The most common reason why employees leave: they are on burnout. They’ve had it. They would rather flip a table than stay. They’ve lost their drive. They’ve been disillusioned. All their ideas just rotted away in the back of their minds. Often when employees do this, that means they’ve either lost their motivation or they no longer see themselves growing.
The current generation of those working wants to find an environment that balances both growth and money. When they see that they’re not growing, the faster they’ll burn out. And when they burn out, they want to leave. At times, companies fail to address what exactly burns them out. Sometimes, it’s the environment. Sometimes, it’s the environment at home. While they can’t address all the problems, Human Resources can address the problems in the office.
So what are common signs of burnout? Here are some of them:
Carelessness
The employee, once bright-eyed and idealistic, walks into the company and gives it their 300%. They start doing everything in their ability to help the company grow. They check every nook and cranny; they anticipate the incoming requests. They actually have a board that organizes the number of incoming requests.
But that soon comes to a stop when they suffer burnout. No calendar, no nothing. They even start making small grammatical mistakes. They delay their work because they forgot about the date. They lose ballpens on a daily basis. All the little things they once were able to keep track of soon become mistakes left and right.
Lashing Out
One of the worst-case scenarios of burnout is when an employee lashes out. Now, lash outs are not usually just yelling. They also involve crying spells. They would sometimes cry out of nowhere. They begin suffering mental breakdowns more frequently to the point it starts hampering their progress at work.
But what causes this? Sometimes, employees who are given so many expectations end up getting overwhelmed. They end up handling so many things and soon attach their identity to the company. Once they do, they start to want to do more. But when they are in a position that has no power, there is a frustration build up. The frustration builds up and they find themselves unable to let out that frustration anywhere. Thus, they start taking it out anything or anyone they can find which can be detrimental to the company’s growth.
Sudden gain of weight or sudden loss of weight
When stressed, people can go to one of the two directions: they either suddenly gain weight via stress eating, smoking, or drinking. Or, they suddenly lose weight because they continuously work and insist they finish their work without any care about themselves.
While this can be hidden through clothes and make-up, you can also tell from their energy level. The sudden rise and fall of their energy levels can already tell you something is wrong with their diet. Or at least, how they’re eating.
They come in looking like pandas.
While pandas are cute with their black masks around their eyes, it doesn’t look good on humans. Why? One: it looks like someone got punched in the eye. Two, it means that the person is dreadfully lacking sleep. When an employee becomes too devoted to the company, they give up everything they can to make it grow. Some of that including sleep.
When that happens, they have more visible rings in their eyes and look like they haven’t slept. Or at least, slept at 3 AM.
A sudden change of personality
When employees come in the first time, they’re cheerful and often try to please everybody. They make friends, crack some jokes, and go drinking or whatever it is the team goes to bond. Or others, like to stay within their circle and keep away until a sweet extrovert adopts them.
But when an employee suffers burnout, you start to see changes in their personality. Their energetic personality fades. They start to withdraw. Others suddenly become extremely happy as a means to cope with their burnout.
We can’t always take note of every single one!
You’re right. You can’t. Taking note of 100 employees let alone 20 is already hard enough. But what you can do is also as a company is to have monthly check-ups on your employees. Check how they are. That way, you can also check how the company is doing for the last month.