Uncovering the Root Causes of Employee Burnout

While many managers think they understand burnout, the reality is the concept is not so simple, and solutions are often complicated. While employees can feel burnout due to several work-related reasons—too much stress, ineffective communication, unreasonable workloads—there are plenty of other reasons employees might feel bogged down. If team leaders want to combat burnout effectively, they need to identify the root cause and help their employees address it. Sometimes burnout can be traced back to a lack of support—formal or informal. Sometimes employees feel like they don’t have the tools necessary to do their jobs well, which can often be remedied with better training. There’s also burnout related to a lack of significance and function—employees feel like their jobs don’t matter, or they don’t understand how what they do fits into the big picture. Burnout can also result from an employee being forced into a role they don’t enjoy and their skills not being used to their full potential. Communication is key to sussing out the roots of burnout and assuming “it’s just stress” will never completely address the problem.