The single biggest factor that makes a difference to whether your employee is able to return to work successfully after burnout
In one study, burnt out employees who were off sick from work were followed up for 2 years. And at the end of the 2 year period, the ONLY thing that made a difference as to whether or not they were back at work or whether they were still off sick was a sense of control and perceived autonomy.
That’s right, the only thing.
In the press: the top 6 coping strategies for stress management
Back in October 2022 I was fortunate to be featured on the Bearable App’s blog giving some advice about my recommended strategies for stress management. As always, all the tips I give are both evidence based and draw on my own personal experiences with burnout, anxiety and low mood.
Why your employees can love their jobs but still burn out
In medicine, without a doubt the job itself is incredibly satisfying and rewarding. Even though I have burnt out as a GP, I have never finished a day of work and thought that I hadn’t made a positive impact to someone’s life as a result of my input. But this alone was not enough to protect me from burnout. Prolonged stress at work caused by huge workload and not feeling valued became so overwhelming that loving the work itself was just not sufficient enough to protect my mental health.
If your organisation has a problem with burnout culture, then it is simply not sufficient to rely on the inherent rewards of the work itself to protect your employees from burnout.
Why you need to be worried about burnout culture in your organisation
Burnout culture increases staff turnover, and causes huge difficulties with recruitment and retention
Let’s use the NHS as an example, as I am a doctor myself, and we are really struggling with burnout culture in the NHS right now.
40,000 nurses left the NHS last year, an increase of 25% on the year previous (source: the King’s Fund). 57% of midwives are planning to quit (source: the NMC), and 4 in 10 junior doctors are also planning to quit (source: the BMA). The NHS staff survey of 2021 showed that just 42.1% of respondents were satisfied with the extent to which the NHS values their work, and not being valued at work is one of the direct workplace risk factors for burnout. UCAS figures just released show a 19% drop in numbers of people applying to study nursing in 2023.
These figures in the NHS prove that it is impossible to uncouple burnout culture from problems with staff recruitment and retention.