Have you been noticing signs of emotional exhaustion in your employees? It’s possible they are experiencing job stress or issues with their work-life balance. Emotional exhaustion could also be due to their having been or currently being ill. When employees return to work when they haven’t sufficiently recovered from an illness, this can manifest as both physical and emotional exhaustion.
Are your employees’ jobs stressful by nature? This, along with workplace conflicts, can increase stress levels. A recent survey showed that approximately 66% of the male and female participants stated that work impacts their stress levels significantly. As a result, one out of every four has taken a “mental health day” or called in sick. On a daily basis, roughly one million American workers are absent from work due to workplace stress. In many instances, this can significantly impact work flow and cause other unforeseen issues.
If you’re responsible for employees within the medical field, then you’re aware that this is considered to be a particularly stressful occupation. The results of a recent study indicated that a large percentage of physicians experienced at least one burnout symptom. This amounted to 45.8% of the participating physicians. When considering the overall burnout rate of physicians within the United States, this currently amounts to 35.2%. It’s interesting to note that younger physicians experience a higher burnout rate than older physicians. This amounts to 44% for those aged 35 and under.
A Medscape Physician Lifestyle Survey recently asked physicians to rate their burnout levels. When taking all types of medical professionals into consideration, emergency room doctors tend to report the highest levels of burnout. When this survey was published in January of 2017, it revealed that 59% of these emergency room doctors admitted to feeling burned out.
Female physicians rated themselves higher than male physicians on the burnout scale in the Medscape Physician Lifestyle Survey. The former rated themselves at 55%, while the latter rated themselves at 45%. This ten percent differential could be due to a poor work-life balance and other issues, such as an impending or ongoing divorce.
Physicians tend to experience almost twice as many issues with work-life balance than persons in other occupations, according to various studies. While these issues do vary, studies show a high level of dissatisfaction with their ability to balance the demands of their position with those of their personal lives. Given this, it’s not surprising that they have a higher divorce rate than people within the general population. This actually tends to be ten percent to 20% higher, which is significant.
When you notice signs of emotional exhaustion in your employees, it’s important to address this situation as soon as possible. In addition to signs of emotional exhaustion, you also want to pay close attention to signs of physical exhaustion. If your employees are burned out, there’s a good chance that they are not performing at their highest level. Furthermore, this can also cause employees to miss more work, increase workplace conflicts, and otherwise affect the overall work environment.
