How to Manage Employee Burnout: 5 Research-Backed Steps to Improve Productivity

Watch: Stressed out Team? How to Prevent and Treat Employee Burnout at its Roots

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Attendee reactions to the How to Prevent and Treat Employee Burnout at its Roots webinar

“As a manager, this webinar provided me with reassurance and tools to re-engage my team.”

-Marquez

“Great presentation! Being able to recognize burnout from a leadership position is extremely important to a productive team.”

-Beth

Key timestamps

5:06 – How different types of stress contribute to employee burnout
12:25 – 4 Ways to encourage flex time for your employees
21:15 – How to help employees feel more secure in their work environment
29:06 – 4 Tactics to prevent project and workload overwhelm
40:50 – 52% of employees do not use all of their vacation time

Jump to webinar transcript

About: Stressed out Team? How to Prevent and Treat Employee Burnout at its Roots

Managers are stuck in an unavoidable struggle. They need to meet the expectations of other departments and senior leaders all while protecting their teams from becoming overwhelmed.

At Workzone project management, we believe that a work-life balance needs to be promoted and integrated throughout workplace cultures.

But how do you make that happen when your massive task list seems to be on steroids?

This recorded webinar contains:

The top reasons why employees get burnt out on the job
How you can identify stressors before they can cause damage
The psychology behind our reactions to feeling burnt out
Simple tactics to prevent employee burnout while managing a growing workload

How to Manage Employee Burnout: 5 Research-Backed Steps to Prevent and Treat Employee Burnout

Your employees likely started their jobs wanting to do good work. And every day, they continue to want to fit in, make a difference, and want their work to matter. But, something over time may have gotten in the way of that — That something is stress.

Stress is a widespread and increasingly costly workplace issue for both employees and employers.

We will go through five contributing circumstances that cause employees to feel additional stress. Then we’ll discuss ways you can help alleviate that stress and help your employees boost productivity, performance, and wellbeing.

What is employee burnout?

How to manage employee burnout? Let’s define it first. According to the World Health Organization, employee burnout is an occupational phenomenon:

“conceptualized as resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed, characterized by three dimensions:

feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion;
increased mental distance from one’s job, or feelings of negativism or cynicism related to one’s job; and
reduced professional efficacy.”

While not considered a “disease” by WHO standards, employee burnout is enough of a problem to comment on. This is enough for businesses to take notice of and ensure their employees have a healthy work/life balance.

Step 1: Reward productivity

An essential contributor to employee burnout and stress is that employees are rewarded for time spent at their desks rather than for productivity.

Employees are spending much of their life at work, but that time is not necessarily being spent on productive behaviors.

A 2016 study polled nearly 2,000 workers and found that workers are only productive for about 3 hours a day. Another study backed that up finding that only about 39% of our workday is spent on actual work.

Rewarding productivity instead of hours clocked lets employees focus on being more efficient in less time. This improvement allows for a better work-life balance, reducing stress and employee burnout.

What can we do to increase productivity?

Many employers, including Workzone, have adopted flexible work schedules. Flexible work policies seem to be a big hit with two significant groups: millennials and older workers.

A 2017 Deloitte Millennial Survey of 8,000 employees found flexible work policies retain employees. Average retainment went from under two years to over five, a 3-year improvement. Further, a report funded by the National Institute on Aging found “60% of retirees would be willing to return to work with a flexible schedule.”

Yet, 53% of employees say there’s no official flexible work policy in place.

One of the biggest concerns managers often have about flexible work schedules is that employees will abuse this perk. Research says the exact opposite is happening. Most employees would love to use this time, however, 40% of employees believe using this time will hurt their career.

4 ways to encourage flex time

How to manage employee burnout - 4 ways to offer flex time

Flextime can be offered in multiple ways. It can include work from home days, summer Fridays off, or even a four-day workweek. Think about what makes sense for your team and talk about it openly.
Make time for flextime. Start with having a conversation with your team about when it’s appropriate to take advantage of flex time. A clear conversation about a hybrid work setup will go a long way to increase productivity.
Show employees they can use it. Because employees are so afraid to take time off, show that others, including yourself, are utilizing flex time. Something simple you can do is leave loudly — make your exit known. When employees see you leaving early, they feel that they can too.
Reward performance instead of presence. When you praise employees for staying late or working overtime, you’re rewarding behavior that may not be productive. To implement this process, you’ll need to reward performance instead of time in the office.

Takeaway: While flex time is one of the hottest benefits offered these days, it’s not getting used enough. Employees are afraid they will be seen as uncommitted. Make sure to build space into your schedule to allow employees to take advantage of its benefits. In the end, the policy will help prevent employee burnout and retain them on your team.

Step 2: Help eliminate unknowns

The second key contributor to employee stress is forcing them to try to read our minds.

Employees are constantly looking for signs of how they, the team, and the company is performing. Whether it’s a facial expression or side comment, they are paying attention to everything their managers say and do.

Why?

They are looking for signals from you to assess whether their job is safe and secure, whether they are accepted and liked, and whether there is any other reason they should feel worried about their future.

Research has found that your brain acts as a prediction engine. It’s so essential for your survival that your brain rewards you for making an accurate prediction. You even get a boost of dopamine when your prediction is right, (even a negative outcome too!).

Since our brains are craving predictability, simple changes, even positive ones can hurt productivity.

These issues typically arise the most when any of the following happens

A manager’s behavior changes
Employees feel left out
When employees aren’t given any (or enough) information
Employees feel like they are being treated unfairly

4 ways to help employees feel more secure

Be predictable. Adhering to predictable routines creates stability, reduces chaos, and allows employees to acclimate to well-established schedules and expectations. If your schedule or demeanor suddenly changes, let your employees know why, so they don’t wonder. Communicate with them.
Increase transparency. Being candid and clear with internal communications such as progress reports and quarterly financials makes employees feel trusted, valued, and part of the larger business organization and goals.
Fill the gossip mill instead of fueling it. Controlling the narrative on internal conversations is key to dispelling rumors and gossip that can undermine employee morale and productivity. This may seem counter-intuitive. But the reality is that gossip is going to happen no matter what. Wouldn’t you rather them be sharing correct information?
Treat employees similarly. Team members will inevitably compare themselves, so it’s your job to help everyone feel that they are a crucial part of your team. Creating a culture of fairness is critical to winning the goodwill of employees.

Takeaway: Our brains work as prediction engines. And employees are looking at us for signals to see if anything is new or changing. To help keep them focused on work instead of worrying, be as predictable as possible as well as transparent.

Step 3: Make workloads more manageable

Another huge source of employee stress comes from attempting to juggle too much at once. Most employees aren’t asking for deadline extensions, even when they desperately need them.

For years we’ve heard the stories of the “corporate warrior.” The perfect candidate will be someone who gets in early, stays late, is an overachiever on every project; oh yes, and they should still be able to maintain their health and fitness goals and have an active social life.

We’ve also heard the horror stories of real-life “corporate warriors.” Including a recent story about workers in Japan who are haunted by the nightmare of karoshi, or death from overwork. Or one headline here in the US that suggests we are the most “Overworked Developed Nation in the World.”

Why do we do we work ourselves so much?

Well, one study suggests that it may not be because our managers or companies expect it — especially when it comes to asking for extensions on project deadlines.

A Harvard survey of 10,000 employees and managers found that asking for extensions was perceived positively by managers, and 95% of the time, extensions were given. Yet only 10% of employees said they’d ask for an extension if they felt time pressure.

Why are employees afraid to ask for time off?

The study found that employees — especially female employees — feared that asking for an extension would lead to their managers thinking that they were not as committed to their work, were incompetent, and were unmotivated.

As a manager, the question becomes, “how can you make sure you’re employees are not overwhelmed by their workload if they aren’t willing to speak up and tell you?”

4 solutions for making workloads more manageable

How to manage employee burnout - 4 ways to prevent workload overwhelm

Track workloads. We tend to overestimate how much time we have in a week. Have you ever heard of the “planning fallacy?” We expect things in the future to go well, and we underestimate how much time we actually need. Tracking your team’s workload allows you to make sure you aren’t assigning your team more than they can handle in a week.
Show them it’s okay to ask for extensions. For your team to know they can come to you when they are feeling overwhelmed and need more time, you need to demonstrate that it’s okay. Sharing that other employees needed more time is one way to get that message across. Another way is to ask for extensions when you need them and share that with your team.
Clarify whether a deadline is flexible. Sure, not every deadline is flexible. Sometimes you do need that copy by 2 pm sharp. Make sure that you communicate this when you assign projects.
Set priorities and use task dependencies. When you’re outlining your team’s projects and tasks, you’ll want to make sure you set priorities, deadlines, and create task dependencies. When you have multiple employees working together on one project, and there is a clear step-by-step process that needs to be followed, these dependencies can help you manage workloads more effectively.

