Nov 18

Remote Work and its Effect on Employee Burnout

by

In: General News

Comments Off on Remote Work and its Effect on Employee Burnout

This trend continues even after the pandemic, causing both involuntary and voluntary remote workers to experience burnout. You can protect your mental health at work by reading relevant news from a few trusted sources and ignoring all others. Going through the constant stream of negative news from all over the world is detrimental to your mental health. It will elevate anxiety and stress levels and affect your outlook and work performance. A fellow remote teammate may be feeling lonely when working from home.

remote work burnout

This may be the best option for someone who’s facing burnout but wants to avoid the stress of traveling. There are many ways you can start to take care of yourself if you begin to feel like you are burning out at work. Most of these ways involve slowing down, building self-care into your schedule, and creating healthy work habits. From here, set a plan in place to implement this aspect of your work back into your life. If you loved presenting your work at quarterly meetings, ask to host a virtual session with your team. If you loved researching possible solutions or new products, carve out time to do this.

Are remote workers more prone to burnout?

Loneliness can cause stress, and prolonged feelings of stress are considered one of the main causes of burnout. One of the biggest concerns of employees who are new to working remotely is figuring out how they can show their work in an easy format that is accessible to every team member involved. Try to schedule in daily workouts or walks to keep your body healthy.

  • We also cover which systems, processes, and tools you can use to help avoid burnout—and help your team cross the finish line.
  • Join leaders who depend on RemotePass every day to be ahead of the curve.
  • While 80% of the same group expected to work more than 3 days a week at home.
  • According to some estimates, the average knowledge worker is only productive on average three hours every day, and these hours should be free of interruptions or multitasking.
  • For instance, the cost savings of high employee turnover, which can be up to two times an employee’s annual salary.
  • For many employers, what may be lost in productivity can at least partly be made up in cost savings from cutting back on office and related expenses.

Many mothers are shouldering the increased responsibilities of caring for kids during the pandemic. So it’s no surprise that 9.8 million working mothers in the U.S. report suffering from burnout with work. In fact, working mothers remote working fatigue are 28% more likely to experience it than working fathers. This burden doesn’t just lead to low productivity, anxiety, and stress. It is also a contributing factor in the Covid-fueled exodus of women from the workforce.

How leaders can prevent burnout on remote teams

Creating the right conditions and knowing how to spot and prevent burnout before it happens lets you make remote work as good as—if not better than—in-person. It’s always good to celebrate a job well done (even just micro-wins) and inspire others to take pride in their work as well. Breaks can also provide opportunities for remote team members to connect and communicate.

Before you jump on email and get buried in the day-to-day workload, make time for this. Block an hour on your calendar every morning for an “inspiration session” where you work on what you love most completely uninterrupted. Remote work has certainly created opportunities, allowing many workers to avoid long commutes and to spend more quality time with family. It was important before the pandemic, and we’re not going back now. Another factor that helps people who are feeling anxious is having clear boundaries around their life.

Company

Loneliness and isolation are the biggest problems for people who work remotely. A shocking study by Julianne Holt-Lunstad from Brigham Young University analysed 148 research studies with 308,849 participants on the relationship between loneliness and premature mortality. The study found that social isolation and loneliness significantly increase the risk of premature death by 50 per cent. The magnitude of this effect is comparable with smoking and it exceeds many well-known risk factors such as obesity and physical inactivity (Holt-Lunstad et al., 2010). For businesses operating in a hybrid pattern or full-remote set-up, this travelling for face-to-face interaction has become vital.

Sometimes we create false urgency in our work and end up working until late for no good reason. Get perspective by asking what’s the worst that can happen if you submit an assignment tomorrow morning instead, or ask to reschedule a meeting. Don’t open your computer or check your email until you’ve showered, eaten breakfast and done a personal activity, such as journaling or doing yoga. For example, your unplugging routine could be to take your dog for a walk, drink tea on your porch or go to the gym. Whatever you decide, keep it consistent and you’ll find it works well as a buffer to protect your personal time.

Share on FacebookTweet about this on TwitterShare on Google+Pin on PinterestEmail this to someonePrint this page