Turning Pickle Barrels into Wine Casks
Unrelenting pressure, backstabbing and undercutting, fatigue, feeling powerless and under appreciated spawn burnout.
According to Maslach and Jackson the six factors of burnout are:
- Working too much.
- Unjust environments.
- Little support.
- Working where you feel unable to effect change.
- Serving values you loath.
- Insufficient reward (whether the currency is money, prestige, or positive feedback).
When these factors persist you’ll crash and burnout, sooner than later.
More than overwork:
People who believe they can change things and that their work is appreciated, energetically work their butts off. But, powerless unrewarded employees inevitably burnout.
The opposite of burnout:
Engagement, not energy, is the opposite of burnout. Vitality is the result of engagement not its cause. Engaged people:
- Feel energized. Potential for work increases.
- Feel supported and support others. Connection and involvement improve.
- Feel powerful. Efficacy and effort build rather than decline.
Good news:
Reexamine the six factors of burnout. How many are organizational?
The enemy is us not them. “Imagine investigating the personality of cucumbers to discover why they had turned into sour pickles without analyzing the vinegar barrels in which they’d been submerged!” Maslach.
Burnout is more about organizations than individuals. It’s true that the young burnout more than the old and perfectionist burnout first. But more importantly, we are building inhumane work environments that cause burnout in all ages and personality types.
The good news is we can build organizations that engage rather than burnout.
Turning pickle barrels into wine casks:
- Give power and authority by turning approvals into reports.
- Send overachievers home. Overtime only works in the short-term.
- Trust people by eliminating bureaucracy.
- Celebrate more.
- Build on don’t tear down. Complaints don’t engage they defeat.
- Give honor and praise even if you can’t give cash.
- Explain and illustrate positive impact.
What can your organizations do to defeat burnout?
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Good post, Dan.
As organizations grow, most of them forget about the people at the “bottom.” They become drones working for the group end, but feel and get little in the way of reward. Honoring, respecting and giving appropriate positive feedback go a long way. Many times even further than cash will.
It is important to watch the overachivers. They can bring a lot of value to the job, but they can also flame-out quickly. These people need to be applauded, but also encouraged to have more complete lives than just what happens at work. Sending them home is a great place to start.
People need to feel valued and valuable to be able to continue to contribute well.
These six signs are not only valuable for organizations, but on a personal level as well. If your life feels like any of these, it is time for re-eaxmination.
Martina
@martinamcgowan
Hi Martina,
Thank you for starting us off today.
I’m glad you picked up the overachiever remark. There’s another reason to send over achievers home. It tells everyone else you believe in family, rest, and balance. It’s a powerful message to everyone.
Thank you for sharing your insights and making LF a great place to visit.
Happy Friday,
Dan
Another great article Dan. Having been there, it is nice to see the solutions so elegantly presented.
Thanks Casey. I bet many of us have been there.
Hi Dan, I disagree with the statement that burnout is more about organizations than individuals. It totally disavows personal (individual) choice. If I thought that people didn’t have a choice in saying “no” or “enough” or the ability to choose to simply walk away, I would certainly despair (some may say walking away is an unrealistic choice, but it is still a choice, after all). It takes both individuals AND the organization to make change.
Mary Jo, I agree that individual choice to put up with a situation has to be recognized, or everyone is simply a victim.
Hi Mary Jo,
Thanks for joining in. I value your insights.
Perhaps more emphasis on “more” in the sentence “more about organizations than individuals” is appropriate. Without the term “more” my statement would be a disavowal of individual responsibility.
I’ve never liked blaming the system for our problems. However, as you indicate it takes both individuals and organizations to effect change. I’m pushing the organizational side, today.
I believe organizations play important roles in the effectiveness and well being of employees, as I know you do.
I respect you and thank you for bringing your insights to the conversation.
Have a great weekend,
Dan
Mary Jo
Without diminishing responsibility of the individual as you rightly point out, the corporate culture is a huge pressure to over perform. (I don’t even like calling it over performing, it’s just over-working with diminishing returns). Consider some of the investment banking and law firm cultures, where face-time is more important sometimes than value-add. Especially for young people wanting to make their mark, the culture sends a cue of what to do and not to do in order to climb the corporate ladder. I think Dan is right on the mark.
When two people share responsibility (like the corporate culture and the individual), they are not each responsible 50%. They are each responsible 100%! That is the meaning of shared responsibility.