Bonus Tip #5: Use Workzone’s workload report feature to keep your team from becoming overwhelmed.

Takeaway: Research shows that although managers are willing to give extensions, employees aren’t asking for them for fear that they will be seen as incompetent. Plus, the planning fallacy leads us to believe we will be more productive than we are. Take the time to estimate and monitor workloads.

Step 4: Minimize the effect of toxic employees

While many organizations strive for positive workplace culture, there will almost always be miscommunication, confrontation, and even a few bad eggs in the bunch.

In the workplace, you’ve got leaders, managers and supervisors, and team members — and many different departments working together. And as a company grows, the drama often grows as well.

Toxic employees get ahead by only thinking about themselves, throwing coworkers under the bus, gossiping, not taking on their fair share of the workload… the list of issues goes on and on.

We can all spot someone toxic to the environment in our workplace.

Common toxic workplace personality types:

Slacker: A master at procrastination, passing responsibilities to someone else.
Bully: Overly aggressive with coworkers and uses position to achieve desired results.
Gossip: Relishes creating drama through rumor-spreading.
Lone Wolf: “That’s not my job.” “I can do this myself.” The antithesis of a team player.
Emotional Mess: Use their work environment as a therapist’s office.
Closed-Minded Know-It-All: Lacking a growth mindset.

While toxic employees are a problem for any workforce, they’re not the only group of people you need to manage to reduce negativity and stress in the workplace.

Another key group is toxic handlers.

A toxic handler is an employee who voluntarily shoulders the sadness, frustration, bitterness, and anger that are endemic to organizational life.

Toxic handlers often take on this role at a great cost to their well-being. We all wish toxic handlers were unnecessary, but far too often, a toxic handler is doing the work that needs to be done to manage organizational pain.

Sometimes toxic handlers can be misconstrued as toxic employees, so it’s important to ask questions and listen carefully before making judgments.

It’s easy to relate one to the other, especially since a toxic handler will often know what’s going on. This could easily be interpreted as gossip. And this may make this situation even more difficult to navigate as a manager. But sweeping any of this behavior under the rug can lead to more and more toxicity and stress.

So how can you help alleviate the stress a toxic handler is under?

How to manage employee burnout - 3 ways to alleviate stress for a toxic handler

Identify and eliminate the problem. If it’s clear that the problem is coming from one bad egg, take the necessary steps to address the problem. Don’t just let it fester.
Give them a safe space to discuss their concerns. If there’s not much you can do about the problem, make sure you give the toxic handler a safe space to discuss the issue. They need to know that you see the issue, that you’re on their side, and want to help them. Let them know that they don’t need to take on this role if they don’t want to.
Place them in a situation where they can be successful. If handling these issues is causing them stress and leading to employee burnout, you may need to take drastic steps. This could include finding them a new area to work or allowing them space, such as work from home days to take the time, to regroup and refocus. As a last resort, you can consider moving them to a new department.

Takeaway: Toxic employees can cause a lot of stress. Especially when other employees try to take on the role of a toxic handler, providing support for other employees at the expense of their well-being. When you see toxic behavior, investigate where it is coming from, ask questions, listen, and do what you can to end it. And make sure your toxic handler knows that they can come to you and that they don’t need to continue to take on this role.

Step 5: Encourage time off

The final key contributor to employee burnout and stress is that employees aren’t using their vacation time.

How many times have you heard, “I need a vacation!” Or even, “I need a vacation from my vacation.”

In 2017, one study reported that 52% of employees didn’t use all of their vacation time. Additionally, 61% report doing work while on vacation.

While some employees relish the idea of getting some time off, too often, they are avoiding vacations due to the complexity of preparing for time off at work, finding other employees to help shoulder the burden, and dealing with increased stress when they return. In fact, 15% of Americans report taking no time off.

Over the past decade, an astounding number of studies have shown that performance plummets when we work prolonged periods without a break.

At Workzone, much like many other companies, we started testing out unlimited PTO (paid time off) with a few of our teams. But we too found that employees weren’t taking enough time off.

The Journal of Happiness Studies found that the ideal length of a vacation is exactly eight days. Yet, too often, employees are only taking vacations for four days or less.

So how can we encourage our employees to take the breaks they need? Here are three suggestions:

How to manage employee burnout - 3 ways to make the most of vacation time

Make vacation mandatory. We have recently decided to start a mandatory vacation program for all employees. Not only will we be giving unlimited PTO, but our employees will be required to take at least two weeks of paid vacation. Consider instituting a policy that one vacation a year must be for at least a week.
Prepare for their absence. Utilize shared vacation calendars and reminders to make sure you and your team are prepared for planned absences. One company even went as far as to say that if employees responded to work while they were on vacation, they wouldn’t get paid. That seems extreme, but it sends a clear message.
Encourage employees to plan. Research has shown that holidays planned over a month in advance are restorative, whereas the stress of last-minute vacations can negate the positive impacts of time off. Plus, you want to make sure your team can prepare, so put in place policies to ensure employees are requesting time off with plenty of notice.

Takeaway: Too many employees aren’t using their vacations. When employees don’t take the breaks they need, productivity and mental health plummet. So it’s important to encourage your team or maybe even make it mandatory to take vacations.

Conclusion

As you can see, setting priorities, rewarding productivity, monitoring workloads, and increasing visibility are key for eliminating workplace stress.

Software can help implement these steps. But it’s just one piece of the puzzle.

That’s why we put together a high-touch success and support model. Every one of our customers is given unlimited training and active support — including a clear onboarding plan and schedule.

As well as continued support with quarterly scheduled business review calls to make sure you’re getting the most out of the system and able to head off issues before they arise.

Set up a demo with one of our team members so that you can learn more about how we help busy teams do more!

We at Workzone are proud to be the project management software market leader in customer success and onboarding due to our unmatched Success & Support teams.

Webinar transcript

Glynnis (00:00:05):
Welcome to today’s webinar, Stressed-Out Team? How to Prevent and Treat Employee Burnout at its Roots. My name is Glynnis Purcell. I’m the director of sales here at Workzone Project Management. And I’m joined today by our speaker and Workzone’s director of marketing, Diana Asbury. And we are calling in from our respective homes just outside of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Diana (00:00:24):
Yeah. Thanks everybody for joining us. Hey, Glynnis. And it’s really great to have everybody here today and we really appreciate you sharing those answers at the beginning to our opening question. I think we’re all too aware at this point that stress is widespread and increasingly a costly workplace issue for both employees and employers. Both for this time, especially at this time, I should say over the last 18 months with everything changing, stress has really come with all of the pandemic changes, whether it’s working from home or now maybe going back to work, being short staffed. So, I think this is a really, really good topic for us right now at this time.

Glynnis (00:01:10):
Yeah, it definitely is. With so many things changing and continually changing, there’s a lot of stress underlying most workplaces right now. So, let me start with some background and share a little bit about why we wanted to host this program today. At Workzone, our mission is to help teams achieve their goals while living a balanced, healthy life. This people focused approach to process change and project management is at the core of everything we do.

We believe that a work-life balance needs to be promoted. Now, we’re a team who loves what we do and we aim to help teams manage their workloads effectively so that their work doesn’t have to control their lives. We want the same for our team. We’ve put in place a number of solutions to promote health balance and overall wellness. As we go through some of the solutions today, we’ll talk about a number of changes we’ve made as a company to live out this mission, including the ones we’ve made during the pandemic.

Glynnis (00:02:02):
So I want to ask all of you joining us, do you agree? Tell us by typing yes, or I’m ready. If you’re joining today because you value your employees and you know they are the key to your success, you’re seeing signs of stress and potentially even burnout in your team and you want to take the steps to prevent burnout and retain your employees. If any of these are areas you can relate to, type yes or I’m ready in the questions box, let us know that you’re here, you’re listening and you’re excited to get started. And we definitely do have some engagement this morning, guys. We got Kelly, Natalie, Trina, Diana. Awesome guys. Thank you so much. Mike, Kim. Awesome. Good to see these guys. We’ve got a lot-

Diana (00:02:46):
Oh, wow. Everybody’s really excited this morning. It’s so [inaudible 00:02:47].

