The Great Disillusionment How to Move Past Employee Burnout
Turn on the TV today and you’ll find any number of things to be concerned about. Between an unrelenting pandemic, the prospect of international warfare, rising inflation, the grim outlook in the latest climate change report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and rampant natural disasters, it’s no small wonder people are getting burnt out. On top of that, if you’re an employer struggling to keep up with our increasingly exhausting news cycle, our current global crisis might be adding yet another worry to your already long list: employee disillusionment.
That’s right — it’s becoming more and more clear that workers everywhere are throwing up their hands in resignation at a world that’s hard to contend with. And so the question remains: how can company leaders counteract feelings like these? Are there meaningful ways to improve our work environments so that employees feel excited and motivated, instead of disengaged and burnt out?
While it’s no small task, the answer is still yes. Keep reading to learn how “The Great Disillusionment” is impacting us, and how you and your colleagues can work to counteract it.
Understanding where we’re at on the disaster scale
At the turn of the century, medical trauma experts Diane Meyers and Leonard Zunin found that communities confronted with large-scale disasters often experienced the same six stages of recovery. Those stages include:
- A pre-disaster fear of what’s to come
- The immediate shock of a crisis as it happens
- A heroic post-crisis moment of community bonding and altruism
- A honeymoon stage of optimism and shared bonds
- Disillusionment as the aftershocks of the crisis are continuously felt
- A reconstruction period of recovery and adjustment
More than two years into the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s safe to say our workplaces are somewhere between the disillusionment and reconstruction stages of disaster recovery. While there’s some optimism at the fact that restrictions have been lifted and lockdowns are over, infections and variant strains are still rising, and employees are still making constant choices about where they’re going to work.
What does this mean for prospective employees? For starters, they’re far more likely to be distrusting of hierarchies and other large social structures. The pandemic created a lot of national distrust, and salary cuts, layoffs and uncertainty certainly haven’t done anything to restore that trust in the time since.
Our advice? Treat this year as a time to rebuild that faith within your teams by fostering open communication. For new staff; welcome them into a workplace culture of vulnerability, communication and trust.
Turn leadership wins into selling points
What did your organisation do during the pandemic? If you prevented layoffs or raised salaries, when possible, use these as selling points for future job candidates. If your leadership teams provided steady guidance during other hard times, such as a natural disaster or financial crisis, highlight these key moments too. Demonstrating your value as a reliable employer is going to be a major boon for employees in the post-pandemic era.
Provide support for beleaguered workers
In the wake of current events, flexibility and understanding are key components of a healthy workplace culture. Any way you can support your employees right now — whether it’s in the form of increased flexibility to attend to personal matters or simply recognising them for their hard work and commitment — will help.
We recommend creating an external Employee Assistance Program (EAP) if you don’t already have one in place as well as potentially hiring external coaches to administer quarterly or monthly wellbeing events. Creating events where employees feel connected to one another will help combat disillusionment and improve office morale.
Offer new ways of working
It might just be that the standard 9-5 is never going to be a part of our “new normal” again. And would that really be so bad? Workers have grown accustomed to a flexible work schedule that suits their needs, and offering toaccommodate that schedule can make you a standout employer in an otherwise tight employment market.
Lastly, clearly steer the ship
The last — and perhaps most important — piece of advice employers should seek to follow in these times is simple: keep confidently steering the ship. Amidst a sea of uncertainty, workers are starved for a relevant company vision with clearly defined goals, values and vision, and seeing leaders take charge will help them feel more secure in their own day-to-day responsibilities.
Ask yourself: where are we going as a company? What are we achieving this month, quarter and year? What are our longer-term goals? Answer these questions with clarity and certainty in order to attract and retain great talent.
While it might seem like a tough time to be an employer, the organisations destined to thrive in these times will be those that embrace our changing workforce. By demonstrating past leadership success, creating accommodations for workers in need, offering flexible work hours and clearly setting your organisational goals, you’ll stand a far better chance of finding — and keeping — employees who are inspired, motivated and eager to contribute to your company mission.
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