Employer Support Guide: Time to Kill Remote Working Fatigue

Pandemic has not been kind. Especially, if you are an employee struggling between work and personal life since the mega work transition brought by the COVID-19 lockdowns — you know what we are talking about.

Let us be honest here. The pre-pandemic work style was not something we adored but it was a source to declutter our mind and put us on the reset button until the weekends. However, once we started working from home, we hoped for a change in routine, a lot more time for ourselves, and new ways to explore our lives. Except, working remotely was anything but relaxing. 

The digital wellness company Dequilibrium in July 2020 started tracing the impact of the coronavirus outbreak on employees, who had to switch to home office following the massive work transition. The study required a series of surveys that measured the increase in burnout and work-life challenges those employees faced in the past 2 years. 

Work from home challenges were more than just workers’ lack of adopting the new work culture. While many employees had trouble with issues like the unavailability of high-speed internet, many had to work in complete isolation which affected their mental health. Although we expect the employees to endure work from home culture smoothly and invest in the right tools like Spectrum Packages to reduce the debilitating sense of isolation. The reality is that employers need to come on board in helping out employees in reducing stress. 

Without a highly functioning and energetic team, no employer can expect better revenue and a growing company. Following are some of the ways that can help employers in showing their support to the employees facing burnout, isolation, and stress while working from home. 

Creating a Safe Space

If you want to fight burnout and bring your A-level employers back to their energetic selves, then you need to start with creating a safe space. After many surveys, researches and studies, it is clear that the major burnout red flag is not addressing the issue that increases stress and anxiety during work. Managers and employees who believe in sharing burnout issues have a lot more control over the situation.

Here, we do not recommend being nosy about your employee’s problems. Instead, putting your empathic side upfront and being gentle in your curiosity can help in eliciting questions that will lead to a solution for increased stress and burnout. 

Here is an example: You can start by asking your workers if they recall a time where they feel this much stress when working for the company. Asking such questions can help you identify the core problems of employees that are sources of increasing burnout.  

Keep in mind that burnout solutions do not come as a quick fix. Instead, having a vigilant approach with the employees can help come up with several unique solutions. 

Turn into an Empathetic Listener

One of the great tools to help employees fight stress, work burden, and burnout is by being:

Patient: Some employees can take time to share their problem or their side of the story so you have to be patient with them.

Stay Present: Empathetic listening requires being present at the moment and making the other person feel that you are actively listening. 

Being Nonjudgemental: This might be hard for employers but is the most crucial factor of empathetic listening. Make sure you do not blame or shame your workers for having trouble performing their best at work. 

Let’s Combat Burnout Together!

Combating burnout is not easy. However, there are some tested ways for employers to show their support to the team and to bring them back to their best selves.