Glynnis (00:02:48):
It is awesome. Jasmine. So, right now I would like to quickly introduce today’s speaker, Diana Asbury. As I said, Diana is our director of marketing here at Workzone and her expertise lies in building laser targeted lead and demand generation systems. For nearly seven years, Diana worked for Rapid Learning, a pioneer in micro-learning sales and leadership training programs, where she produced dozens of webinars on topics such as employee loyalty and motivation, goal setting, hiring, and much more. Additionally, she’s consulted for multinational brands and has spoken at conferences alongside speakers from HubSpot, Salesforce and Moz.

Diana (00:03:23):
Thanks so much for sharing that Glynnis. So, today we’re going to split the event into two parts. In the first 25 minutes or so, we’re going to be covering three contributing circumstances that lead to employee stress and burnout and how you can take action to overcome those stressors. Then if it’s okay with you guys, we’re going to go ahead and take about a 60 second break to share a little bit more about Workzone. Glynnis and I like to call this our shameless plug we know. But we said this is just going to take about a minute and then we’re going to cover two more research backed solutions to overcoming stressors. One of them has some of my favorite information. So make sure you stick around for that one. And then after this main presentation, we’re going to get to your questions. So a lot of you have been engaging with us already using that sidebar, there’s a questions or comments box there. So go ahead and use that at any point in time to send us your questions.

Glynnis (00:04:18):
And after the session, you’ll receive a message asking you to take a survey. It takes about a minute to complete, and we do read all of your feedback. We take it quite seriously. It really helps us improve these programs. So, if you take the time to share your feedback, as a thank you, we’ll send you a free guide on 10 ways you can get more done with the same resources. Now, Diana, before you jump into the meat of the presentation, can you share a little bit about what you’ll be discussing today?

Diana (00:04:43):
Yes, absolutely. So let’s start by talking about feelings for a minute. You’ll notice throughout this whole presentation, we tried to add a little bit of humor because this is a serious subject, but yeah, feelings. Let’s talk about feelings. So, who’s already getting uncomfortable in this moment? Well, stress is defined as a feeling of emotional or physical tension. But if we break down stress, there are certainly contributing factors, feelings that pile up and make us experience more and more stress until we hit our breaking point and we’re burned out.

So what are some of those feelings? Well, how about guilt? Who here has felt guilty that they took a day off or maybe needed to spend some time taking care of family members, kids, or whoever as they’ve been maybe working from home or whatever for the past few months? I know for me, I had a migraine last week and I got to tell you that I took a half day off and I still felt guilty even though we put a lot of things in place that I shouldn’t feel that way, but I certainly felt it. It’s a human emotion for sure.

Glynnis (00:05:48):
Yeah, definitely. I don’t think anything can stop that. I see Natalie has said, amen. And Jasmine definitely. Yeah. I think we all feel it. I know I’m moving next week and they conveniently put my moving date for Wednesday and I’m already feeling guilty about having to take the whole day off and a little stressed. And talking about that, overwhelmed.

Diana (00:06:07):
Yeah, there you go. Overwhelmed.

Glynnis (00:06:12):
Yeah. And I bet some of you joining us have definitely felt overwhelmed at some point, probably in the last 24 hours. Or maybe there’s fear, concern that you don’t know what’s going on with your company or whether your job is secure.

Diana (00:06:26):
Yeah. Those are good ones. And lastly, how about just an overall lack of motivation. Because as all of those feelings pile up, we just aren’t sure how to keep going. What’s the right next step? And these feelings that employees are experiencing, they’re experiencing them daily. If we’re experiencing them, they sure are too. And as their manager, it’s our job to address these and help them perform at an optimal level. And so before we move forward, I want to discuss one other thing. That’s compassion. Compassion is being conscious of and sympathetic towards others distress, the desire to alleviate it. And you’ve chosen to join us for today’s webinar because you probably have seen the signs of stress and burnout in your team members. Not only do you really need them to perform at a peak level as their manager, but I would guess that you also truly do care about them.

Diana (00:07:16):
You personally would like to see them succeed at what they’re doing. So it’s important to recognize that no workplace anywhere is perfect, but with leaders like you who have really a desire to alleviate stress from your team, you’re making a difference and you’re acting out of compassion. And first second, I’d love for you to just think back to the first day or week that one of your employees started on your team, or even when you started on your team. That employee, they started this job wanting to do a great job. They came in, they were very excited and every day they truly want to fit in, make a difference. They want their work to matter. But something over time has gotten in the way of that. And so today we’re going to walk through five contributing circumstances that cause employees to feel additional stress. And then what we’re going to do, is discuss ways that you can help to alleviate that stress.

Glynnis (00:08:13):
Perfect. So, let’s move on to the first contributing circumstance that leads to stress and burnout.

Diana (00:08:18):
All right, let’s do it.

Glynnis (00:08:20):
Great. So, the first is that traditionally employees are rewarded for being present over productivity. So, imagine this scenario, you’re talking to a friend you haven’t seen in ages and they ask how work is going, right? Or you ask how work is going. And they say, “Oh, I’m just working too many hours.” Way too many of us can relate to this. Sitting at our desk from nine to five, if not longer, or trying to fit in extra hours on the weekend or at night, or maybe an early morning powering through your work, but just not feeling productive.

Diana (00:08:51):
Yeah, that’s right. The first thing we need to know is that the eight hour work day wasn’t created based on research. So, Henry Ford was one of the first to implement an eight hour work day. And actually prior to that, prior to the 20th century, factory workers often worked 12 or more hours, six or seven days a week. And when they moved to the eight hour work day, productivity actually soared. So in a 2016 study that pulled nearly 2000 workers, they found that workers are only productive for just about three hours a day. Another study to sort of back that up, they found that only 39% of our work day is spent on actual work.

Diana (00:09:32):
Yet, so many workplaces are severally warning employees for being on time, early, working after hours, even now as a lot of us might be working from home, we oftentimes, when we work from home, I don’t know about you guys, but I feel like I need to be available at a moment’s notice. Make sure that everybody knows you’re on top of it. And here’s what all of this boils down to. We are spending a lot of our waking hours on work or at work, but that time is not necessarily being spent on productive behaviors.

Glynnis (00:10:09):
Yeah. And to compound the issue, employees are sedentary for longer than ever before. You’ve probably seen headlines, how sitting is killing you, pop up on almost every leadership blog around. But what do the workers think? Well, in a survey, they found that 70% of full-time American workers say they hate sitting, yet 86% of them do it all day every day. Now, some people have found a small solution, 56% use getting food is an excuse to get up and get moving. I know I used to do that in our office. I used to use that time to climb the stairs to our snack bar. Now, I just get up in between meetings and take a little walk around my island. So, Diana, what can we do to increase productivity and mobility?

Diana (00:10:53):
Yeah. So, let’s go ahead and tackle these separately. So first productivity. Many employers, including Workzone have adopted flexible work schedules, but 53% of employees say there’s no official flexible work policy in place. So, if you don’t currently have a flexible work policy in place, should you adopt one? Well, definitely. Right? Flexible work policies seem to be a big hit with very two important groups, millennials and older workers. In a 2017 Deloitte Millennial survey of 8,000 employees, they found that truly flexible work policies have been found to retain employees for an additional three plus years from under two years to over five.

Diana (00:11:39):
Meanwhile, a report funded by the National Institute on Aging, found that about 60% of retirees would be willing to return to work with a flexible schedule. So one of the biggest concerns about flexible work schedules is that employees will abuse the perk. But the research actually says that the exact opposite is happening. We’ve kind of heard that from Glynnis and I. Well, most employees would love to use that time. 40% of employees reported that they believe using the time is actually going to hurt their career. Not great, huh?

Glynnis (00:12:12):
Yeah. And this definitely ties into another point we’re going to make later in the presentation too, about people thinking one thing and having the research be another. But how can these attendees get the benefits out of offering flex time?

Diana (00:12:26):
Yeah. So, there’s a couple things to consider. The first one is that flex time can be offered in a couple of different ways. So, flex time could include work from home days. Many of us now are working from home. We shifted to that, so that may not be something to offer anymore. But as a lot of companies are going back into the office, you might want to think about, can our employees now work from home more? Maybe summer Fridays, or even offering a four day work week. Think about really what makes sense for your team and talk about it openly.

Glynnis (00:13:01):
Yeah. And I’ve also heard… And we’ve probably seen studies recently that some companies are implementing shorter work days. So, five or six hour days that promote more focus productivity.

Diana (00:13:11):
Yeah, yeah. Depending on your working environment, that could definitely be a good option. The next thing that you should do is make time for flex time. So, just have a conversation with your team about when they need to be in the office, when they have activities outside of the office that they want to be involved in and what’s appropriate for them to take advantage of what’s the right timing and what works for you. If your team’s currently working from home, you could make sure that they’re taking time for walks outside, taking a break for lunch, things like that. Just make sure that they’re building it into their schedule and you’re finding ways to make it meaningful for them, not just taking a break to take a break, but something that’s truly going to energize and motivate them.

