{"id":18097,"date":"2020-04-17T09:10:42","date_gmt":"2020-04-17T13:10:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.benefitscanada.com\/news\/how-can-employers-manage-work-from-home-burnout-145062"},"modified":"2020-04-17T09:10:42","modified_gmt":"2020-04-17T13:10:42","slug":"how-can-employers-manage-work-from-home-burnout","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/2020\/04\/17\/how-can-employers-manage-work-from-home-burnout\/","title":{"rendered":"How can employers manage work-from-home burnout?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Jennifer Paterson<\/span> | April 17, 2020 <\/p>\n

Before the coronavirus pandemic, 20 per cent of BMO Financial Group\u2019s 45,000 employees were working from home on a fairly regular basis. Since March, that\u2019s jumped to 80 per cent.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have, of course, people who are in branches who need to go in and serve customers face to face, but we have schooled up our work from home at a pace we wouldn\u2019t otherwise have done,\u201d says Karen Collins, the bank\u2019s chief talent officer. \u201cIf we\u2019re looking for good things that are going to come out of this crisis, that\u2019s certainly one good thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

That said, she also highlights some detrimental aspects of working from home. With people no longer commuting, they have no separation between work at home, so they can potentially be working 16- or 17-hour days. As well, people can feel socially isolated \u2014 especially single people living alone \u2014 which has an effect on their mental health. And many people are juggling the responsibilities of working and parenting full time. \u201cSo people are running families essentially out of their office and that\u2019s stressful,\u201d says Collins.<\/p>\n

Read: Webinar: Coronavirus and workplace mental health<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Bill Howatt, president of Howatt HR Consulting, notes the current environment is unchartered water, with many employees learning how to do their jobs at home for the first time and adjusting to the new challenges. \u201cThere\u2019s a whole lot of anticipatory anxiety around the unknown that\u2019s already amping people up. And people are potentially working up to three hours extra a day during these early days of home isolation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before the pandemic shifted the nature of the workplace, it\u2019s likely many employees were already feeling stagnant or apathetic in their jobs, he says, noting that\u2019s where the challenge lies. \u201cTheir resources are drained and they don\u2019t have that capacity. So I\u2019m not sure if it\u2019s burnout as much as it is a fatigue and cognitive exhaustion in the early days. However, if they continue in this loop and continue to work at this pace for an extended period of time, I think burnout will be our next frontier for some folks.\u201d<\/p>\n

To manage this work-from-home burnout, BMO has introduced a number of initiatives. The bank has set up a response site on its intranet that includes resources like how to collaborate virtually and how to create communities virtually, as well as highlighting its well-being and mental-health supports and sharing a work-from-home guide.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe also have Skype for Business and we\u2019re rolling out Microsoft Teams,\u201d says Collins, noting these communications tools are great to help people feel a sense of connection through their work. But the organization is also using these tools for non-work gatherings.<\/p>\n

Read: 70% of employees satisfied with employer communications around coronavirus: survey<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cOur work-from-home guide encourages managers to have virtual coffee chats or cocktail parties at the end of the day, where everybody is up on Zoom or Microsoft Teams, so they can see each other and have the virtual cooler or office experience that a lot of people are really feeling like they\u2019re missing. So we\u2019re trying to create that sense of community, when people are working from home in a way that we didn\u2019t intend for them to do, and we didn\u2019t expect. And we\u2019re continually surveying our workforce to get feedback on how they\u2019re feeling and how they\u2019re doing.\u201d<\/p>\n

While these tools are great for BMO, it\u2019s important to acknowledge that not all employees need the same thing right now. Howatt suggests managers connect with their teams and be clear about expectations, asking about work priorities, what can be put on hold, their focus and how they can best be supported. Managers can also host a daily check-in with employees or virtual open office hours each day.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn other words, create the conditions that can power employees around isolation, removing barriers,\u201d he says. \u201cThat\u2019s what a lot of people don\u2019t understand \u2014 loneliness is the absence of social connections that meet your needs. However, when a person becomes isolated and there\u2019s something they feel is an obstacle between them and understanding or interacting with other people, then people can feel disconnected.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read: Behaviour analytics can be used to detect employee burnout: survey<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

To avoid burnout, employees should create a schedule and stick to it, says Howatt, and set realistic expectations while being mindful of other demands and drains. \u201cThink about yourself as a battery: what are the things that are draining my battery? Work, kids, husband, preparing more meals, cleaning more \u2014 all of these drains . . . . What are the things I\u2019m doing that are charging my battery? And pay attention each day \u2014 I\u2019ve got five drains and one charge. If your battery is getting drained lots and you\u2019re not investing any time . . . . It\u2019s being mindful of what you need to support you, to charge your battery.\u201d<\/p>\n

In BMO\u2019s case, it created wellness bursts on its employee well-being app around a number of topics. One of the key ones, according to Collins, is about structuring your day when working from home so you don\u2019t end up burning yourself out \u2014 and things like creating a schedule and sticking to a start and end time.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a \u2018pens down at 5:30\u2019 mandate on my team and I make sure people are accountable for that,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

For employees who are feeling any of the symptoms of burnout, it\u2019s perfectly fine to activate some form of support \u2014 whether that\u2019s an employee assistance program or peer support \u2014 to problem solve how to get ahead of symptom load, says Howatt. \u201cIn other words, battery drain, can\u2019t charge it, get some help.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read: Should Canada follow France\u2019s lead in clamping down on off-hours email?<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Read the full article at BenefitsCanada.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jennifer Paterson | April 17, 2020 Before the coronavirus pandemic, 20 per cent of BMO Financial Group\u2019s 45,000 employees were working from home on a fairly regular basis. Since March, that\u2019s jumped to 80 per cent. \u201cWe...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18097"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18097"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18097\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18097"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18097"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18097"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}