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- Burnout leaves people feeling exhausted, negative, and ineffective, and is thought to have affected 70% of people last year.
- Burnout recovery can take three months to a year, but the exact amount of time varies depending on the levels of burnout.
- Both moderate and severe levels of burnout require time of work and rest — your employee needs to recover sufficiently to start addressing the root causes of their burnout.
- To support long-term burnout recovery, you and your employee should create a burnout treatment plan to discuss objectives and ideas for each of the problem areas.
- Therapy is a highly effective way to support long-term burnout recovery as it provides your employee with validation and support, helps them create coping strategies, and challenges their negative thought patterns.
In the last year, 70% of people experienced burnout at work. Let that sit with you for a moment.
That’s pretty huge. That’s 70% of people feeling exhausted, negative, and ineffective at work, not to mention the myriad of other symptoms associated with burnout. And that’s 70% of people navigating their recovery from burnout alongside the other daily pressures of their work and personal life.
Clearly, proper support for burnout recovery (and preventing employee burnout in the first place) is needed. And while taking time off work will address the symptoms of workplace burnout, it won’t solve the root cause of the problem. After all, if someone on your team has already burnt out so badly that they have to take off, that’s a sign there’s a deeper organisational issue that needs to be rectified to prevent it from happening again.
So, how can you properly support an employee in their recovery from burnout? Well that depends on the severity of their burnout. Here, we’ll give you strategies to help tackle the symptoms and root causes of both moderate and severe burnout, and a free burnout recovery plan PDF to use with anyone in your company navigating burnout recovery.
Download our free burnout recovery plan
Use our free burnout recovery plan to define suitable objectives and actions to help someone on your team make a full recovery from burnout.
How long does burnout recovery take?
Before we dive into the different strategies to support burnout recovery, we wanted to set the expectation for how long recovery from burnout can really take.
On average it takes three months to a year to fully recover from burnout. But just as the symptoms vary from person to person, so does the length of time it takes to recover depending on the level of burnout. In the most severe cases, research suggests that recovery from burnout can take up to three years. This potentially long burnout recovery time is another reason why it’s so important to have a proper burnout recovery plan in place to support your team: the sooner you can help your employee, the sooner they’ll be back on track and that’s good for them — and your business.
How much time off work does a person need to recover from burnout?
That depends on how severe their symptoms are. The best way to assess this is by using our burnout symptoms test. With only moderate burnout symptoms, taking a few days off might be enough; if the symptoms are severe then that will probably need to be weeks rather than days.
No matter whether your employee has moderate or severe burnout, the first step is to address the symptoms — fatigue, negativity, and ineffectiveness — and to address them quickly. It's important to do this sooner rather than later, as prolonged periods of burnout risk turning into a more serious form of poor mental health, which could be a lot trickier to recover from. To do this, your employee should be encouraged to take time off work and rest.
The sooner support starts, the sooner they're back
With Spill, anyone who's struggling can book therapy the same day in one click from Slack or Teams, hence burnout can be caught while it's still moderate. Cover your whole team from £75 per month.
5 ways to support moderate burnout recovery
So, your team member is off work. Good! Rest has to be the first priority when it comes to recovery from burnout, and has to happen before anyone can start to change their relationship with work or develop prevention strategies for the future.
But, what’s also important is how that time off is spent. Research suggests that there are optimal activities for rest and renewal when it comes to work-related wellbeing. If you have an employee taking time off for burnout recovery, consider sending them this list so they can make the most of their time away from work.
1. Connect
As burnout can make a person feel disconnected and numb, spending quality time with close friends and family can help restore a sense of meaning and engagement, bringing much-needed vitality back into life. For a time, consider cutting back on socialising with work people: this is important for fully disengaging with work (see below).
2. Disengage (from work)
It sounds obvious we know, but it can be hard to switch off from work at the best of times — let alone when you’re drowning under a sea of negativity and exhaustion. The research showed that by disengaging from both work and your ‘normal’ (i.e. weekday) routine, energy levels and wellbeing improved:
- Turn off work-related devices and silence notifications
- Avoid checking work email, LinkedIn etc.
