• Set certain times to be productive (core working hours) and have a no-meeting day once a week.

• Keep meetings as short as possible and only invite those that need to be in the meeting.

• Allow your employees to turn off their email when they’re not working.

• Implement a policy that discourages emails unless absolutely necessary.

• Make sure your employees know that acknowledgement of email is not needed nor is responding “thank you”.

To explore the full survey on how digital communications are causing workers across the globe to feel fatigued and ready to throw in the towel, head over to Forbes.com.

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