Ask an employer about his idea of a top employee and he would readily say- A top employee is the one who doesn’t refrain from coming to office on weekends, put in extra hours to accomplish those goals.
If you are also one of such employers, this blog is for you as you are one of those who are continuing to believe and follow the backdated & erroneous idea of productivity.
Because of this very idea, employees across organisations deal with burnout and poor mental and physical health. The urge to stay at the top of the competition race they are in and exceed the already high expectations you have out of them contributes to ameliorate all of this even more.
Help them deal with the constant desire to engage in work-related conversation even after office at any hour of the day or night.
What leads to burnout?
- The hustle culture : It is good to work in a competitive environment to grow oneself but some employees tend to take it as a matter of pride and often end up compromising their personal life. The same may be because, in general, they enjoy the hustle and love staying at the top of the game or because they are eyeing on that incentive or bonus offered by the company.
- The constant workload :The workload is the most apparent cause of employee burnout. Sometimes there are crucial deadlines and to get things done, managers can ask the employee to work after office hours from home or in office. However, when this becomes a daily norm the employee’s personal life and health get affected.
What are the drawbacks of making employees work more?
- Apparent Errors- Clearly when an employee is made to work more than his capacity, he starts feeling drained all the time. As a result of the same, the employee would get exhausted and commit errors unintentionally.
- Low efficiency- The efficiency aka the quality of the work and the pace at which they are done also slows down. There comes a time when a person’s brain and eyes get so tired that he has to push himself to work. Even the tasks assigned in HR solutions won’t be able to improve the efficiency in this case.
- Chronic Illness- The same also leads to chronic illness in some employees. Their eyes can weaken, they can feel irritated all the time or have severe back or body pain, insomnia, etc.
What can you do as an employer?
Here are several things that an employer can do to help employees do the required work during the work hours.
- Reduce collaboration- Collaboration consumes a lot of time of the employees, According to research, “80% of the days are spent in meetings”. This comes off as one of the main reason for the employees to take office work home.
- Set realistic deadlines- The deadlines you set should be realistic. You should not burden your employees with more and more work. The right way is to ask them how much time they would require to complete the tasks and then decide the deadline.
- Be approachable- While HR solutions can help you manage your team well, it cannot resolve some of the issues. For instance, there might be some personal or professional reason coming in the way of work of the employee. Be available to listen and resolve the issue.
Remember, balance in the life of your employees is never going to hurt the business or the employee. Delegating some extra work to your team once in a blue moon is okay; for the times when you feel like delegating more work to any of your employees just recall the time you were treated that way by your manager. Be a good one!