How to Spot Employee Burnout In The Catering Industry
Employee burnout can be caused by many different factors. In the end, however, this state of emotional and often physical exhaustion tends to be most closely related to stress. People who suffer from burnout in the catering industry may have placed themselves under too much pressure; however, issues can also arise from stresses outside of the workplace. As such, this is a very complex issue that isn’t always easy to spot. Feeling tired, unmotivated, trapped, helpless or overburdened are all typical symptoms. Any of these can be quite debilitating on their own but when burnout is occurring, they often come together in a big wave.
What’s more, managers and employers in the catering industry should realise how serious burnout is. If someone burns out, then they are going to need a significant amount of time off and may never come back to work again. From a commercial perspective, this is very poor for productivity but it also means taking a hit in terms of recruitment and retention expenditure. Even before you start to look at the issue of burnout from a well-being point of view, it is something to think about commercially. Like many things in life, spotting the early signs of problems means being able to deal with them before they get out of control. What can employers do to spot the warning signs of burnout? Read on to find out.
Employee Detachment
To begin with, workers who are heading on a path toward total burnout will initially start to show a lack of engagement in their job. This can be hard to measure if the individual concerned continues to hit targets and achieve KPIs. Therefore, conducting a workplace survey of all your employees that delves into how detached, or otherwise, they might be will help you to work out how much potential for burnout there might be. According to WorkBuzz, a company that produces AI-analysis from its employee survey platform, anonymous responses mean obtaining more honest results. Managers can use their results from surveys to identify which demographic groups or job roles are leading to greater levels of employee detachment and then target their anti-burnout measures most effectively among those groups.
Workplace Cynicism
When people start to become cynical about their job, it is often a sign of impending burnout. Cynicism might be revealed by a supposedly flippant comment about the workload, colleagues or even the brand identity. Although frustrations in the workplace are normal, cynicism tends to be identified as a symptom of burnout when it is someone’s first response to a problematic situation. If they never seek solutions and only express exasperation, then this is a good indication that they’re feeling cynical about their job.
Too Much Work
Overwork is something that people who have suffered from burnout often cite as a major cause. However, workplaces often want employees to do more, to take on more responsibilities and to get tasks completed quicker. Although you might think you are making employees more productive by piling the workload on, the reverse could be true if they feel unduly pressured. Signs of someone having too much work include never delegating, staying late, avoiding breaks and trying to multi-task rather than focussing on each task in turn.
Too Little Work
Although stress from excessive work is common, the issue of not having enough to do also leads to similar feelings. When someone is bored, making their work last to fill up time or is sufficiently under-challenged in what they are asked to do, they will start to feel stressed out about it eventually. As such, too little work is just as much a stressor as overwork. Consequently, you need to ask people you employ how they feel about their workload, whether it is too much, too little or about right. Employers who do this frequently tend to see a drop in their burnout rate almost immediately.
Sleeping Problems
Emotional tiredness can come about when we feel stressed in our professional or personal lives. A couple of days of feeling down is quite normal when there are genuine causes for low spirits. However, if you notice that a worker is looking tired all the time and doesn’t know why they aren’t sleeping, then the answer could well be that stress is playing its part. Busy minds will often not settle, especially when someone is working long hours to complete a task. In turn, this leads to a lack of sleep which places the person under even more pressure the next day. And so the cycle will continue unless you intervene by taking the pressure off them with help or telling them to take a couple of days off.