- Read fiction rather than business books and articles
- Go for a run, walk, swim, or do any other kind of physical activity during the day to disrupt your routine and improve energy levels
3. Keep learning and doing
Burnout can leave a person feeling ineffective and incapable. As tempting as it can be to do nothing at all during time off for burnout recovery, engaging in activities that reinforce someone’s abilities, skills, and talents will build confidence, improve energy levels, and restore emotional strength. Plus, it’s fun (and important) to make time for the things we love!
4. Relax
The term ‘rest and relaxation’ has become synonymous with slowing down, being alone, and not doing much at all. For some, these might be the perfect ways to relax but for others, relaxation could mean reading, gardening, cycling, socialising, cooking, or anything else that brings peace and calm to the body and mind.
5. Get back in control
A common symptom in burnout is feeling trapped or out of control at work, so it makes sense to use time off for burnout recovery to do things that reset the balance of control. It doesn’t have to be huge, anything from choosing the book for a book club or planning a new running route, to helping organise something in the community.
Download our free burnout recovery plan
Use our free burnout recovery plan to define suitable objectives and actions to help someone on your team make a full recovery from burnout.
How to create a long-term burnout treatment plan
Taking time off work to recover from burnout is only the start of the process — once your employee feels in the right state of mind, the next step is to dig into the root causes of burnout with your employee and figure out how these can be addressed at an organisational level. So, what is the best burnout treatment plan in the long-term?
Our free burnout recovery plan PDF template will help with this next step👇
(you can download this further down the page)
To help someone on your team in a full recovery from burnout, you need to (a) understand what the underlying work-related causes were for them burning out in the first place, and (b) make changes to stop those causes happening again. For the first point, the best thing to do is to ask the employee in question to fill out our burnout causes questionnaire.
This helps to bring some structure to a one-on-one conversation with your team member, which is the next thing that needs to happen. Your employee should complete the questionnaire before the meeting and come ready to discuss the causes where they have responded with ‘strongly agree’. You can use our free burnout recovery plan PDF – which you can get access to at the bottom of the page – to discuss objectives and ideas for each of the problem areas, which we’ve given suggestions and thought starters for. Each idea should be given a success metric and a date to be checked in on, to keep everyone involved accountable to the plan.
Download our free burnout recovery plan
Use our free burnout recovery plan to define suitable objectives and actions to help someone on your team make a full recovery from burnout.
Two more ways to help with your employee’s recovery from burnout
Reassure your employee about taking time off for burnout recovery
Taking time off work to recover from burnout is often easier said than done. A lot of the time, it's fear and worry that stops people taking a break from work, even if you or another manager has suggested it. As the psychoanalyst Josh Cohen puts it, you need to actively free a burnout sufferer of "the nervous compulsion to go on regardless". So it's not enough to just propose it: you need to take active steps to plan out when they will take the time off, and how you are going to help overcome the four common obstacles people have to taking time off for burnout recovery:
1️. "I'm worried I'll be seen as a slacker"
Make sure senior people in the company (and especially the person’s manager) are setting a good example by taking time off themselves. Emphasise to the person that taking time off will not impact how their performance is assessed.
2️. "I'm worried I'll miss out on stuff"
Ensure work progress and socials are documented, so that everything can be caught up on quickly and easily when the person returns. At Spill, we ask teammates to make a daily 3-minute Loom video while someone is off work so that they can easily catch up before their first day back. The person’s manager should also offer to check in a couple of times during their time off, and reassure them that they aren’t missing out on too much.
3️. "I'm worried I'll create more workload and stress for my colleagues"
Push back work wherever possible, reallocate it only to people who are under capacity, or bring in freelancers to pick up the slack if you have the budget. Reassure the person by making a clear plan for how the work will get done without causing undue stress for others.
4️. "I'm worried I won't be put on good projects when I get back"
Make sure that the employee is considered in any upcoming work allocation discussions, and that their preferences have been discussed before leaving work.
Partner with Spill to support your employee’s long-term recovery from burnout
Burnout is mentally exhausting and has a significant impact on mental health. It can take time to unpick burnout and chances are, your team member will be appreciative of any extra support for their mental load, both when they’re off work and ready to return to the office.