Glynnis (00:13:53):
And for teams that have to be available during specific hours, work on creating a shift calendar to help the team feel that they’re getting this perk as well. I know that being in sales, we always have to have somebody around. So I did that with my sales team.

Diana (00:14:07):
Yeah. This next one piggybacks on that same idea. Show employees that they can use it. You’re going to do things like creating calendars to show when colleagues are out of the office or just taking a little bit of a break. If you’re going to take a walk every day at lunch, throw it on your calendar. Employees are sometimes really afraid to take their time off. So it’s really, really important to show that others, including yourself are actually utilizing flex time and be very transparent with that.

Glynnis (00:14:36):
Yeah. It reminds me of something that happened the other day. I told everybody I had to move. Strangely enough, my boyfriend and I had to do a new orientation in our building and I was talking to our CEO how they only do it on weekdays. And he said, “Well, if you got to do it in the middle of the day, do it in the middle of the day.” And just having a leader tell you that can be really encouraging. So, as leaders ourselves, something we can do is let your team know it’s okay. If you are doing something, a doctor’s appointment, a new resident orientation, block it off on your calendar so that your team can see it.

Diana (00:15:08):
Yeah. Even simple things like going to the dentist, right? Put it on your calendar, show the time that’s taking not only to be at the dentist, but also to travel. Things… Being more transparent overall is just so important. And then reward performance instead of presence. When you praise employees for staying late or working overtime, even if they’re working from home and mention it like a badge of honor that they work late or on the weekends, what you’re doing is your rewarding behavior that may not actually be productive. Who knows? I mean, maybe they work better in the mornings, but then think about what that really means for their day. Are they then staying late and then it’s not as productive? Think about what you’re rewarding.

Diana (00:15:50):
So, to really implement this process, you need to reward performance though, instead of time actually working. Just basic time on work. You need to focus more on what are they doing? What are the types of activities? Are they achieving more and more? So the next thing we’re going to tackle is the sedentary behaviors. So, there’s a few ways you can encourage your team to move more frequently. The first one is to offer, sit/stand desks. I’m at one right now.

Glynnis (00:16:21):
Cool. I was looking at one earlier for my new place. But I know you are working from the office, this was a massive game changer for our team. About half of our team at Workzone decided convert to sit/stand desks. And now that we’re working from home, we see some of our employees creating their own sit/stand desks. We’ve actually even offered to buy them for team members who didn’t have a desk or wanted one.

Diana (00:16:45):
Yeah. And the expense of new desk could be counterbalanced by savings related to overall employee health and productivity. The studies have said that sitting desk reduce the risk of waking obesity, heart disease, back pain while increasing employee productivity and their energy levels. Certainly I find that I have more energy when I’m standing, although I have to sit every so often. And then this next one is something that I read in our article years ago. And it just stuck with me and it’s walking meetings. So instead of meeting in a conference room or even just on Zoom, check out what parks are nearby or walk around your building for a few times. I used to have a building I worked in that was really big and we would take couple laps around. And research shows that walking encourages your brain to release endorphins that enhances health mood and creativity while decreasing the emotional and psychological impact of stress.

Diana (00:17:40):
Let’s say that you’re working from home as well. One thing you could try to do is take your phone with you, arrange with somebody else, “Hey, let’s do this while we’re walking. We don’t need to take notes right now, we can record this or whatever.” And just put your headphones right into your phone and put that phone in the pocket and go for a walk and kind of make it a date with somebody who you’re meeting with to say, “Hey, we’re going to get outside and we’re going to do this.” And I think you’ll actually find that you’re going to come up with even ideas.

Glynnis (00:18:10):
Yeah. And now that many of us are still working from home, it’s kind of become the new norm. It’s more important than ever to schedule time in the day for activity. Scheduled activity. We’ve all been there, hours can go by, you’ve got meeting after meeting and you just feel like you never move. I know one of the things I did last year is I purchased a Peloton for my apartment. I don’t live in the biggest place, but I was able to fit it in. And it definitely makes me get my exercise, that bike stares at me all day long guys, I’m not kidding. So, making sure that you’re scheduling that activity. And Diana, I know that you got an elliptical and for your back, you just got that Pilates reformer.

Diana (00:18:51):
Yes. And that’s right next to the room next door. So I know what you mean about having it in the room or near you, because it’s much different when it’s on a different floor or you have to go to the gym. So, anything you can do to get moving, the biggest thing is though scheduling it into your work schedule, being transparent about it. I think even just as simple as either a morning walk, a midday walk and putting it on your calendar so that your team is seeing it too, because you’re promoting it. As leaders, we need to promote this.

Glynnis (00:19:21):
Exactly. And there’s also certain peak hours of the day work. I find that my most productive working hours are from around eight 30 to noon. So sometimes I’ll schedule in a lunchtime quick bike ride, because I know that my energy levels drop after around noon.

Diana (00:19:36):
Yeah. And I do think that if you can offer flexible schedules in your work, it’s really going to help your team become their most productive selves.

Glynnis (00:19:48):
Exactly. So Diana, what is the next item you’d like to address?

Diana (00:19:53):
As we discuss the next contributing circumstance that leads to increased stress, we’re going to talk about some of my favorite psychological research. The next factor is employees are trying to read our minds. Think back to… Glynnis, last time we were in the office and you went into a meeting, you came out and at that time, do you remember detecting a few glances your way?

Glynnis (00:20:19):
More like deer in the headlights coming back down those stairs. Definitely happens more times than I can count pretty much coming out of every meeting.

Diana (00:20:27):
Yes, absolutely. And I think now that we’re working from home, we sometimes find that some of our employees are kind of feeling out of the loop, right?

Glynnis (00:20:35):
Oh, for sure. We try our best to keep them informed, but it can be hard since they’re not right there. If someone’s not in a meeting or a call, they’re not going to know what we discuss and you have to be very conscious about updating them.

Diana (00:20:49):
Yeah. In general, employees are looking for any sign of how they’re performing, how your team is performing, how the company is doing. Whether it’s a facial expression, a side comment, who knows? Sometimes you can mention, oh, I had this meeting and they only heard a part of it. And oh, it spikes their attention. They are paying attention to everything that we say and do for signs of what’s going on.

Glynnis (00:21:12):
Oh, yeah. It’s a little creepy sometimes.

Diana (00:21:14):
Yeah. Yeah. Employees, they’re just looking for a signal for me to assess whether their job is safe and secure, whether they’re accepted and liked. It’s as basic as that.

Glynnis (00:21:26):
Yeah. And it may a lot of sense. But tell us more about the psychological research behind this.

Diana (00:21:31):
Yeah. So our brain actually acts as a prediction engine. So it’s essential for your survival that your brain actually rewards you for making accurate predictions. This stems all the way back to caveman times, tens of thousands of years ago, back then, a simple miss calculation could lead to trouble. So your brain gives you a boost of chemicals like dopamine when your prediction is right. Even if what you predicted has a negative outcome, I think we’ve all been in that situation where we’ve been like, “I know this isn’t going to end well.” And when it doesn’t end well, part of our brains is like, “Oh, I was right.” And so since our brains are craving predictability, simple changes. Even the ones that are positive changes can actually have a negative effect on your team’s productivity.

Glynnis (00:22:20):
Yeah. I have been in the situation you just commented on so many times. So, you know something bad’s going to that, it happens and part of you, strangely enough is happy because you were right.

Diana (00:22:31):
And that’s your brain getting excited because you predicted something right.

Glynnis (00:22:38):
But in a work setting I could see this happening when manager behavior changes, when employees feel left out, when they aren’t given any information or when they feel like they’re being treated unfairly. So how do you combat this?

Diana (00:22:50):
Okay. So, we’re going to go over four ways. The first is be more predictable. So, let’s say you come into work and have a meeting every day at a specific time, maybe eight or 9:00 AM. And one day you’re just running a couple of minutes late. Maybe who knows? We all run late sometimes, doctor’s appointment ran late, the bus came late. Who knows? Either way your employees at that time you think, “Okay, this isn’t a big deal.” Right? But even a few minutes in that moment, there’s a little bit of stress starting to happen. So, it’s a simple solution. Even if you think it’s minuscule, communicate changes with them.

