In today’s fast-paced and demanding work culture, the race to stay ahead in the competition is increasing the number of overworked employees. Excessive workloads and unrealistic deadlines cause some workers to work for longer hours to meet deadlines, leading to overwork and even burnout. According to a recent study conducted by Accountemps, 96% of senior managers believe their team members are burned out, while another study shows that 91% of employees reported feeling burned out.
Overworked employees feel more pressured and exhausted, which ultimately affects their performance, productivity, and mental health. Overworking can even cause serious health issues and stress. As a manager, it's crucial for you to help overworked employees by fostering a healthier work-life balance and positive work environment.
In this blog, we will discuss the most effective solutions for managers to help overworked employees feel better, stay positive, and reduce burnout. This helps companies improve employee productivity, reduce turnover, and maintain their well-being. By the end of this blog, you will be equipped with some effective ways to help your overworked employees and foster a healthy work environment.
What is an Overworked Employee?
Overworked employees are workers who work more than the fixed time in a day and return to work without getting enough time to recharge themselves. This also means when an employee works beyond their physical, emotional, and mental capacity due to different reasons. However, overworking varies from job to job and employee to employee, as every employee has different limits beyond which they cannot function optimally.
Overworked employees cut down their break time and work even during lunch breaks. They often work extra hours every day and even on weekends to complete their work. This generally happens when there is extra workload from the managers, which causes employees to work beyond their capacity to match deadlines and secure their jobs. However, working for long hours without taking a rest causes burnout, stress, and frustration, which ultimately causes an adverse impact on employee performance and productivity.
For example:
Sarah, a marketing manager at XYZ Corp, has been handling all marketing activities since the company's inception. However, as the company expands over time, the workload also increases, but not the staff. This causes her to handle multiple projects solely without additional assistance. She works during breaks, late nights, and even weekends, which decreases performance, and causes stress, and other problems such as headaches and exhaustion.
Effective Solutions to Help Overworked Employees
As a manager, it's your responsibility to help overworked employees manage their workload, stress, and health. To do that, it's crucial to maintain a healthy and productive workplace where employees do not feel overburdened and get enough time to recharge their body and mind. Take a look at some of the most effective solutions to help overworked employees and improve their productivity, health, and job satisfaction.
Set Realistic Goals
Clear Goals: Ensure that the goals and expectations are clear and achievable based on the available time and resources. Avoid setting unrealistic goals that require available workers to work beyond their work time and capacity.
Communicate Clearly: Establish clear expectations and communicate the roles and responsibilities with the employees clearly. This helps them work in the right direction and avoid time wastage, which ensures work completion within their desired time limit.
Adjust Workloads: Regularly assess the employees' workloads and adjust them to match their capacity. Shift work from overburdened employees to those with light workloads and have time and capacity for additional work.
Set Realistic Deadlines: Give employees proper time to complete the tasks effectively and efficiently. Avoid setting unrealistic timelines, as it can hamper employee performance, cause burnout, and lead to frustration and absenteeism.
Redistribute Workloads
Analyze Workloads: Regularly review employees' workloads and identify those who are overburdened with work. Based on that, redistribute tasks to underutilized employees and ensure a balanced distribution.
Ensure Balanced Workload: Manage the workload efficiently based on the workers' skills and expertise. Ensure that all team members get a fair and justified amount of work that can be completed within the given time frame.
Hire Additional Staff: If employees are overburdened due to a sudden spike in work, consider hiring additional staff for temporary or permanent periods to help overburdened employees reduce their excess workload.
Use time tracking systems: Using tools like Toggl, ActivTrak, etc, to analyze which workers are working beyond working hours and reassign some duties to other people as needed.
Encourage Breaks
Regular Breaks: Encourage your overworked employees to take breaks from time to time throughout the day to refresh and recharge their minds and bodies. Motivate them to step away from their desks, take a walk, grab a coffee, talk to a teammate, stretch their legs, do meditation, etc., toeliminate burnout and exhaustion.
Implement Flexible Work Hours: Flexible work hours are the future of the corporate world to avoid overworking and turnover. Allow your employees to complete work without a rigid schedule or tight deadlines. Give them the freedom to control their time effectively and take additional time the next day to complete excess work.
