The Consuming Cost Of Burnout
What Most Leaders Fail To Understand About How Much Their Organizations Lose In Burnout
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The Consuming Cost Of Burnout
What Most Leaders Fail To Understand About How Much Their Organizations Lose In Burnout
Burnout is not a new problem.
But...
It is an expanding problem in today’s world.
It is impacting over 80% of the workforce...
And it is expected to continue to grow based on the current trends.
It is also a problem that most leaders fail to really understand.
They write it off as a “necessary cost” for productivity.
But this is truly backwards thinking...
And when you understand why...
You begin to realize that it is far more destructive than leaders realize...
Especially in the long term.
Let’s start by just focusing on the short term...
Research from two different areas of human performance tells us an interesting story about burnout and productivity.
If we look at the burnout research...
We find that a person who is in burnout is 75% less productive than the “average” employee...
And we will get to “average” in a minute.
Another way to say this is that the average employee accomplishes 400% as much as someone in burnout.
Already, we are looking at a significant loss of productivity...
But it gets worse.
When we look at flow research, we begin to see a larger problem.
We are at our absolute psychophysiological best when we are in flow states.
How much better?
A person who is in flow is 500% more productive than the “average” employee.
Now, if we take this directly...
This means that with these two sets of numbers combined...
A person in flow is 2000% more productive than a person in burnout...
Except...
This number is not exactly correct...
Because the “average” of these studies was done at different times...
And the “average” productivity decreased between when the flow studies were done and when the burnout studies were done.
What does this mean?
That people in flow are actually “more” than 2000% more productive than people in burnout...
But we do not know how much more because no one has done the research to directly compare them...
Because it is not really worth the cost of testing it...
We already know it is a significant difference.
But...
It still gets worse.
How?
This is looking at “individual” productivity...
Only in the short term.
What happens in the long term?
Well...
When it comes to productivity...
These types of results compound over time.
If you know anything about compound interest...
You know that small differences can make a huge difference.
Just to give you an example...
Say that one thing is capable of growing at 1% per day, and another thing is capable of growing at 20% per day.
In 30 days...
The 1% compounded daily grows to a 34% total increase...
The 20% compounded daily grows to a 23737% total increase.
Our productivity compounds similarly to this...
Except that we are talking about biological systems...
And burnout is a physiological state of decay.
What this means is that our bodies are “literally” breaking down into worse and worse conditions over time...
Meaning that this is not 1% growth compounded...
But 1% decay compounded.
Now the “spreadsheets” might show “positive” productivity...
But the spreadsheets are failing to see the full picture of the human decay that is taking effect.
In fact...
Burnout has been diagnosed as the medical cause of death in many individuals...
Even as young as their 20’s.
China has had a lot of problems with this exact problem, because of their 996 culture that is illegal, yet still expected in many workplace cultures...
And which is still being diagnosed as the cause of death of young individuals.
That is the reality of what happens when 1% decay is compounded.
Yet...
It still gets worse.
How?
We looked at the difference in compounding 1% and 20% over 30 days...
But once you get into burnout...
You actually are not physically able to make a full recovery for longer than 30 days.
How long does burnout take to recover from?
On the “mild” end of burnout...
The “earliest” is 6 weeks of significant recovery...
And no, the weekend does not qualify as significant recovery.
That is 42 days necessary to recover...
On the absolute mildest form of burnout...
Where your productivity will have to decrease so that real recovery can occur.
But what about on the more “typical” end of burnout, and the “extreme” end?
How long does that recovery take?
4 months on the low end of “typical”...
And “over” a year on the extreme end.
This means that once you get into your “normal” experience of burnout...
You are “stuck” at that extremely low level of productivity...
Compounding daily...
For 120 days to over 365 days...
Assuming you’re actually taking real measures to get out of burnout...
Which most people are not.
This means that instead of decreasing burnout...
Their burnout is simply becoming worse...
Making the total time necessary to recover longer...
Creating a perpetual abysmal level of productivity.
But it still gets worse...
How?
At burnout, we are at our worst...
Meaning we are going to make more mistakes...
We learn more slowly, if we can learn at all...
We miss things that should have been easy to catch...
Our emotional intelligence is lowered, which negatively impacts everyone around us...
And all of this becomes negative productivity...
Where we “look” busy...
But with so many problems, we are actually moving backwards...
Usually, without even realizing how or why it is happening.
This is how so many organizations begin to spiral out of control from seemingly nowhere...
And they cannot grasp where all of the problems are coming from...
Until it is far too late to do anything about it.
But...
It still gets worse.
Why?
Burnout can spread psychophysiologically.
The primary mechanism for this occurs through our neurocardiology through what is known as entrainment.
The idea is that when we are in dis-stress...
We can “pull” others into dis-stress with us...
Therefore, causing them dis-stress...
Which, when compounded consistently over time...
Becomes chronic dis-stress...
From which burnout is born.
So if you have a workplace that has a handful of people in burnout...
They will “pull” others into dis-stress...
Which then becomes teams filled with burnout...
That spreads to the entire organization.
It is no coincidence that “over” 80% of the workforce is in burnout, and it is expected to get worse...
This is what is known as group burnout.
But this is what is important...
Just as days compound over time...
People’s results together compound over time.
So...
If you have a workforce in group flow...
You are compounding an individual’s positive results every day...
So if 1 person could achieve 1 positive result...
Then 2 people could achieve 4 positive results...
And 3 people could achieve 9 positive results.
That is essentially what happens with group flow.
But with group burnout...
1 person achieves 1 negative result...
2 people achieve 4 negative results...
And 3 people achieve 9 negative results.
The organization begins to break down into chaos.
So when you begin to see the bigger picture...
Most leaders completely fail to understand the real consuming costs of burnout.
This is not a mild inconvenience...
It is an existential crisis...
One that’s destroying companies internally...
While they are ignorantly looking at spreadsheets...
Blind to their demise.
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So, how can a leader go about turning the tide in this vicious cycle of burnout?
That is what we will go over next.
I have 5 points to help leaders overcome burnout.
Let’s Dive In…
