Health Horizons

Hello, and welcome to the Bupa Bitesize Academy module.

I'm Emma Shatliff, manager of the Bupa Academy.

At Bupa we're serious about supporting mental health in the workplace.

In today's session, we'll be discussing the difference between between busy and burnout, specifically asking what line managers can do to spot the signs and symptoms and support their teams.

I'm delighted to be joined by Dr Naomi Humber, clinical psychologist and head of Mental Wellbeing at Bupa.

Welcome, Naomi, thanks for joining us.

And if you're ready, we'll get started with the first question.

What is burnout The World Health Organisation classified burnout as an occupational phenomenon, but what exactly is burnout and how might it impact the workplace?

Yeah, so burnout is conceptualised as a sort of syndrome that is resulting from chronic workplace stress that has been unsuccessfully managed.

So what we find is the certain characteristics that are present when someone is feeling burnt out, really.

So we've got feelings of exhaustion that could be physical, emotional, mental exhaustion, feeling a sense of distance from one's role and one's employer, potentially feelings of cynicism and negativity related to one's role, having poor professional efficiency and performance, potentially having a low morale.

And this can lead to obviously presenteeism, absenteeism and low productivity, not just for themselves, but also for their teammates as well, because that morale spreads to other people when they're very negative and cynical about what's going on.

So at what point does being good busy at work become burnout?

And how can managers spot the signs within their team?

So, being busy is actually really helpful for us.

Getting a job done, setting goals and achieving them, that is really important for us.

So a certain level of demand and stress is good for us.

However, there is an optimum level of stress and demand on us and if it goes beyond that, we end up in a situation which could go down the road of burnout.

Burnout is when we feel completely overwhelmed by the stresses and demands that have been placed and also we're placing on ourselves.

Someone's functioning and presentation in the workplace will tell us a lot about their mental health and well being.

We often see with burnout the physical symptoms come forward first, usually.

So what would happen is the person keeps going to the doctor about random ailments, headaches, migraines, aches and pains, things like that.

And so that is typical for people who are struggling with burnout.

Mental health symptoms can be lack of motivation, low energy, not really engaged in what's going on, maybe confrontational, irritable in the workplace more than usual.

It might be that they are struggling with low mood and anxiety and often feeling quite threat focused and everything is a catastrophe and something bad is going to happen in some way, shape and form.

Causes of burnout So what are some of the causes of burnout that line managers should be aware of?

So there's a range of different causes and it's often not just one cause.

When someone is burnt out in terms of the workload it can be too much on the person's plate, it might be that they've taken on too much they're not able to delegate for whatever reason.

It might be that the person is struggling within the workplace in terms of not feeling they've got a sense of control and autonomy within the work they do so they're not getting a saying things, for example, feeling that like the micromanaged It might be the community and the working environment so they don't feel part of a team connected to that team.

They don't feel like they've got anyone to turn to, to talk to or to get that support.

They might feel they've got a lack of recognition and reward for the work that they do and that might lead them to think, well, I need to overcompensate, I need to do more here rather than less to get that recognition.

It might be that they feel they're not psychologically safe in the workplace so there's an issue with fairness.

They might be very angry about something that's going on and that may lead to them feeling a lack of respect from that company.

It might be that the company values are going against their own personal values in some way and that generates a real negative association with the workplace.

There might be a glamorisation of work as well within some industries and sectors so going to work and being busy is seen as socially desirable and advantageous rather than anything else.

We find often that there are personality traits going on a lot of the time so it might be that the person is very much a go getter, overachiever really pushing themselves at all costs.

Very perfectionistic or the other side of it is that they feel very much that a people pleaser, saying yes to everything and self sacrificing a lot of the time.

Ways to prevent burnout So what are some of the ways line managers can prevent their teams from burning out?

So there's a range of ways really, so encouraging the team to set boundaries, saying no to things, to be able to say yes to things maybe outside of work.

Not pushing themselves too hard and delegating where appropriate and possible.

Thinking about clocking off and making sure that people are clocking off at the right time and taking that time to go and rest and recover for the next day.

Thinking about your own behaviour and how you role model what you're asking them to do so do you practise what you preach as well, which is really important.

Do you have a good work life balance too.

See it, say it.

So if you do see something within the workplace you are concerned about someone, try to bring it to their attention and try and nip it in the bud in a sensitive way.

Prioritising the team wellbeing as well, so making sure that everyone knows that that's high on your agenda and it's a priority for everyone.

Encouraging them to take breaks, take holidays, saying that they deserve those.

It's really important that we do that.

It's going to help with our productivity, our performance, but also we deserve to take that time away.

Boreout

Boreout is a related phenomenon that's arguably just as pernicious, but gets much less attention.

Could you explain what boreout means and how managers should tackle that?

Yeah, sure.

So boreout is feeling chronically bored and underwhelmed in the role that you're doing.

So it might be that the person feels very demotivated, under challenged, unstimulated in some way in the work that they're doing.

It has the same sorts of signs and symptoms as burnout, but it's got a very different cause, which is, as I say, they're not feeling motivated and the feeling quite demoralised within the work environment, not having enough demands and stress on them to perform to the best of their ability.

So it can be signs and symptoms such as low mood, anxiety, lack of energy and the impact on the work can be huge.

So it can be a lot of low productivity, presenteeism and absenteeism because of boreout.

We find that managers can prevent boreout by actually engaging the team, getting them all reenergized motivated, working cohesively together as a team, as a collective, sharing workloads, making sure that everyone has got enough work to be doing and the right sort of work for them and they're really engaged in what they're doing too.

It might be a role review.

So you look at someone's role and how they're getting on with things, it might be things to do with their habits, the way they work, and it might be that you need to mix it up a little bit.

I think what I'd call out here is as well, with the new normal, we're working from home a lot more, so it's sometimes difficult to spot as a line manager.

So it's extra important to have those regular meetings with people to ask open questions and have open conversations about how they're getting on.

Try and break that routine that the person's got, if that's a problem.

Rewarding staff and recognising them, appreciating them if they've done good work.

And asking if they got a project that they'd like to work on or would they like you to suggest one?

Thank you so much for your time, Naomi.

It's a really important topic, so we really appreciate you taking the time to answer those questions for us.

English (United Kingdom)