Glynnis (00:23:32):
Yeah, definitely. And the same would go for your demeanor during meetings or the way you communicate even in messaging programs like Slack. Adhering to predictable routines create stability. It reduces chaos and it allows employees to acclimate to well-established schedules and expectations. And I know that our attendee, Diana knows this. She said changing meeting structure with no warning makes everyone really nervous. You are absolutely right, Diana.

Diana (00:23:57):
Yeah, absolutely. The next thing is to increase transparency. Being candid and clear with internal communications makes employees feel like you trust them, that they’re valued and they’re part of the larger business organization and the goals for the company. And here at Workzone, we value transparency. And so what we do is we meet every single Thursday to share what’s happening in each of our teams. Even as we work from a home, what we do is we have a Zoom meeting where everybody shares their camera, we can see everybody’s faces and it really, really helps to make sure that everybody is on the same page and knows what’s happening.

Glynnis (00:24:36):
Yeah. And quarterly, we share results from the past quarter and financials to increase our team’s feeling of security and understanding of where the business is, which is even more important in a time like this.

Diana (00:24:47):
Yeah, absolutely. We do all these things to help our employees feel more secure and in the know, so they really feel like they know what’s going on. The third thing, this is kind of fun. Fill the gossip mill instead of fueling it. What you really are trying to do here is control the narrative on internal conversation. It’s really the key to dispelling rumors and gossip that can undermine employee morale and productivity. This is probably seeming slightly counterintuitive. Why would you want to add to the gossip on your team? But the reality is that people are going to talk. Gossip is going to happen no matter what. And you would much rather than be sharing the correct information, than telling all sorts of crazy stories. So, make sure you’re controlling the communication within your team.

Glynnis (00:25:35):
And the last one is treat employees similarly.

Diana (00:25:40):
Yeah. It’s inevitable that team members will compare themselves. So, it’s your job to have everyone feel that they’re a crucial part of your team. So, creating a culture of fairness is critical to winning the goodwill of employees, it’s important to address why certain employees may be needed for certain meetings or certain projects. And then also make sure that things like training. Training programs are offered in a similar fashion, that everyone gets an opportunity to grow. That when you have one-on-one meetings, that you’re offering them to every team member and they’re about the same length. All of these things are being processed by your employees, even if you’re not aware of it.

Glynnis (00:26:17):
Yeah. And while you were talking about transparency and making sure team members don’t feel out, I couldn’t help but relate. And I think we all can. A lot of us are fully remote or we have remote employees, and making sure they feel included and valued is definitely a concerted effort to say on top of what we talked about earlier. Even the small changes need to be conveyed to them so they feel included and their opinion is valued.

Diana (00:26:42):
Yeah, absolutely. We certainly have had people who are fully remote when we were back in the office and keeping communication, keeping constant conversations happening with them every day is so important because you don’t have that just natural, “Hey, how’s it going in the morning?” So you really need to stay on top of that.

Glynnis (00:27:01):
Definitely. So, let’s move on to the third point for today. The next contributing circumstance to employee stress is that employees aren’t asking for deadline extensions.

Diana (00:27:11):
Yeah. So for years we’ve all heard of that corporate warrior. They’ve been portrayed in movies and shows and talked about in hiring meetings. Who are we looking for? Well, the perfect candidate is going to be someone who gets in early, they stay late, they’re an overachiever on every single project, and oh yes, they should still be able to maintain their health and fitness goals and have an active social life. Right?

Glynnis (00:27:32):
Oh, of course. I mean, let’s just all hire superwoman.

Diana (00:27:37):
Yeah, yeah. Absolutely. Society has set expectations high. And the reality is, is that employees have too. We’ve also heard of horror stories of real life corporate warriors and know at least a few people who… I mean, guys tell us in the comments, have you heard somebody say, “I’m a workaholic and wear it like a badge.” Have you ever heard somebody say that? I’m sure you have.

Glynnis (00:27:58):
Yeah. I have been guilty of that in the past, but luckily not so much anymore. And the headlines here in the US suggest that we are the most overworked developed nation in the world. So why did [inaudible 00:28:14] you do this?

Diana (00:28:16):
Great question? Well, one study suggests that it may not be because our managers or companies expect it, especially when it comes to asking for extensions on project headlines. So, a Harvard survey of 10,000 employees and managers found that asking for extensions was perceived positively by managers. And 95% of the time, extensions were given. Yet, only 10% of employees said they’d actually ask for an extension if they felt time pressure. So why is this? Well, the study found that employees, especially female employees feared that asking for an extension would lead to their managers thinking that they were not as committed to their work, were incompetent or unmotivated.

Glynnis (00:29:00):
So, as a manager, how can you make sure your employees are not overwhelmed by their workload if they aren’t willing to speak up and tell you?

Diana (00:29:07):
So we’ve identified four things you can do to help employees better manage their workload and feel like they can ask for extensions when they need them. The first is to track workloads. So as managers, including myself, we tend to overestimate how much time we have in a week. Have you heard of the planning fallacy? The planning fallacy is that we expect things in the future to go well, so we underestimate how much time we actually need.

Glynnis (00:29:35):
Oh, yeah. Definitely done that before. And the salesperson in me just has to chime in here because part of what works on offers is the ability to estimate how much time projects will take and track your team’s workload. And I think that could really help here.

Diana (00:29:50):
Yeah, absolutely. And doing so allows you to make sure you aren’t assigning your team more than they can handle in a week. I like to use the workload report myself for just for this reason, because you can definitely… I think we’ve all been there before, show of hands, right? We’ve all overassigned work to our team and we want to make sure that we’re really managing that much better. So there’s a lot of different ways to do that. The next is just show them it’s okay to ask for extensions. Oftentimes employees ask for extensions in private and other team members have no idea that you’ve given them that leeway. So for your team to really know that they can come to you when they’re feeling overwhelmed and need that extra time, you need to demonstrate that it’s okay. So share that other employees and need more time, and this is a way to really open up the conversation and let others know, “It’s okay, come to me. Let’s communicate here.”

Glynnis (00:30:46):
Yeah. It goes back to what we were talking about of showing transparency. Ask for extensions when you need them and share that with your team as well. Sometimes we forget that we need to show our human side too.

Diana (00:30:59):
Yeah. Even if you’re working with one of your employees on a project, you could say, “Hey, I’d really love to get to this with you this week, but I am just overwhelmed. So I just want to be transparent, we’re going to have to move this to this day or something.” So that they’re really aware, even if you’re working with them that sometimes, yeah, you need a little bit of extra time. And you want that open communication. That’s really the key here, because you can come up with solutions when your employees communicate with you. The next is to set priorities and use task dependencies. When you’re outlining your team’s projects and tasks, you want to make sure you set priorities, deadlines and create task dependencies. Oh, did I… I think I missed number three.

Glynnis (00:31:45):
I think you just skipped over number three. I’ll quickly touch on it. It’s just clarify whether a deadline is flexible. We know not every deadline is flexible, sometimes you really do need that copy by 2:00 PM, but make sure that you communicate this when you assign a project. And that kind of leads us into the last topic, which is setting those priorities and task dependencies. And some of you might be unfamiliar with task dependencies. They’re essentially linked tasks that move deadlines based on when another task is completed. So when you have multiple employees working together on one project, there’s a clear step by step process that needs to be followed. These dependencies can help you manage workloads more effectively.

Diana (00:32:26):
Yes. Thanks Glynnis. Thanks for that clarification. So, next we’re going to discuss how toxic employees can increase stress and what you can do about it. Before we do so, I’m going to pass the conversation back over to Glynnis, just for this quick break. But yeah, this stuff we’re going to get to next is some juicy stuff. So stick around just for this quick minute.

Glynnis (00:32:48):
Thanks, Diana. And guys, thanks for sticking with us through this scheduled break. Like we said earlier, at Workzone, we believe that people have to come first. And today we’re talking about preventing and treating stress. And as we just discussed, setting priorities, monitoring workloads, and increasing visibility is key to making this happen. Now, software can help streamline the process, but it’s only one piece of the puzzle. And we know that there are endless amounts of project management systems available in the marketplace. But here at Workzone, people are central to the solution. You see, after almost 20 years of working closely with our customers, we found that nearly every one of them has struggled with process change. In fact, 70% of process change fails. Now, before working with us, many expressed they found it difficult to put in place a project management system, that is until they started working with our team at Workzone.

Glynnis (00:33:38):
Now why is that? When we realized that adoption is the number one challenge, we put together a high touch success and support model. Every one of our customers is given unlimited training and active support, including a clear onboarding plan and schedule as well as continued support with quarterly scheduled business reviews to make sure you’re getting the most out of the system and able to head off issues before they arise. So I would like to offer the opportunity to set up a demo with one of our team members so you can learn more about how we help busy teams do more. So we’re going to launch a quick poll, it’ll stay up for about 15 to 20 seconds. Now during the call, they’ll be able to assess your team’s specific needs, analyzing which features can help you achieve your goals. And they’ll also walk you through our support and success plan.

