Linked: Addressing employee burnout: Are you solving the right problem?
Kudos to McKinsey for the research, but really just for the first line of this paragraph:
“As an employer, you can’t “yoga” your way out of these challenges. Employers who try to improve burnout without addressing toxic behavior are likely to fail. Our survey shows that improving all other organization factors assessed (without addressing toxic behavior) does not meaningfully improve reported levels of burnout symptoms. Yet, when toxic behavior levels are low, each additional intervention contributes to reducing negative outcomes and increasing positive ones.”
Go read more at the link, but I don’t think many of you will be surprised b the findings. You can implement all of the self-help and resilience training programs you want, but if the workplace culture sucks, it won’t help. In fact, employees who learn how to be resilient and care for themselves will be more likely to leave a toxic environment so you might be doing more harm to yourself than good.
If the workplace is toxic, if the actions of other people in the workplace are causing harm to people, training the victims to be less “victim-like” isn’t solving anything. In fact, it’s fairly offensive to have a work-life balance seminar for employees while also demanding they work 60 hours per week or respond to emails at any hour. All you did was waste one more hour of their time.
Fix yourself first.
