by Elizabeth Otieno
It’s a difficult time for many business owners and employees. The handful of us who have managed to keep our jobs are grateful and ensure to work diligently to keep it that way. We either occasionally visit the office or permanently work from home, until this pandemic is over that is. Now that our safe haven, our home, has become our workplace as well, will our work efficiency rise or fall?
A survey done by HRD in early May displayed that 73% of online employees, during the corona period, were miserable and suffering from burnout, a 12% increase since the survey was last done in mid-February. I always envied my friends and family who worked from home. It always looked easier and more convenient, who wouldn’t enjoy working in their favourite pair of pajamas in the comfort of their homes. Yet here we are, most of us reading and typing the day away, working from home, deeply miserable.
With unemployment and job loss on the rise, many of us no longer work from a place of ‘love and enjoyment’, but rather from a place ‘fear of unemployment’ and ‘the constant need to prove themselves to their superiors’. We live in a period of uncertainty. We don’t know how long we’ll be able to keep our businesses afloat or if the economy will continue to plummet, so the continuous need to push our boundaries and force ourselves to work more is natural. It’s basically instinctive. But at what cost.
The same survey pointed out that of those 73% affected by burnout, 26.7% claimed it was due to difficulty to separate between work and life, 20.5% said unmanageable workload and 18.8% were concerned with their job security.
No one works at their optimum during burnout. We tend to give what is left of us, the little we have. You, or your employees, maybe going through burnout right now. This cloud of saturated fatigue looming over our heads.
According to an online poll, burned out employees are nearly 3 times as likely to be deliberately looking for employment elsewhere, while nearly more than half of employees are likely to fake illness to get a sick day.
We all express burnout differently. That last straw, whether it's eventually snapping and yelling at everyone and everything, or going into a deep and somber mood, where we are just, tired.
The first thing we need to do is breathe and acknowledge our mental and emotional state. Don’t tell yourself to calm down, never in the history of ‘calm down’ has anyone calmed down. Accepting however, that we have reached our breaking point will help us plan how to heal and rejuvenate ourselves.
Always being on the go, will inevitably tire us, so throw in a mix once in a while. Whether it's going outside for a thirty-minute walk or trying a new dance move in your backyard or the upstairs of your apartment, the change, no matter how silly, will help your brain recalibrate and breathe. A nap, even though good, should not be the constant go to for every time you feel overwhelmed, try attaching it with an activity.
Check up on your employee’s mental health as often as you check up on the report you need from them about certain clients. A train needs all its engines up and running to move successfully.
Remember to let a trusted friend or fellow co-worker or higher-up know if the burnout is too much for you to handle. You aren’t a one-woman army. You’d be surprised that you aren’t alone.
Elizabeth Otieno — Ray of sunshine, armed with a pen. Elizabeth is a young bubbly content creator, who is currently doing her B.A in Communications and Public relations at Strathmore University. The aspiring writer and PR practitioner goes about her day, either in class studying or working as the Digital and Content Manager at Dharkemmy Corporate Communications Limited (DCCL). When she isn’t working, she is either at the dojo advancing her karate skills, creating hilariously sarcastic videos about African history on her YouTube channel, “Epic African Tale” or in the kitchen trying a new recipe she saw on Buzzfeed Tasty or the Food channel. Elizabeth hopes to expand her range of expertise, already learning new languages and a few programming and graphic designing skills that will definitely come in handy in the future. Or at the very least make her sound interesting at the Christmas dinner party.
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