Celebrating wins and the camaraderie of your team is a great antidote to burnout. Create team-building events and things like happy hours to build morale and relationships.Business leaders should also be aware of how their organization's pay structure might inadvertently encourage burnout. of the Harvard Business School has found that employees whose pay structures includes bonuses and performance incentives are more likely to choose work over friends and family.
"Our results suggest that how you start to view the world when you're paid under performance incentives is that any moment you are not working is a moment that's wasted," says Whillans."The negative effects of constantly choosing work over personal relationships appear to accumulate over time and in turn contribute to negative mental health outcomes."
It is important to point out that performance incentives are not inherently bad. In some industries and roles, they may be optimal or even necessary. But in such organizations, managers should be mindful of how those same incentives might also incentivize behavior that leads to burnout. If this applies to you and your industry, take extra care to counter burnout with the strategies discussed above proactively.
Beyond the question of performance incentives, Whillans's research reminds us that we should not equate high performance with long hours. Squeezing out a few extra hours of your employees' time will only backfire in the long run. Although we worked longer hours during the pandemic, abundant research indicates we are better offThe days just before the Holidays are a perfect time to take stock of what is typically talked about as"work-life balance.