David Lapin
Author: Lead By Greatness
http://LeadByGreatness.com
Mary Jo,
I believe this debate would fall into the Nature vs. Nurture category. If the nature of the organization isn’t conducive to the nurture of the individual, unhappiness will surely follow. Individuals do have a responsibility to themselves to get out of situations that they aren’t happy with, but the company has a responsibility to create an environment where people can feel good about working in.
So I agree with David that it is a shared responsibility for all parties.
Dan, good insights, and another great set of lists.
Regarding the pressure for long hours, sending the overachievers home won’t do nearly as much good in setting the tone as limiting yourself to a reasonable work week. Your team needs to see you leaving early for a child’s ball game or a long weekend with your spouse.
Bingo!
I worked for a late nighter and it made me feel like a failure if I didn’t match their schedule.
Thanks for jumping in and best regards,
Dan
Dan,
Excellent post! All 6 factors would play into one burning out. Unfortunately, just one of the factors could cause burn out when extreme enough long enough. I’ve burned out by just working too much, even with none of the other factors in play. The good news was that simply taking an overdue one week vacation solved that one. On other occasions though, a little time off won’t solve burn out for long if the other factors are significant.
Thanks,
Chris
Christian,
I think that if a single week off solves the problem we should not talk about burnout, but just exhaustion. In such a situation I would think its is a matter of stamina, of no more (and no less) than running out of physical energy.
A real burnout happens when a person’s mental resources run out. Every person has an limited amount of mental resources to spend on any given day. Usually daily rest is enough to refuel; work and other activities can also provide some of these resources. And if needed, one can at times access his emergency reserves. That’s why we have them. Still nothing that can be compensated by some vacation to refill the reserves.
But when somebody is not sufficiently aware of the red blinking alarm lights, or just feels unable to act adequately, things can and will turn for the worse. The bottom of the reserve reservoir is made of very rough and hard concrete. Landing flat-face on that bottom can do a lot of damage, with long-term consequences.
Or compare a person heading down towards burnout with an engine that runs out of fuel. Instead of simply stopping this engine will start burning lubrication oil as fuel. Within a short time it will start producing ugly black smoke en after a short time permanent damage will occur because the engine runs out of lubrication, overheats and finally jams.
Understanding the six burnout factors will surely improve our sensitivity to these signals. And regardless if we have a management role or not, once we see these signals we should step in. Because in the end, we’re all human beings.
Dear Dan,
An interesting & useful post to learn on the factors that can lead to burnouts. 7 steps to turning pickle barrels into wine casks are worth appreciable.
Organizational burnouts can be minimized if the suggested steps are implemented well by the second layer management [SBU Heads/Dept. Heads] in their respective areas of control and ensuring that there is an environment of work with fun. Again, undue pressure and inhuman approach to be avoided.
People do wonders with collective focused efforts with good bosses around who would respect them and guide them for extraordinary results with encouragement and motivation.
The bosses need to be of caring type and should lead the team towards achieving higher goals with their exemplary role.
I agree that trust and granting authority are critical to engaging employees. If employees are not allowed to make decisions within the appropriate scope of their position, take risks and make mistakes, a culture of fear and uncertainty grows. This is deadly for employee engagement and productivity.
A simple equation can be helpful: engagement + enablement = happy, productive employees.** Enablement is reflected by those ideas in #1-7 above. Sounds simple but it can be exhausting and hard work for a leader to act upon these ideas. I coach leaders to identify the area in which they are not very competent which is having the most detrimental effect on their employees and start by working to change that. Once they become more competent, then I ask them to pick another area and work on that all the while building up to being the type of leader people clamour to work for.
Love your blog, thanks for pulling all the info together into a succint and thoughful piece.
**Unfortunately I can’t remember the consultant, but recently a webinar I attended discussed work in terms of formulas such as this.
Perhaps to add on to the celebrate more…successes and failures and endorse ‘re-creation’ on site and as already noted, in life outside of work.
If you are not enjoying and maybe even having fun at work, why are you there? Pretty sure this is not just a dress rehearsal, although there are beliefs and religions that view it otherwise, respect to them.
Burnout eats away from the inside out, with each person and within the organization. Obviously you have a choice in your response to burnout, what is your role in your organization’s response? Reactive or proactive? Victim? Enabler? Perp? or Advocate and model?
Do you have recognition processes, formal and informal? Do you have wellness processes, formal and informal. Do you have flying monkeys? If not, why not?
Dear Dan,
I appreciate the factors of burnouts. I would some more here. Organisations filled with more incompetent people, promotion based on seniority than merit, opaqueness in polices, gap in policies and practices, blame game, rumours, lack of intangible rewards, promotion based on relations and connections etc. I think people do not burn out because of hard work; they burn out because of unnecessary interventions. They burn out because of following trends rather than completing task. Some organisations are not concerned about completion of task, but how much you pass distorted information about your colleagues to your superiors.