Glynnis (00:34:21):
So we’re going to be taking this poll down in a couple seconds. We’re going to make it available again towards the end of the session, but we do want to keep moving. So, let’s close the poll and jump back in. Diana, I’m going to pass the program back over to you.

Diana (00:34:33):
All right. Thanks, Glynnis. The next topic is, it might be a little bit difficult for some of us to discuss, but I think many of us will be able to relate and potentially identify an employee who fits in this category. So the next contributing factor to stress and burnout is that employees feel the need to protect other employees. So while many organizations strive for a positive workplace culture, there’s almost always going to be miscommunication, confrontation and a few bad eggs in the bunch.

Glynnis (00:35:07):
Yep. It can’t be helped. And it reminds me of something, Rick, our CEO here at Workzone says. He says we have one rule, and that rule is don’t piss in the pool. And I’m sure most people know exactly what that means.

Diana (00:35:20):
Yeah. I love that one. Don’t piss in the pool. And we definitely do know what that means. So anyways, to illustrate the point of this, let’s look at the anatomy of relationships in a workplace. You’ve got leaders, managers, supervisors, and team members, and many different departments all together. And as a company grows, well, we all know that the drama can often grow as well. Enter the toxic employee. We know who they are. They get ahead only by thinking about themselves, throwing coworkers under the bus, gossiping, not taking on their fair share of the workload. The list of issues goes on and on.

Glynnis (00:35:56):
Yeah. I think we can all spot someone who’s toxic in our workplace.

Diana (00:36:00):
Yeah. We thought we’d throw up a list of some of them. And honestly, some of them are kind of a funny name, but not such great behavior. The slacker, the bully, the gossip, the lone wolf, the emotional mess, the closed minded, know-it-all. Now, enter what’s called the toxic handler.

Glynnis (00:36:18):
That’s a new one. What’s a toxic handler?

Diana (00:36:22):
Yeah. Yeah. It is a bit new. This is some interesting information. So, here’s the definition of a toxic handler. It’s an employee who voluntarily shoulders the stress, the sadness, the frustration, the bitterness and anger that are endemic to organizational life.

Glynnis (00:36:40):
My God. That sounds horrible.

Diana (00:36:42):
Yeah.

Glynnis (00:36:43):
I could definitely imagine that a toxic handler takes on this role at great costs of their own wellbeing. I mean, it does not sound healthy in any sense of the word. And unfortunately I’ve definitely seen team members fall into this role before.

Diana (00:36:56):
Yeah. Caregivers, people who really want to make everybody feel good and we all wish toxic handlers were unnecessary. But the thing is that far too often a toxic handler is doing the work that needs to be done to manage organizational pain.

Glynnis (00:37:11):
So, Diana, how do you help alleviate the stress a toxic handler’s under?

Diana (00:37:15):
So, there’s three ways that we’re going to outline today. The first identify the problem and eliminate the problem. So if it’s clear that the problem is coming from one bad egg, you really need to take the necessary steps to address the problem. Don’t just let it fester. And this is really the number one thing that you need to do, is if there’s a problem address it. Do not let things just fester in your team because it is going to cause stress for so many other people. The second thing is, if you have a toxic handler, somebody who’s really trying to manage this situation, then you need to give them a safe space to discuss their concerns. If there’s not much you can do about the problem, this is one way you can help. Give that toxic handler a place to say, “Hey, here’s the issue, what should I do?” And really communicate with somebody.

Diana (00:38:09):
They also need to know that you see the issue, that you’re on their side and you want to help them. The other thing you need to tell them is that they do not need to take on this role if they don’t want to be in this role. Sometimes people feel like, “Hey, nobody else is doing this.” I need to step in here. But you really want to make sure that they know that they shouldn’t have to do this. And yeah, somebody just said lots of these in the healthcare sector. And I have heard that from other healthcare workers at times, where sometimes you’re really feeling like you need to step in and handle these situations. The next and last thing you could do is you could adjust their work environment, but I want to be clear that the other thing should be done first.

Diana (00:38:54):
If handling these issues for them is clearly causing them stress and leading to burnout, you may need to take the drastic step to either find them a new area to work, giving them some space, such as a work from home day, just time to regroup and refocus. And as a last and final resort, you can consider moving them to a new department, which I’m sure has had to happen in certain situations.

Glynnis (00:39:18):
Diana, do you think that sometimes toxic handlers can be misconstrued as being the toxic employee?

Diana (00:39:25):
I think absolutely that that is the case at times. It’s easy to relate one to the other, especially since a toxic handler is often going to have the information about what’s going on. So that could easily be interpreted as gossip. So, this is a really delicate situation. And to make sure that you’re handling the situation correctly as a manager, you really need to ask questions, listen carefully before making judgments, but sweeping any of the behavior under the rug can lead to more and more and stress. And I think that’s really the key to take away here. When you see toxic behavior or you hear of it, find out what’s going on, listen, gather the information and then handle it accordingly. But just too often, managers tend to sweep this stuff under the rug.

Glynnis (00:40:14):
Thanks for adding that, Diana. So let’s move on to the final point for today. Lastly, we’re going to discuss something that at Workzone we’re taking a drastic approach to. The next contributing factor to stress and burnout, is that employees aren’t using their vacation time.

Diana (00:40:29):
Yeah. How many times have you heard somebody say, I need a vacation or even, oh boy, I need a vacation from my vacation. I’m sure I’ve said that multiple time too. In 2017, one study reported that 52% of employees didn’t use all of their vacation time. Additionally, 61% report doing work while on vacation. I haven’t done that in a while. Thanks to my team here. But I used to do that all the time. I used to always bring my… And so sometimes we go on family vacation, I’m looking around, everybody else is doing work on vacation, I’m like, “Oh, this isn’t good. I know this research.” And while some employees, they relish the idea of getting some time off, too often they’re avoiding vacations due to complexity of preparing for that time off of work, finding other employees to help shoulder the burden in dealing with that increased stress when they return.

Diana (00:41:22):
So, 15%… Get this, 15% of Americans report taking no time off whatsoever. Crazy. Over the past decade, a staggering number of studies have demonstrated that our work performance actually plummets when we work prolonged periods without taking a much needed break. And Glynnis, here at our company has really spearheaded this program that we’ve got going. So I’d love for her to chime in and let’s talk about this together. So, Glynnis, first I’d love for you to share with everybody why it was so important for you to take charge of the vacation policy here at Workzone.

Glynnis (00:41:59):
Yeah. Thanks, Diana. As you mentioned, this is really close to my heart. I think taking time off and being paid for that time off is really important. And to clarify, this is really only an issue in the United States. Europeans and other overseas countries value their vacation, they understand the benefit it has to relax and restore physical and mental health. You’ve probably all heard about in Europe, they all take the month of August off. And actually there’s a couple of companies that are doing this now where they’re shutting down for a week, because we’re slowly starting to realize how important this is. I know this firsthand after spending seven years with abroad in Australia. Happy employees are employees who are engaged and encouraged to enjoy a healthy work-life balance. I know that Aussies just love their time off.

Diana (00:42:45):
Thanks for sharing that, Glynnis. Let’s talk about what could be done to encourage employees to use the vacation time. The first of this is to make vacation mandatory. So, at Workzone, much like many other especially software companies, we started testing out unlimited pay time off with a few of our teams. But we too found that employees, they weren’t even taking enough time off when we made it unlimited.

Glynnis (00:43:12):
Yep. It’s a pretty common one. I told you guys, we would loop back to the… We think we’re giving them too much time and they’re going to take it versus they never actually take any of it.

Diana (00:43:20):
Yap.

Glynnis (00:43:20):
So, we recently decided to start a mandatory vacation program for all of our employees. So, not only do we give unlimited PTO, but our employees are actually required to take at least two weeks of paid vacation per year.

Diana (00:43:37):
Yeah. And the Journal of Happiness Studies found that the ideal length of vacation is exactly eight days. The researchers noted that a vacationer will feel an increase of happiness over the first several days of vacation, that feeling peaking on the eighth day. And too often, employees are only taking vacations for four days or less.

Glynnis (00:43:57):
Exactly. And consider instituting a policy that one vacation a year must be for at least a full work week, five working days. Again, we require our employees to take at least one full week of vacation that contributes to the two weeks that we want them to take. And this is really important now as well, because many employees will not take time off with the travel restrictions, with the fact that they’re working from home. They already feel like they’re getting a lot of flexibility. So it’s really necessary to encourage time off, even if it’s going to be something as simple as relaxing at home so that people are still benefiting from shutting down, taking that mental break from work and just thinking about something else.

