Burnout - What can employees and employers do to prevent it?

In total, there are about 300,000 people in Germany who have already been diagnosed with burnout. About 100,000 of them are on sick leave every year because of it. About 4 out of 10 Germans often feel exhausted and burnt out. This means that almost half of all Germans are at risk of a burnout.
What exactly burnout is, what symptoms one can suffer, what causes there are and how burnout can be treated, we already explained last week in our blog post "Burnout - more than just a bit of stress".

But how can the development of burnout syndrome be prevented? What are the risks and warning signs and what can employers do to protect their employees?

List of content:

• What are the major risk factors?
• What are the typical warning signs?
• What can you do yourself to prevent it?
• What can employers do to prevent burnout among their employees?

What are the major risk factors? 

The risk factors are of course closely related to the causes. Nevertheless, we have summarised the most important risk factors:

Internal risk factors:

• Overeagerness
• Perfectionism
• Extreme expectations of oneself
• Low self-esteem
• Hypersensitivity 
• Difficulty in admitting to mistakes and weakness

External risk factors:

• Professional overload (e.g. too much responsibility)
• Too little/no appreciation and recognition
• No social support
• Unresolved conflict situations with colleagues or management staff
• Injustice
• Competitive pressure
• Constant availability
• Little initiative

What are the typical warning signs?

Unfortunately, warning signs are not so clear and easy to recognise or are often simply ignored. In addition, the state of exhaustion begins gradually. At first, you don't even notice it as a warning sign, because everyone is a little stressed and exhausted at times. Symptoms such as headaches or back pain are usually treated with painkillers and ignored for the time being.

Other warning signs are excessive demands at work or in everyday life, low energy, irritability and reduced concentration and performance. You should be vigilant here and observe for yourself whether symptoms occur once or more and more frequently.

Psychosomatic symptoms include headaches, migraines, back pain, tension, sleep disorders and susceptibility to infections. These are also often dismissed as normal and ignored, because we have to function in our performance-oriented society. We have to get rid of these thoughts, because on the one hand, our health should be more important than our performance and on the other hand, we are much more efficient when we are healthy.

What can you do yourself to prevent it?

To prevent the internal risk factors and causes, you can do a few things yourself. The most important thing is to first deal with the issue and be attentive. We have 5 tips that help to prevent a burnout.

1. Be aware of your own feelings and needs.
   In order to prevent burnout, it is very important to be aware of your own feelings and to take them seriously. It does not make sense to simply ignore stress and exhaustion and carry on. You have to allow the feelings and, for example, do something directly against the exhaustion before it becomes a permanent condition. You should also think about what is important to you in your job. What are your professional goals, what do you want/can you give and what do you need? Some people need a lot of recognition for their activities, while others need a lot of freedom and personal responsibility. 

2. Express your own feelings and needs.
   This point is closely related to the first one. If you have learned to perceive your feelings and know what you need, especially in relation to work, it is important to express this. If you need appreciation and recognition to stay motivated and feel good, you may also express this to your superiors. Often they are grateful for comments and suggestions. It is also important to learn to say "no". If you already have a huge to-do list, you don't have to do favours for colleagues or superiors. 

3. Targeted relaxation
   To get rid of the stress from work and the thoughts that you usually continue to have at home, it helps to relax in a targeted way. Of course, this does not work straight away. But yoga and autogenic training are well-known techniques that can usually help you relax quickly. This does not have to be time-consuming or costly. Just 5-10 minutes of yoga, for example with the help of a YouTube tutorial, can help you relax. Activities such as reading, listening to music or taking a bath also help to come down and relax.

4. Learn how to deal with stress
   We have now learned to notice our needs and realise that we are extremely stressed and hardly get any rest. What now? The best remedy in this case is actually sport. Ideally, endurance sports in the fresh air such as jogging, cycling and swimming. Exercise reduces stress hormones and also helps against stress-related headaches, back pain and insomnia. 

5. Putting perfectionism behind you
   Among others, people who are very perfectionistic are particularly at risk. Perfectionists often disregard their own needs in order to strive for perfection and accept overtime and extra tasks. But no one can be perfect and no one can please everyone. You have to remind yourself of this over and over again. It is perfectly OK and normal to make mistakes. 

What can employers do to prevent burnout among their employees?

As already mentioned, there are not only internal causes that employees can work on themselves, but also external risk factors and circumstances that favour the development of burnout syndrome. It should be absolutely in the employer's interest to create a working atmosphere in which the employees feel well and in which burnout does not even occur in the first place. This way, employees are happier and more productive. We have 5 tips for employers:

1. Education 
   Unfortunately, burnout syndrome is often still a taboo subject. This needs to be changed. Employees should be informed in detail about burnout so that everyone knows the risks and can recognise warning signs as early as possible. As an employer, it also helps to be familiar with the topic in order to recognise unhealthy behaviour patterns of employees and to address them if necessary. 

2. Listen and understand
   It should be clear to employees at all times that they can always turn to their employers if they have problems or first signs of problems. Employers should be understanding and attentive. One possibility would be, for example, fixed times when employees can talk about their personal condition. If burnout is suspected, they should be advised to see a doctor and show them that there is no pressure and that they do not have to return to full capacity as soon as possible.

3. Check and reduce workload and overtime
   Very ambitious people tend to work overtime and sacrifice themselves for their work. As an employer, you should always keep an eye on your employees' work behaviour and make sure that they do not work too much overtime. It helps to appreciate the work of the employees and to express that the work done is seen. In this way, pressure is taken off and, at best, employees get the feeling that overtime is not necessary to show that they are working hard and reliably.

4. Social interaction
   Another trigger can be conflicts in the office. Employers should promote team building as a preventive measure. Through joint events and activities, this usually works very well and easily. They should also help with conflict resolution and make sure that problems and concerns can always be addressed openly.

5. Enable flexible working 
   An important factor in preventing burnout is the work-life balance. Employees should have enough time besides work to maintain their social contacts and to take part in leisure activities. Flexible working models such as hybrid work, including desk sharing, are particularly helpful here.
   Employees can decide for themselves when and where they work. This can save a lot of stress and employees can manage their time very effectively. Desk sharing can also strengthen the bonds between employees, as there are no fixed seats and you are not only in daily contact with a fixed person sitting next to you. You can find some helpful information and tips on hybrid work in our blog post "How employees can codetermine the topic of hybrid work".

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