Spill gives everyone in your company immediate access to corporate therapy, whenever they need it. A highly effective tool for treating both the symptoms and root causes of burnout, therapy can support other burnout recovery strategies (such as changes in the work environment) to help your employee successfully navigate the turbulent burnout recovery journey by:
Providing emotional support and validation: therapy is a safe and non-judgemental space to express individual emotions and experiences. Burnout often brings feelings of frustration, exhaustion, and overwhelm, and Spill’s therapists will help your employee discuss these feelings to help reduce stress and build their emotional resilience.
Creating coping strategies: Spill’s team of therapists can help your employee identify the factors contributing to their burnout and will work with them to develop a personal plan of strategies to manage stress, set boundaries, and prioritise their mental health to prevent burnout from happening again.
Identifying and challenging negative thought patterns: burnout often involves negative thinking patterns such as self-doubt, perfectionism, and excessive self-criticism. Spill’s therapists can help your employee identify these patterns and work on replacing them with more realistic and positive ones.
As well as offering single sessions or courses of therapy, Spill’s weekly check-in feature also keeps an eye on your team’s mood every week to catch signs of burnout and help people quickly, before they get worse.
Get your burnout recovery plan PDF below to help your team member find a long-term and sustainable path to burnout recovery 👇
Download our free burnout recovery plan
Use our free burnout recovery plan to define suitable objectives and actions to help someone on your team make a full recovery from burnout.
Supporting burnout recovery: with and without Spill
- | Without support | With Spill
- Getting help | Managers improvise while things get worse | Same-day therapy, booked in one click from Slack or Teams
- Ongoing support | Nothing structured once someone is back at work | Unlimited therapy for as long as recovery takes
- Planning the return | An unstructured chat with their manager | A recovery plan with objectives, success metrics and review dates
- Cost | £2,646 a year per affected employee in lost productivity, absence and turnover (Deloitte average) | From £75 per month for your whole team
Recovery sticks when the causes change too
Spill gives every employee unlimited therapy with same-day availability, from counsellors in the top 5% of applicants, to work through the root causes, set boundaries and build coping strategies. Pair it with the free burnout recovery plan. Cover your whole team from £75 per month.
FAQs
How long does burnout recovery take?
On average, three months to a year to recover fully. In the most severe cases, research suggests it can take up to three years, hence the sooner support starts, the better.
How much time off work does someone need to recover from burnout?
It depends on how severe the symptoms are. With moderate burnout a few days off might be enough, while severe burnout usually needs weeks rather than days. Our burnout symptoms test helps you judge which applies.
What is the first step in burnout recovery?
Rest. Fatigue, negativity and ineffectiveness need addressing quickly, because prolonged burnout risks turning into a more serious form of poor mental health. Only once someone has rested can they start on the root causes.
What should a burnout recovery plan include?
Clear objectives for each work-related cause of the burnout, the actions that will address them, a success metric for each action, and a date to review progress. Spill's free template gives suggestions and thought starters for each problem area.
How do you create a burnout recovery plan with an employee?
Ask them to complete the burnout causes questionnaire before a one-to-one, then talk through the causes they strongly agree with. Agree objectives and ideas for each, and give every idea a success metric and a review date so everyone stays accountable.
What helps someone recover from moderate burnout?
Research points to five things: connecting with friends and family, disengaging fully from work, doing activities that rebuild confidence, relaxing in whatever way suits them, and doing things that restore a sense of control.
Why do employees avoid taking time off for burnout?
Usually fear: of being seen as a slacker, missing out, adding to colleagues' workload, or losing good projects. Managers can tackle each one by taking time off themselves, documenting what happens while someone is away, reallocating work fairly and including them in future planning.
How can managers stop burnout from coming back?
Fix the causes as well as the symptoms. Time off treats the exhaustion, but if the work-related causes stay the same, burnout usually returns, hence the recovery plan, regular one-to-ones and early access to therapy matter as much as the rest.
Does therapy help with burnout recovery?
Yes. Therapy gives a safe space to process exhaustion and frustration, helps build coping strategies and boundaries, and challenges the negative thought patterns that often come with burnout, such as perfectionism and self-criticism.
How much does Spill cost?
Spill starts from £75 per month for your whole team on a rolling 30-day contract, against an average cost of £2,646 a year for each employee with poor mental health (Deloitte, 2022). Supporting one person back from burnout can outweigh the cost on its own.
