Does your team feel they are overworked?

Pandemic has changed the way we work. Most importantly, the lines between personal and professional hours have blurred. Although there are many benefits of remote working, one unintended consequence has been burnout. Teams often feel overworked and, as a result, burnout. Did this feeling in the workforce not exist before the pandemic? It did.

In some environments, employee burnout has been a challenge, even pre-pandemic. In most fast-growing environments, companies are often understaffed. This leads to extra pressure on the workforce. Typically, in these environments, the employee churn is high. High employee turnover further adds to the pressure on the employees that stay with the company.

There are various reasons why employees might feel burnt out, and they almost always stem from work overload. When there’s too much to do and not enough time to do it, people feel overwhelmed and stressed. This, in turn, can lead to several symptoms, including low energy levels, anxiety, and depression.

As a manager, you will not be able to deliver on your objectives effectively if your teams constantly feel overworked and burnt out. Here are some symptoms to watch out for: exhaustion, poor concentration, irritability, anxiety, and low morale. If you notice any of these symptoms brewing in your team, it might be time to take a step back and assess the situation. Overworked teams are prone to making mistakes, leading to frustration and chaos. In the end, if your teams are unable to deliver on their objectives, you will not grow.

So, what can you do as a manager?

The first thing as a manager you must do is take some time to assess the workload your employees are currently facing. Once you understand the challenges they are facing, you can start to create a better work environment that helps employees stay focused and motivated. By properly allocating resources, you can free up time for your team members to do their best work while still meeting deadlines. When you have too many tasks competing for the same resources, it becomes difficult to get anything done. By grouping tasks together based on their importance and urgency, you can better allocate your team’s resources to ensure that all tasks are completed on schedule. This will help you get your team back on track and meet your deadlines!

Effective resource allocation is a critical aspect that managers must develop. One must keep in mind several factors while attempting to become good at this. We have listed five simple steps that you can follow to improve resource allocation.

In environments where employees feel burnt out or overworked, negative emotions run high. In such an environment, conflicts are commonplace. Few people know how to manage and express their negative emotions constructively. Irate employees often go on a rebellious path. As a result, most of the team’s energy goes into unconstructive areas. Keeping the team motivated and focused on their goals can be challenging.

As a manager, you can help the team constructively manage their emotions. But this all starts with you managing your own emotions effectively first. This will help you keep your team calm and productive, despite their pressure. By understanding the emotional triggers of your team members, you can better deal with challenging situations and keep everyone on track. This can be an opportunity to use the negative emotions and bring people together around it. People connect and empathize with each other when they find themselves in the same adverse situation.

If you become a master at emotional management, you can turn this adversity into an opportunity to bring the whole team together and ride the wave.

You can not remain in this situation. While you help the team manage emotions and allocate resources more effectively, you must also work with the team to ensure their wellness. Overworked employees will often be not well-rested and nutritionally balanced. To avoid this problem, it is essential to promote employee wellness and provide them with the resources they need to stay healthy and productive.

The organization has a role to play in this, no doubt. But as a manager, you can also do a lot to ensure employee wellness. When you take extra steps for employee wellness, the employees will see that you care. This builds lasting loyalty towards you and helps the team deal with adversity better.

What can you do as a manager to promote employee wellness?

Managing an overworked team can feel like a never-ending battle. In order to reverse the situation and maintain better productivity, managers must realize that they have much control over the situation. It just needs a little bit of reflection and a few simple steps listed above.