5 Employee Burnout Signs You Shouldn’t Ignore: Insights from Career Expert Diana Zuieva
5 Employee Burnout Signs You Shouldn’t Ignore: Insights from Career Expert Diana Zuieva
Career burnout is not just temporary fatigue, but a deep loss of energy and meaning in professional activities. Its early symptoms often go unnoticed, leading to the loss of valuable employees and decreased business efficiency. Diana Zuieva, founder and CEO of the professional business assistant training school “Vysshaya Liga Biznes-Assistentov,” and a practicing business assistant in an international development company in Miami, shares how to recognize signs of burnout in employees.
Lack of Recognition and Reward
Some managers consider the issue of financial incentives resolved after stating the salary during hiring. They do not provide for a system of bonuses, rewards for results, or incentives for significant dates. However, it is important to understand that for sustainable efficiency, any specialist, in addition to a decent salary, needs regular feedback and recognition of their merits.
Even the most professional and internally motivated employees need evaluation and approval from management. This is especially relevant for the position of a business assistant—a person who often acts as the right hand of the manager. If such a responsible and involved employee, who treats tasks with care, does not feel that their efforts are appreciated for a long time, they are highly likely to start considering other options.
Moreover, motivation is not only about monetary rewards but also about comprehensive recognition of merits.
What Should a Manager Do?
- Allocate funds for rewards in the budget and be ready to use them regularly.
- Do not ignore economic factors such as inflation, which gradually reduce real income.
- Invest in comfortable working conditions and fair financial rewards for a trusted person—this is an investment in the stability and efficiency of the entire manager’s office.
Lack of Professional Growth and Development
A frequent reason why business assistants and other employees leave their positions is the lack of professional growth and development. Often, during the interview stage, the manager paints exciting prospects: participation in interesting projects, expansion of responsibilities, and career horizons. However, in reality, the work boils down to a routine set of tasks without any progress.
Stagnation, lack of new challenges, and visible progress gradually extinguish the initial enthusiasm, forcing a valuable specialist to look for opportunities to realize their potential elsewhere.
What Should a Manager Do?
- Be honest and consistent in your promises. Openly discuss current tasks and long-term plans, not avoiding difficult topics.
- Regular dialogue and joint search for solutions will help maintain employee engagement and find compromises that suit both parties.
- To build long-term effective working relationships, it is critically important to revise your management style. Analyze which of your actions contribute to the growth of team motivation and which, on the contrary, may reduce it.
Working on Mistakes
Working on mistakes and consciously building interactions with subordinates is an investment in the stability of your daily work and, consequently, in the success of the entire business.
Lack of External Representation
Each employee is unique: some need to go beyond the organization with colleagues or business partners to conferences and team-building events, while others are satisfied with daily routines. In a world of high competition that exists not only among job seekers but also among companies, not all specialists stay if something does not match the ideal picture.
When an employee does not find a way to manifest themselves externally in their current workplace, there is every chance that their enthusiasm will burn out, and they will either agree to the current realities or continue their search to not stop self-realization and improve the best version of themselves.
What Should a Manager Do?
If the company is interested in strong personnel, managers should listen to the factors that irritate employees and partially or completely neutralize these factors.
Toxic Work Environment
Working in an office requires paying attention to people and the atmosphere in which they spend most of their day. When the environment consists of “mini-groups” gossiping about everyone, the atmosphere heats up.
If the company is serious, the level of competition is probably also high, as not everyone is immediately accepted into the “dream position.” For employees, this means “always be on guard.” Sooner or later, such a situation exhausts, and the body gets tired on an energetic level—burnout can occur.
What Should a Manager Do?
- Pay attention to corporate culture and interact more with the team.
- Introduce nice traditions of encouragement and attention.
- Perhaps you are ready to offer remote work to some of your employees?
Excessive Enthusiasm
Increased enthusiasm of employees seems to be very beneficial to the manager. Projects are becoming more ambitious, and performance is higher. Moreover, the employees themselves are satisfied—money, self-realization, and career growth.
However, sooner or later, a moment may come when the career stagnates: there are no new projects, or it is not possible to achieve the desired result for a long time.
Without the support of loved ones or hobbies, an employee can easily fall into depression.
What Should a Manager Do?
- Ensure that employees do not dive headfirst exclusively into work.
- Rejoice in enthusiasm but do not encourage overwork.
- Hold meetings where there is an opportunity to highlight results, share ideas, and discuss prospects.
For further reading, consider exploring this article on personal branding.
