Are you at risk of office burnout?

Are you or your employees at risk of office burnout? What are the warning signs? Take a look at this research from AXA PPP Healthcare…

Britain’s small and medium sized firms make up 99.9% of the UK’s private sector businesses, employ nearly three-fifths of its workforce and account for 48% of the turnover.

But full-on pursuit of commercial success may be putting owners and employees of these businesses at increased risk of ill health and burnout. Described as a type of stress, office burnout can manifest itself as a state of physical, emotional or mental exhaustion combined with doubts about your competence and the value of your work.

Unfortunately, long working hours are often embedded into SME culture. According to the research by AXA PPP healthcare:

• 47% of employees in SMEs across the UK said they regularly work 4 or more hours of overtime per week
• 29% of these put in 7 or more hours
• For half (52%), the extra hours are unpaid

In addition:

• 21% of employees take fewer than 30 minutes for lunch
• 27% have cancelled family time and 19% have missed a child’s event such as a school play
• Over half (54%) of employees have continued to work after putting children to bed

“Small and medium sized businesses are the backbone of the economy – driving innovation, enterprise and growth,” says Iain McMillan, SME Director at AXA PPP healthcare. “Their commitment is commendable yet our study shows that owners and bosses may be putting themselves and their employees at increased risk of burnout and ill health through protracted overwork.”

As a result of the research, the small business experts at AXA PPP healthcare have released this short animation (below), in order to help employers spot the signs of burnout, in their staff or themselves.

Warning signs of office burnout include:

• Becoming cynical or critical at work
• Lacking the energy to be consistently productive at work
• Lacking satisfaction from your achievements
• Feeling unmotivated at work
• A change in sleep habits or appetite
• Becoming troubled, unexplained headaches, backaches or other physical complaints

Source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0072470/