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Burnout is entirely avoidable, if the right company structures and habits are in place
The opposite of burnout is full psychological engagement with one's working life, which comes from feeling like you're making meaningful progress towards valued goals.
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I want to understand the psychology
Continue reading below
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I want some practical tools to use
Skip to prevention plan
In order to create a work culture with high engagement, the key is to make it possible for all employees to feel like they're progressing towards the right goals; to make them feel like the game is a winnable one. This isn't achieved with one-off interventions like training sessions or away days: in order to consistently prevent burnout, instead, it's the small and ingrained habits that matter.
The good news is that small and ingrained habits aren't expensive. The bad news is that they require individual commitment (from both managers and employees) and a bigger organisational mindset shift.
Looking back to the Six burnout causes that we identified in the previous section — genuinely unreachable demands, too much randomness, not enough emotional payoff, a rigged game, mixed messages, and misaligned goals — it's a case of finding practical habits, processes and actions that stop these psychological barriers from happening in your organisation.
Here are some ways that Spill recommends companies can shift towards a culture that minimises the chances of employee burnout, by flipping the six common psychological causes of burnout into six pillars of strong employee engagement.
For each of the shifts, click to scroll through the cards for a range of different practical ideas on how to put them into place in your organisation, and then use them as a springboard to brainstorm more ideas with your team.
We hope this guide has been — in some way — helpful to you, and has left you with a better understanding of burnout and some ideas for how to reduce the chances of it happening in your company. Going through burnout and watching someone go through burnout are both incredibly painful, and our mission at Spill is to reduce the world's unnecessary emotional pain by helping employers become more considerate and human. Any questions, clarifications, problems or ideas? Just email will@spill.chat, who's always happy to discuss anything related to mental wellbeing and emotional intelligence.
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If you're keen to keep reading around this topic... there are a few great books that we can recommend:
Lost Connections by Johann Hari: for anyone interested in a deeper understanding of the sources of low mood and existential pain
The Pleasure and Sorrows of Work by Alain de Botton: for musing on the role that work does, and should, play in our lives
Good Reasons for Bad Feelings by Randolph Nesse: for diving deeper into the evolutionary theory behind negative emotions
Radical Candor by Kim Scott: for managers looking to be clearer and more compassionate with their employees
