Hybrid masks burnout reality

2022 has been the worst year on record for burnout, according to research by Gartner.

This is confirmed by research by Clickshare and Barco. Of the 5,000 workers in the UK, the US, France and Germany the two tech companies surveyed, 27% had experienced workplace burnout due to chronic stress.

A major issue however was that the workers struggled to identify stress, burnout and overworking in their colleagues who were working from home. A third said hybrid or remote work was hiding the problem of burnout – this is a new level of proximity bias.

Talking about these findings, Barco’s segment marketing director for the workplace Yannic Laleeuwe commented: “While it is clear that the hybrid model is here to stay and enjoys great popularity with workers due to the flexibility it can offer, businesses must be careful to ensure that it does not become a double-edged sword.”

Another worrying study is that this extreme stress isn’t just pushing employees to resign – burnout is also a leading cause of the ‘Great Resignation’ – it is also pushing employees to disengage and so-called ‘quiet quit’ – this is because of bad management (23%) and tech overload (14%).

Laleeuwe tells UNLEASH: “What I find most shocking about the findings is the scale of the threat businesses face.

“One in four of the global workforce is experiencing chronic work stress, and poor management and technology overload across the hybrid divide is causing employees to disengage.

“But if we see that one in three office workers find it easier to tell when a colleague is overworked or stressed when seeing them face to face, we are leaving remote workers at risk of struggling under the radar of management teams.

“At that point, it's not just individual health being threatened, but company health as well.“At that point, it's not just individual health being threatened, but company health as well.

Making hybrid work successful

These stats suggests that businesses need to rethink their hybrid models, and quickly.

Currently, 7 in 10 of the workers surveyed by Clickshare and Barco are unhappy with hybrid models – but 31% want to work from home more often.

Unhappiness with hybrid is linked with tech overload (28%) (particularly meeting tech (25%), issues with switching off in their personal time (28%), inability to collaborate effectively (19%).

In addition, 35% of remote workers told Barco and Clickshare they missed in-person interactions.

But changing your hybrid model is much easier said than done; what approach must businesses take?

“To combat disengagement, HR professionals should collaborate to give workers the tools they need to instill a culture of compassion, where all are heard and supported wherever they work, and where leaders can pinpoint the multitude of indicators of workplace stress impacting those under them,” concludes Leelauwe.“To combat disengagement, HR professionals should collaborate to give workers the tools they need to instill a culture of compassion, where all are heard and supported wherever they work, and where leaders can pinpoint the multitude of indicators of workplace stress impacting those under them,” concludes Leelauwe.

To solve the issues with meeting overload in particular, a previous Microsoft report on hybrid work has some tips and tricks. To make hybrid meetings inclusive and more engaging, Microsoft recommends investing in “three things: hardware, software and culture”.

This could be just having better cameras and meeting etiquette, or it could be relying on the metaverse to drive extremely immersive meetings – ask your employees what they want.

The International Festival of HR is back! Discover amazing speakers at UNLEASH America on 26-27 April 2023.