I strongly believe that organisations can get rid of burnout by encouraging a culture of creativity and appreciation. Organisation should acknowledge people merit and achievement. Leaders should know that organisational success is not only number game, but trust game. Organisation should create trust, permeate transparency, take accountability, discourage backbiting, create free flow of information etc.
I work in an industry that attracts perfectionists and has a burn out rate at about three years for some people. I think an important part of looking for burn out is listening to your employees. Very often just by talking regularly to each person you can hear the changes in their attitudes towards the work and the company that signal potential burn out. In addition I think it gives you the opportunity to make sure employees know that you recognize and appreciate their contributions.
From a Christian viewpoint (mine), these items are all true if we don’t know who to turn to. We can’t always fix our problems on our own. Whether its burn out, wrong or poor environment, negative co-workers, no support, no recognition,, etc… God says, “Servants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh; not with eyeservice, as menpleasers; but in singleness of heart, fearing God; And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men;Knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance: for ye serve the Lord Christ.” Colossians 3:22-24 KJV
Its in the press that we are rewarded by our heavenly Father. No one promised that the road to success would be easy. Sometimes it simply requires turning it over to God through prayer and meditation, or fasting and prayer, if we are finding it increasingly difficult to work under those circumstances.
This is a great post!! It was right on time as I was feeling a little burnt out myself…I almost forgot the very words I just wrote, and the many others strumming through my mind right now. Thanks for the post!!
Nice find…. Thanks!
What can your organizations do to defeat burnout? I suppose this answer sounds a bit contrary to the post, and it’s not intended to be. To the point of “send overachievers home,” I think there is another layer to some of the “workaholic overachiever” types. They truly find their identity in being “the only one who stays late,” “the one who sent emails at 4 a.m.,” or the one who “can’t count on being able to take two weeks in the summer.” While their hard work is certainly appreciated and contributes to the bottom line, I think an organization should help that individual discern WHY they are so dependent upon that identity as “the hard worker” and should make sure the staff who are doing their share of the work, quietly without fanfare about how put-upon they are, feel appreciated as well.
I really resonate with this post, Dan. I’m there right now – and have just exercised my power of choice to walk away. Motivating for (necessary?) change from the bottom-up has been exhausting – but it is also interesting to put on the over achiever hat and ask why I’ve felt so driven and determined to introduce improvements and systems to prevent quality issues from rearing their head when they weren’t being asked for. I guess the simple answer in this case is that I take pride in my work and want to do a good job. Is this wrong? Perhaps in certain company cultures it is.
Interesting concepts.
DS
Nice post. It got me thinking.
No 1 – “working too much” all by itself, if consistent, will lead to burnout.
I do think the rest of the factors lead to a different thing, however – “lack of engagement” and if severe enough “active disengagement”
Whether it’s burnout or disengagement, both are bad for everyone.
I propose that part of the problem is there are places where many of the players are burned out and there are outside forces who freely comment on the lack of creativity and inspiration that exist. One example that leaps to mind this time of the year is school districts. The papers are filled with accounts of budget deficits and layoffs and how unfair it is for teachers to want a raise when the economy is not recovering. I wish the media would focus more on turning those pickle barrels into wine casks – who knows, maybe then school districts would focus more on how valuable and insightful the media are. Maybe organizations can create a culture of mutual respect and everyone would win.
I like these points you bring up. What do you do if you’re a low-level leader in an organization and you see these 6 areas of burn-out or you are even experiencing them? Nobody wants to be burnt-out, but if most of this is a result of organizational issues, what do you do?
I am one of those over achievers…at least I used to be. A few years ago several things happened to change that: A new administrator who bought into innovative ideas, didn’t send mixed messages (Don’t work too hard, but have this project done tomorrow) and trusted his employees; An eight-year-old daughter showing signs my absence was seriously affecting her; and ultimately me showing both physical and emotional signs of burnout. I did some serious reflection on having only one life and what I wanted to do with that life. Balance is key…your a better employee for it. Thanks for stimulating thought Dan!
Could you please explain this sentence, Dan?
“Give power and authority by turning approvals into reports.”
Hi Robert. Rather than giving people approval to take action. Ask them to report on the action they took. A conversation might go like this:
What would you like to try? Go for it. (As long as it won’t cause harm) Come back and let me know how it worked, what you learned, and what you plan to do next. (Report).”