Uncertainty and disruption due to Covid-19 have led to widespread feelings of fatigue and burnout, experts say. Research shows a majority of people across the world say that their mental health has been negatively affected by the pandemic. Be honest and answer that question for yourself. The ongoing stress can lead to “psychological hibernation”, psychologist Emma Kavanagh tells the Guardian, leading to loss of concentration, poor sleep and memory issues. At work, negativity or slower performance can be warning signs.

What is burn out?

Burnout is the combination of three emotions: exhaustion, negativity and ineffectiveness. The feelings of negativity and ineffectiveness are what differentiate it from regular tiredness or exhaustion. It is different from depression in that it is purely work-related.

Identifying burn out

Some of our clients are using the survey functionality in Odoo to support HR and team managers understand the impact of Covid-19 on their staff and identify burn out.

They are creating weekly questionnaires to go out post group catch up meetings to identify:

·         Do they seem more irritable, or regularly exhausted?

·         Do they tend to point out the worst in everything that happens or is suggested? 

·         Are they quicker to shoot down other people’s ideas?

·         Do they give off the idea that any work you’re giving them just feels like a burden?

·         Are they dropping the ball at work when they usually wouldn’t?

·         Are they producing less ideas, or being slower to respond?

You can also review input and output via Odoo to see:

·         How many emails have been sent?

·         How many tasks have been completed?

·         How back to back is their diary?

·         How many online meetings are attending daily?

·         What is the average daily screen time?

·         What times are they working? (As we have seen a change in working patterns to support home schooling)

Burnout-proof your workplace

To prevent burnout, it is important for employees to feel like they are making meaningful progress towards valued goals.

The key is to make small, fixed changes, which are easily pushed out and monitored by Odoo. Below are a number of changes we have seen clients make, that it might be worth considering.

·         Have a weekly feedback survey on a Friday – so staff don’t feel confronted with a face to face on this and are more likely to be honest - It will make it okay to flag when people feel overstretched.

·         Praise under-promising and over-delivering with an employee of the month scheme.

·         Build holiday time into execution plans via our project management module with easy to use HR module to check if everyone has booked down time each quarter.

·         Protect your team’s time — for example, let them periodically turn off Odoo notifications or try ‘Deep Work’ days, which happen monthly and are booked into everyone’s diary so there is a sense of togetherness. Deep work is the ability to focus without distraction on a cognitively demanding task.

When consistently applied throughout the company, these habits will generate happier, more productive workplaces. 

These are small but meaningful changes your company can make today, to prevent causes of burnout and create a highly engaged working culture. 

Create a more productive atmosphere and build better morale for your team. Call Jane Dyson, Operations Director at Sapentia on 01543 220 910 for a demonstration of Odoo today.