BURNOUT prevention – What role does the team leader play?

The phenomenon of burnout It was included in 2019 in the international static classification of diseases by the World Health Organization, which defines it “a syndrome deriving from chronic stress from the workplace, which has not been successfully managed”. The leader’s responsibility is to provide employees with an open, healthy and balanced work environment to prevent their physical and mental fatigue.

What are the steps to prevent this phenomenon? First of all, it is essential to recognize its symptoms and factors that could trigger them; Create a healthy work environment; Monitoring and management of the loading of the team; Implementation of stress management methods; Evaluation and reduction of long -term stress triggers; Set an example from the leader.

How do you recognize the burnout?

His main signs are: chronic fatigue, reduction of productivity, lack of motivation, increase in absenteeism, permanent state of irritability, difficulty concentration, problems in efficient work time, preference to be isolated by the other members of the team, repeated migraines.

To be prevented, we have to know what triggers could be. The main factor is the overload of liability, followed by the setting of non -realistic deadlines, by the lack of clarity on the assigned tasks and the lack of support of the leader. To these can be added external factors such as: customer pressure and lack of resources at the team level.

Create a healthy and balanced work environment

In which the open communication is promoted on the team level on the stress and the challenges faced, it can make the difference. In this way, employees will feel they are listened to and can ask for help when they need it. A weekly meeting with the members of the team can be a starting point, to understand the problems they have to face, the stress and the degree of load in order to agree on the necessary changes. A healthy work environment is also the one in which each person knows his own responsibilities, eliminating the unclear of the team at the tasks. The leader should have a quarterly meeting with each employee to discuss the description of the updated work, his responsibilities and establish delivery with realistic terms. More than this, The balance between the personal and professional life of the accountant, It represents an important factor in the life of the team members. Therefore, to maintain this balance, the leader can present proposals in this direction, such as: the flexibility of the daily program, so that an employee can work on the program to complete the program faster on another day; the possibility of working a remote day (from home or from any other place, thus eliminating the hours on the road to and work); The possibility of completing the program faster to solve some personal problems and recover the hours on any other day.

In the Burnout prevention process, an important role is played e Method of management of the Team loading by the leader. To know the degree of load of each member, the leader can use a management system with which it can analyze and distribute activities. In any work environment, urgent or unexpected tasks also appear, which must be resolved for this reason, there must be flexibility within the terms imposed, but also a system for defining the priorities of the activities. The leader can organize weekly meetings to see the state of the works and to determine if certain terms must be prolonged, if certain tasks must be urgent according to their importance or if the activities are necessary if a certain employee is overloaded. In the case of repetitive or demanding tasks, they can be distributed in the team from the rotation, eliminating the monotony or pressure perceived by a single employee.

For Wellness of the team at work

The leader can present proposals for the management of stress. It can resort to a person with experience on the field, as a stress management specialist or a coach to support different team seminars, such as emotional resilience, which could help to better manage rigorous terms. In addition, informal activities for relaxation can be organized, such as social events, outdoor physical activities, regular team building. All this can only work if short breaks are encouraged in the daily work program, but also the implementation of the hours of office at the team level, during which the employee can only focus on an activity, without being interrupted by other colleagues or customers.

Each member of the team charges stress in a different way, which is why it is important for the leader to consult the employees regularly, find out what the level of stress is heard. A useful way to find such information are anonymous questionnaires, in which everyone can express their opinion on the perceived stress, its sources and the current level of satisfaction at work. Anonymous questionnaires offer the freedom of employees to express themselves without moderation and fear of tensions at work. The optimization of internal processes can help reduce stress factors by automating repetitive activities to reduce the volume of work or the periodic review of priorities and postpone/cancel unnecessary tasks or projects. The career plans can have a positive impact on the motivation of the team, so if an employee has clearly set objectives and achieving them professionally bring (financially or a level of role in the organization), his involvement will increase considerably.

The leader plays an important role in the prevention of burnout at the organization level. It must encourage open discussions on the needs and problems encountered by each team member, to create a safe environment, based on collaboration and support. It is important that when the leader notes a great load on an employee, he will issue solutions to decrease the pressure he tried. The leader can analyze priorities and can redistribute certain activities in the team, to reduce a balance between team activities or even postpone some tasks that do not represent emergencies, giving them the priority to the well -being of the team. In order to encourage a balanced and healthy work environment, the leader could give an example for his team. He could make breaks visible during the day and avoid sending and -mail after the program, in this way respecting the team work program. In addition, calls to employees should be avoided as much as possible, both after the program, but also on free days, to give it the opportunity to detach and relax.

In conclusion, it is better to prevent an employee’s burnout. If they feel relaxed and supported at work, their productivity will increase. Furthermore, when an employee sees that his health and kindness count within the organization, he will be less inclined in search of new jobs and will be willing to recommend the company, helping to increase the reputation on the labor market and attract new talents.

If you want to know more about the balance between the professional accountant and personal life, we invite you to pass through the following podcast in which we approach this topic: https://seo.brunomag.ro/viata-contained.