Diana (00:44:37):
The next thing is to prepare for their absence. Utilize things like share vacation calendars and reminders to make sure you and your team are prepared for planned absences.

Glynnis (00:44:47):
Exactly. The last thing you want to do is pull an employee back to work while away. I know for a fact that I keep a little bit of an eye on my Slack, but I never respond to anything when I’m on vacation. One company, even went as far as to say that if employees responded to work while they were on vacation, they wouldn’t get paid. And I know that probably sounds extreme, but it sounds a very clear message to take your time off as time off.

Diana (00:45:12):
Yeah, absolutely. At first, I thought that was so extreme when I read that and now I’m like, actually that just says, “Hey, just leave it all at home. Don’t take your laptop, baby turn your Slack off or whatever and take that vacation.” And so I don’t completely hate it. I’m sure maybe they wouldn’t actually not pay them. Who knows? The next thing is to encourage employees to plan in advance. Research has shown that vacations planned more than a month in advance are restorative whereas, the stress of vacations booked at the last minute can actually negate the positive impacts of time off.

Glynnis (00:45:47):
Yeah. You definitely want to make sure your team can prepare. So, put in place policies to ensure employees are requesting time off with plenty of notice. We require at least two months of notice for all vacations that are more than three days. So, before we move into the Q&A session Diana, can you review each of the items we’ve covered today and give us a summary of each?

Diana (00:46:07):
Yeah, let’s go through them.

Glynnis (00:46:08):
Okay, great. So the first one was that employees are rewarded for being at their desk over productivity.

Diana (00:46:14):
Yeah. Well, flex time is one of the hottest benefits offered these days. It’s not actually getting used enough. Employees are afraid that they’re going to be seen as uncommitted. So make sure to build space into your schedule to allow employees to take advantage of its benefits. Even just scheduling in a walk every day is so important. In the end, it’s going to help you retain your employees and prevent burnout and stress.

Glynnis (00:46:39):
The second one is that employees are trying to read our minds.

Diana (00:46:43):
Our brains work as prediction engines and employees are looking at us for signals to see if anything is new or changing. To help them focus on work instead of worrying, you want to be as predictable as possible, as well as transparent as possible.

Glynnis (00:47:00):
Number three, employees aren’t asking for deadline extensions.

Diana (00:47:04):
Yeah. So research shows that although managers are willing to give extensions, employees aren’t asking for them for fear that they will be seen as incompetent. In addition, the planning fallacy leads us to believe we will be more productive than we actually are. So, what you want to do is take the time to estimate and monitor workloads. This is something that our team at Workzone could definitely talk to you about, we’d love to help you with this. We certainly have systems in place to help you streamline this process.

Glynnis (00:47:34):
Number four, employees feel the need to protect other employees.

Diana (00:47:39):
Yeah. Toxic employees can cause a lot of stress. I know we’ve all experienced it before, especially when other employees try to take on the role of the toxic handler. Would love to know in the comments by the way, if any of you have felt like you’ve been a toxic handler in the past. I’m sure many of you have. The toxic handler, they provide support for other employees in the expense of their own wellbeing. When you see toxic behavior, what you want to do as a leader is investigate where it’s coming from, ask what, listen and do what you can to end it. Make sure that your toxic handler also knows that they can come to you and specifically that they don’t need to continue to take on the role as a toxic handler.

Glynnis (00:48:23):
And last but not least, employees aren’t using their vacation time.

Diana (00:48:28):
Too many employees aren’t using their vacations. When don’t take the breaks they need, productivity and mental health plummets. So it’s important to encourage your team or maybe even make it mandatory to take vacations, especially even ones that are a full week.

Glynnis (00:48:44):
Thanks, Diana. Okay. Now, we’re about to move into the live Q&A. So if you have a question you have yet to ask, please share it now using the questions box located on the right hand side of the screen, where you guys have been putting your comments. Before we move in, I’ll let you guys have some time to type. We have some exciting news to share. For the second year in a row, Workzone has been rated number one in project management by Software Advice, Capterra and GetApp. And all of these are based on user reviews. What we’re most proud of, is that when rated by our custom, we received 100 out of 100 for our customer service. We’ve said earlier, we believe that software alone is not enough, which is why we help you through our proven adoption process and give you unlimited support so you can sustain process change.

Glynnis (00:49:25):
So, we’re going to share the poll we put up on the screen earlier, the offer will stay up until the end of the presentation. You can either request a free demo or just get more information about what we offer. And just to let you know, you want to make sure not to put the X to close the screen as it will actually exit you from the event completely. And we don’t want you to miss the Q&A portion. So the first option is here. If you’re ready to request a quick demo with our project management experts, or option two is for you if you’re not quite ready for a demo but you’d like some more information. Like I said, the poll’s going to stay up during the Q&A for the remaining part of our presentation. So, if you need a few minutes to think about it, it’s completely fine. So let’s move on to some questions. We’ve got a really good one here. Claire’s asking, “What do we do if our manager is the toxic handler?” Ooh, that’s a great question, Claire.

Diana (00:50:11):
Well, that is a good question. I’d much rather your manager be the toxic handler and not the toxic employee. So, I only saw part of this before Glynnis asked the question and I was like, “Oh, I hope they don’t say a toxic employee.” Well, in reality, part of that, their job is to be a bit of the toxic handler. But if the toxic employee is continuing to cause stress and burnout throughout the entire team, which is likely what is going on, if they’re… Sometimes a toxic handler, especially when they’re a manager, can be the one who is allowing that employee to just sort of stick around and keep doing what they’re doing, because they’re thinking, oh, they’re managing it, but are they really, if the behavior isn’t changing? So I think maybe Claire, correct me if I’m wrong, maybe that’s where you are going with this question. That maybe the manager is just sort of sustaining the behavior because they think that they’re handling it but it’s not really being handled in an appropriate manner.

Diana (00:51:12):
This often comes when a leader just doesn’t have the leadership training and ability to really handle the problem. They may also not know how it’s affecting you. The one thing that’s nice is if they are taking on the role as the toxic handler and they’re having conversations with the toxic employee, but allowing it to continue, they’re likely also willing to listen. So I would consider how you could communicate to that manager, how it is affecting you and maybe some of your team members as well. I think open communication, whether it’s coming from the leadership level or the team level, is so important. It’s really important though, that you consider how you communicate this to your manager. But I think making it very clear, what behaviors are affecting you specifically, is really going to help to address that issue with your manager. Glynnis, do you have any thoughts?

Glynnis (00:52:15):
Yeah. I think those are really great points, Diana. I think sometimes, maybe there is a lack of open communication and maybe you feel uncomfortable talking with your manager about the situation, something that you can do if you’re, and this may seem like a more drastic measure is not going to their leader, but going to peer. Someone who is also a manager, maybe someone that they’re close to and maybe voicing your concern in a way that someone on a similar level can discuss with them. Sometimes when we manage a team and our team members say, “Hey, how are you doing? Are you okay?” We feel really inclined to keep the positive attitude, show a brave face and not be as open and honest with them, where we would be more open and honest with a peer.

Glynnis (00:52:59):
So, if there’s someone on a similar level that maybe you would feel comfortable going to and just saying, “Hey, we’ve noticed this behavior, it’s feeling a little detrimental to the team. We were wondering if maybe you feel comfortable discussing it with our manager or having a conversation with them.” You can really help get the support of other leaders to have a conversation with that person. I think that if somebody on my team went to Diana and she reach out tome, I’d probably be much more open with her than I would with one of them unfortunately. Just the fact of managing. But I think that’s a great question, Claire, and I think there’s a couple different ways you can look at handling that. So, let’s jump over to another question here. So, Sam says, “I suspect some burnout on my team. Is there anything I can do to alleviate things right away?”

Diana (00:53:53):
Absolutely. I think we’re going to keep getting back to the same answers here, but I think overall you need to have open conversations with those who are on your team. So, brushing anything under the rug and thinking, “Oh, well, it’ll just go away.” Doesn’t really help. So, have a genuine conversation with your team member and say, “Hey, how are things really going? It seems like you might be overwhelmed right now, are you feeling overwhelmed?” And then help them to process what’s on their plate. So, oftentimes we don’t want to be a micromanager. And then we kind of go the other direction and we’re like, “Oh, our team can handle all of this? They’ll come to me if they need help.” But as we heard from the research, team members do not come to us because they don’t want to be seen as they’re unmotivated or they’re incompetent.

