How Employers Can Prevent Burnout in Remote Workers

Do Remote Workers Experience Burnout?

The simple answer is yes. While remote work is viewed as a workplace strategy that allows for more flexibility and work-life balance for employees, employees assigned to remote teams are not exempt from feeling stress and exhaustion while working from home. And in many cases, a lack of guardrails and structure can result in increased anxiety for remote employees when compared to their experiences working on-site.

Burnout can be caused by the transition to remote work; employees who are used to working in a traditional office setting might struggle with some of the workflow and routine changes required for successful remote work. Changes in the work environment can be stressful for any employee, particularly when those changes are implemented abruptly or without the necessary policies and tools needed to maintain productivity. When not managed properly, these changes can result in stressors that can affect both employee engagement and productivity.

Remote work burnout is especially evident for employees who unexpectedly found themselves in a work from home setting during the COVID-19 pandemic. Many employees began working from home with little guidance on best practices for remote work, and relied on trial and error to achieve productivity, adhere to workflows, and maintain communication with teammates. The struggle to assimilate with new remote workplace processes can occasionally introduce less-than-optimal employee behaviors and practices, resulting in poor habits that trigger burnout.

 

Symptoms of Remote Work Burnout

Recognizing the symptoms of burnout will promote a greater understanding of its root causes and ultimately lead us to some practical solutions. Awareness of burnout symptoms is especially important because burnout manifests in different ways, depending on the employee. Discussed below are some of the more commonly witnessed challenges and symptoms that come about when an employee is experiencing burnout.

Days Seem to be Running Together

While working remotely during the pandemic, many employees have had to manage changes in lifestyle and schedule. In a traditional office work environment, there is a distinct beginning and end to the workday, and it is marked by the arrival to and departure from the office. However, working from home has challenged employees to co-mingle and balance work and home duties, which causes hardships on their professional and personal schedules. 

Hours turn to days without much difference, and employees often find that they are working after work hours and on weekends. The abrupt introduction of remote work during the pandemic blurred the line between work and other aspects of life, causing irregular working schedules that sometimes felt longer, thus causing stress.

Diminishing Regard for Health and Wellbeing

“Dress to impress” was something that many office workers gave regard to every time they headed into the office. With remote working, people are allowed to dress more comfortably. The diminished focus on personal appearance due to working from home can also lead to other challenges with respect to an employee’s wellbeing. 

Some employees also struggle with their daily routine structure – forgetting to take lunch on time, skipping breaks (or taking too many breaks), and giving up on doing other physical activities. This mismanagement can be attributed to a lack of structured rules on schedules and time, whether perceived or factual. Remote workers might have also lost access to health and well-being perks that companies offer such as gym memberships and company-sponsored sports activities.

Restlessness Due to the Need to Always be Available

With remote work eliminating face-to-face interaction, many employees worry about how they can prove to employers that they are still being productive. This productivity-related anxiety can make an employee feel that she always needs to be online and available. This hypervigilance makes employees feel tethered to work, eventually causing stress and burnout. Productivity-related anxiety could be especially heightened if supervisors make workers feel like working from home is a privilege and that they should show gratitude through increased work output.

This is the wrong message for leadership to send, and when remote workers internalize this message, they feel compelled to respond to emails and messages during non-core working hours and check work-related concerns even on their days off. Employees begin to feel that they are constantly on “alert mode”. This fear-based response results in employees feeling like they are not working from home, but are rather living at work.  

 

What Employers Tend to Forget About Remote Work 

While some companies are well-versed in handling remote workplace strategies, most companies were forced to implement these strategies during the pandemic without considering that a reset in work culture for remote working must also be observed. 

Haphazardly implementing a remote work strategy often leads to a disparity between the expectations of leaders and employees. This misalignment of expectations and experiences can manifest into anxiety and depression for employees and ultimately lead to burnout.

Particularly during the earlier days of the COVID-19 pandemic, employees began working remotely in significant numbers, and leaders and employees alike had difficulty fostering a culture of trust due to not being able to see each other physically. 

Supervisors sometimes demanded burdensome numbers of Zoom meetings with employees and requested constant updates. These “check-in” administrative tasks consume a significant portion of the workday, leaving employees with little time left to perform actual work tasks.

Thus, employees end up using their personal time to accomplish work-related tasks that could not otherwise be completed due to the demands of Zoom meetings and administrative tasks.  Understandably, when the line between work and home duties is blurred, the result can be significant employee burnout. 

 

What Can Employers Do to Help Prevent Remote Work Burnout?

Stress is a normal part of any work environment, regardless of what type of workplace strategy has been implemented. However, companies should not ignore the stress experienced by employees who are working remotely. To help remote workers avoid experiencing burnout, employers must be ready to give any, if not all, of the following support:

Remote Training and Workshop

To be able to fully adapt to a work from home arrangement, training and workshops tailor-fitted for your business should be developed and should outline the standards to follow for both leaders and employees. Remember that training your remote employees is as important as training in-office workers, and sending them off to work remotely without proper training could impact their performance negatively.

Home Office Support

Companies should also help employees create functional home office spaces. This does not mean that employers should provide new laptops or computers (unless absolutely necessary due to job function). Simply knowing about the working environment of employees, and offering support where necessary and possible, is enough for your employees to feel a sense of belongingness to the organization. 

Remote Work Stipend

In relation to ensuring that remote workers have a conducive work environment at home, offering a remote work stipend is another way to help them become more productive when working remotely. They should be compensated or provided an allowance for work-related tools that office employees also receive – communication allowance which they can use for their internet service fees; health and wellbeing perks like gym memberships; and food packages every now and then. Doing these things will be a great reminder that they are part of an organization that values their contribution, regardless of where they work.

 

Employees are an integral key to the success of a  business, and taking care of them is essential in making sure that they are always working their best, regardless of whether they are working in an office or at home.

To obtain meaningful, actionable data, surveys and assessments can be conducted to determine the pulse of the employees regarding their experience, expectations, and even hesitations, about working from home. These tools can help determine whether the rules and regulations for a company’s remote setup are amenable for both the business and its employees.

Allow us to help your remote team avoid burnout and increase productivity for your business. Fill out the form below and let’s connect.