Encourage Sick Leave: Employees have the right to take sick leave, and it is critical to encourage them to use it when they feel ill. Some employees work even when they are sick, and promoting sick leaves demonstrates that you respect and value your team, which instills a sense of positivity and satisfaction among employees.
Provide the Right Tools for the Job
Automation Tools: Invest in automation tools for repetitive work to reduce the burden on overworked employees and let them focus on important tasks andmaintain a healthy work-life balance.
Tools and Resources: Provide workers with updated tools and resources, such as software equipment, office supplies, project management tools, work management tools, premium versions, etc., to help them work efficiently and easily. Outdated tools and old work methods lead to time wastage and frustration.
Provide Training: Along with embracing tools and technologies, it's equally important to train the employees to use the same. Conduct training sessions to develop new skills and how to use new tools and technologies to streamline complex tasks.
Process Improvement: Continuously look for ways to improve and streamline workflows. Stay updated with trends and technologies that can help employees and reduce their workload.
Promote a Healthy Work-Life Balance
Set Boundaries: Establish clear boundaries regarding working hours, goals, and expectations and stick to them. Allow employees to work only during work hours and use break time, off-hours, and weekends for their personal lives. Restrict team managers from messaging employees during off-hours to maintain their work-life balance.
Discourage Multitasking: Multitasking kills productivity and increases stress. Therefore, as a manager, avoid overburdening your employees with different tasks and encourage them to work on only one task at a time.
Remote Work Options: Offer flexibility to your employees by offering remote work options when they cannot come to the office for any reason. Value your employees' personal problems and help them manage their personal and professional lives.
Time Off: Encourage employees to use their vacation days or paid time off optimally without thinking about whether they're missing their work, or it increases the chances of layoff. Vacations give employees a break from everyday tasks and help them relax and replenish their energies.
Listen to Employees
Encourage Open Communication: Motivate your employees to feel free to talk to you about their workload problems. Make them feel free to express themselves without any fear of getting labeled as slackers. Based on their feedback, solve their problems.
Conduct one-on-one meetings: One-on-one meetings reduce employees' hesitation and give them the freedom to express their problems. Make sure to understand employees' feedback and issues and provide them with practical solutions.
Regular Check-ins: Ask teamleads to have regular check-ins with employees to address their urgent concerns and offer support. This helps them reduce the burden of overwork on time and save their productivity level and morale.
Provide Supportive Resources
Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs): If your employees are experiencing high burnout and stress, offer access to counseling and support services like EAPs. This can assist employees in communicating their concerns to counseling professionals and seeking mental health support for personal or professional issues.
Health and Wellness Programs: Offer free gym or wellness app subscriptions and promote programs that focus on physical and mental health. Encourage employees to benefit from such programs to refresh their bodies and minds and combat burnout.
Conduct Workshops: Conduct mental health and work-life balance workshops where employees can learn the importance of better work-life balance and how to achieve it. The workshops should discuss mental health issues without stigma and offer ways and techniques to minimize stress and anxiety.
Recognize and Reward Efforts
Recognition Programs: Implement various programs to recognize and praise hardworking employees who sometimes overwork to complete their tasks. When their hard work and dedication get appreciated, they feel valued and satisfied, leading to a positive mindset and job satisfaction.
Rewards and Incentives: Offer rewards and incentives such as bonuses, commission, extra time off, paid holidays, and other additional rewards for their exceptional performance. Financial incentives work as a motivator to encourage employees to perform their best.
Lead By Example
Demonstrate the Importance of self-care: As a manager, you should lead by example by showing the importance of self-care, mental health, and time management. This means taking breaks, not working during lunch breaks, and respecting your boundaries. Your employees will follow you by doing the same, which fosters a culture of healthy environment and employee well-being.
Discourage Excessive Work: Some employees work for extra hours to catch up with their normal workload and complete the tasks. This taking of extra hours can become a daily habit, which leads employees to overwork almost every day and increases burnout. Therefore, discourage excessive work, encourage employees to work on time, and maintain a work-life balance.
Conclusion
In conclusion, we can state that overworked employees are more likely to become stressed, anxious, and dissatisfied, which leads to their turnover. As a manager, it's crucial for you to support overworked employees by promoting a healthy work-life balance and workload management. We have discussed some effective solutions to discourage overwork and help overworked employees manage their workload effectively. Using these ways, you can create a positive and healthy work environment in the company and increase employee satisfaction and retention.
