Burnout Prevention
Scientific research shows that the causes of burnout are varied. When the employee (feels he/she) is in the wrong job, or cannot get along with his/her colleagues or manager, the Burnout Prevention methods of team and i often can be used successfully. It is important though to realize that there are three main factors that can cause burnout and that they are very much interrelated. These factors are : 1. Health (Mental and/or Physical) 2. Related to personal circumstances 3. work related circumstances. Each of these factors can individually be responsible for causing burnout in employees. Problems in of areas these will almost certainly also impact the two other areas. Examples are the employees that have physical or mental problems causing them to underperform at work. When the reasons for this lack of performance are not picked up by management and pressure is applied to make the employee perform, this can lead to burnout. It has been shown that people with a strong drive to perform (in Belbin terms : Shapers and Completer Finishers) are more sensitive to these circumstances. The risk is further increased when they work for a manager who is more interested in results than in the well being of his/her people. An organisation has an important role to play in guarding the health and well-being of its employees. This is not just the right thing to do, it also makes sense from an economic point of view. Employees that experience burnout are usually not back fro months and sometimes years. This annually incurs billions of dollars of damages to organisations all around the world. There is no 100% failproof recipe for preventing burnout. However, by putting in place the right measures organisations are able to minimise the problems. One of the measures is to do a biannual employee survey to keep track of the 3 factors mentioned above for each employee. Especially in the 3rd factor - work related circumstances - the services of team and i can make an important contribution. The three main mechanisms are:
- Job Matching - how well does the employee fit in his job
- Personal Preferences - how statisfied is the employee with his job
- Manager-Employee relations - how well do the manager and the employee fit together. (Does the manager have eye for the circumstances of the employee?)