Diana (00:54:48):
So we want to say to them, “Hey, you know what? I know I’ve given you a lot of work to do, there’s a lot of projects going on. Why don’t we talk about priorities and how much time things will actually take? Because you’re way closer to what’s going on than I am.” There’s another webinar we do, where it says that the person who’s closest to the problem is closest to the solution. So, what we need to do is work through it with them. So, ask them to put together a list of everything that they’re currently working on and tell them, “Listen, I’m not going to judge anything you’re working on, even the simple things. Even the things that I don’t even think to talk about with you, stick them on a list and then let’s look at your priorities.” And one of the things that Workzone does, but you could do in a spreadsheet format as well, is estimate how long each of those things take.

Diana (00:55:41):
And sometimes this takes breaking down that project into all of the tasks that are within that project, because you want to… A lot of times you go, “Oh, that’ll only take a half a day.” But if you broke down all of the different steps in that project, that’s where all of a sudden you uncover, oh, no, this is a three day project and that’s why they’re feeling so overwhelmed because they feel like they need to give all of this to me by Thursday, when there’s no way that that’s going to happen with these five other things they have to do. So, we have to be not a micromanager, but more of a manager who’s willing to sit down and do the work to uncover how long things are actually going to take for our employees. And I think that is going to alleviate stress. From there, you need to look at their schedule. You need to look at, are they taking time for as simple as it sounds a walk outside? Or could they take time for lunch with their family or breakfast with their family? Simple things like that.

Diana (00:56:43):
Are they thinking about what times of day do they work best. For me, I work much better from eight to around a noon or one. And then after that, I’m really not that helpful. So, look at all of those little things and talk with them because all of a sudden you’re going to learn so much more about your employee and then you can start to prescribe the next steps of what to do. They need a vacation? Do they need more flexibility in their schedule? Maybe they just need somebody to reprioritize things? So that’s what you can do right now.

Glynnis (00:57:17):
Yeah, that’s a good point, Diana. The other thing and I’ll quickly add this. We did have one last submission come in, which was a really good one. I want to discuss. Tell them to take the day off. Sometimes people need to be told that they can take the time off. I saw a really cool article the day that a leader said, “Listen, I want you to take the day off unless whatever it is that you’re doing here at work is helping distract you from what’s bothering you.” People have personal lives. Work is not everything. So sometimes somebody just needs to be told, go veg for the day, take care of whatever it is that you’ve got going on and then come back fresh.

Glynnis (00:57:49):
I know I’ve done that with my team so many times, and I can’t tell you how much more productive it’s made them when they can really focus on their work. The last one I want to jump in here. I hope you guys can stay on for this one. Trina submitted, “Leadership is always aware the department is under staffed and we all operate in a reactive mode to annual deadlines. How do you shift the culture?”

Diana (00:58:11):
Okay. So, Trina because you’re understaffed, you’re having to kind of just react to whatever’s going on putting out fires. Right? That sounds like pretty much what’s going on right now. So, you’re trying to shift that culture and… Okay, great. She said yes. So, that’s awesome. All right. So, a couple of things you want to do is as a team, if you can, you want to recognize what’s really going on right now. We’re short staffed, we’re all putting fires out everywhere. Let’s figure out where the fires are coming from. So, even if you’re an employee and not a leader, the one thing you can do is you can start to keep a list of all of the fires you’re starting to put out. Sometimes when we talk about team environments, we forget that there is processes that can be put in place to alleviate stress.

Diana (00:59:11):
So if all of a sudden you’re starting to recognize that there’s a pattern to all the fires that are being put out, start thinking about what the solutions might be to really alleviate some of that stress. Then on top of that, start to look at what your annual goals are. You said that you have some annual deadlines that you want to… Things you want to accomplish. So, re-look at what that is. And focus, talk to your team and see if you can focus on what the most important aspects are. There is no question that you’re not going to be able to get it all done. And what I was just talking about with Sam’s question about outlining all of the tasks and how long it’s actually going to take. It may sound like that is very tedious, but it really clears things away.

Diana (01:00:01):
So if you can do that as a team, and again, we’d be happy to help you with some of this, because this is what we do best. But if you can do this, it is going to make everything much clearer. And that’s really why we all feel stressed. When we don’t understand what’s going on, when we don’t have a clear list of what’s going on and visibility into what’s happening with our team, that’s where all the stress comes from. And so the more you can create visibility and understand what’s going on and then put practices and processes in place, then you’re able to actually work on the most important things on your list and kind of push off the things that maybe aren’t as impactful.

Glynnis (01:00:43):
Yeah. Thanks, Diana. The only thing I’ll add to that, Trina, and I think Diana’s absolutely right, is if you guys are not currently using a project management software or something like that, it can make a huge difference. I know it sounds like just a sales pitch, but one of our customers, that is exactly what they used Workzone for. They wanted to show the amount of work their team was doing, the fact that they were understaffed, they needed extra resources, but they didn’t have any data to back themselves up. And that was what our software was able to help them do, was gather that data, really showcase that and make a case for more resources, extra budget, staffing, things like that. So, I think all good things and a really great question. So thanks for submitting that one.

Diana (01:01:25):
Glynnis, just one thing to piggyback on that, is that same customer, they were going to hire two graphic designers and they realized that they were getting… Because they had a specific process in place for getting requests to come through, they realized that they had a lot of video projects. So all of a sudden, they realized they didn’t need two graphic designers. They needed a graphic designer and a video designer. And so, the reality is that all of this visibility and data is going to help you make the right decisions. And so that you don’t just continue the cycle of feeling overwhelmed and stressed.

Glynnis (01:02:04):
Yeah, exactly. Thanks for sharing that, Diana. With that, guys, we’re going to bring today’s program to a close. So, a few last reminders, as I said before, you’ll receive an email from us with a link to a survey. Please take just a minute out of your day to share your feedback. If you do, as a thank you, we’ll send you our team productivity checklist. Lastly, we’ll be sending you a recording that you can review and share with your colleagues. We do have the second webinar on Thursday at 1:00 PM. So if you have anybody you think would benefit, please invite them and you can expect that recording later this week. And just once again, everybody, thank you so much for your time today. And thanks for joining us.

Diana (01:02:38):
Thanks, Have a great day!

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How to Manage Employee Burnout and Stress: 5 Research-Backed Steps to Improve Productivity

Table of Contents:

Watch: Stressed out Team? How to Prevent and Treat Employee Burnout at its Roots

Attendee reactions to the How to Prevent and Treat Employee Burnout at its Roots webinar

Key timestamps

About: Stressed out Team? How to Prevent and Treat Employee Burnout at its Roots

How to Manage Employee Burnout: 5 Research-Backed Steps to Prevent and Treat Employee Burnout

What is employee burnout?

Step 1: Reward productivity

What can we do to increase productivity?

4 ways to encourage flex time

Step 2: Help eliminate unknowns

These issues typically arise the most when any of the following happens

4 ways to help employees feel more secure

Step 3: Make workloads more manageable

Why do we do we work ourselves so much?

Why are employees afraid to ask for time off?

4 solutions for making workloads more manageable

Step 4: Minimize the effect of toxic employees

Common toxic workplace personality types:

So how can you help alleviate the stress a toxic handler is under?

Step 5: Encourage time off

So how can we encourage our employees to take the breaks they need? Here are three suggestions:

Conclusion

Webinar transcript

How many people will use Workzone?

Please tell us a little more about you...

Last step...

How to Manage Employee Burnout and Stress: 5 Research-Backed Steps to Improve Productivity

Table of Contents:

Watch: Stressed out Team? How to Prevent and Treat Employee Burnout at its Roots

Attendee reactions to the How to Prevent and Treat Employee Burnout at its Roots webinar

Key timestamps

About: Stressed out Team? How to Prevent and Treat Employee Burnout at its Roots

How to Manage Employee Burnout: 5 Research-Backed Steps to Prevent and Treat Employee Burnout

What is employee burnout?

Step 1: Reward productivity

What can we do to increase productivity?

4 ways to encourage flex time

Step 2: Help eliminate unknowns

These issues typically arise the most when any of the following happens

4 ways to help employees feel more secure

Step 3: Make workloads more manageable

Why do we do we work ourselves so much?

Why are employees afraid to ask for time off?

4 solutions for making workloads more manageable

Step 4: Minimize the effect of toxic employees

Common toxic workplace personality types:

So how can you help alleviate the stress a toxic handler is under?

Step 5: Encourage time off

So how can we encourage our employees to take the breaks they need? Here are three suggestions:

Conclusion

Webinar transcript

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