3 minute read
Stats
One in five executives are suffering from burnout
Love Your Employees (LYE) contributed an article in previous issue of Hr NETWORK Magazine called ‘Navigating the Perfect Storm’. The feature identified that as we come out of the pandemic we need to rise to the challenges of a whole new world. Since the feature was published, LYE has also published the findings of their ‘Executive Burnout’ report, and the figures are alarming. Given the role as captain of the ship, LYE were keen to hear what senior executives felt about the specific challenges they faced at this extremely challenging time.
The research looks at the impact of the last two years on four specific areas: physical disruption, emotional disruption, aspirations now and future aspirations. Three hundred leaders participated from a wide variety of industries and organisations.
How are leaders coping personally?
LYE asked ‘how do you feel at the moment?’ and encouragingly 50% chose a positive indicator showing they’re upbeat about the future. However, one in four leaders feel ‘a bit burnt out’ and worryingly, one in five say they are ‘totally burnt out’ or ‘suffer severe levels of anxiety’. Their most popular concern (31%) was a ‘poor work-life balance’, with (22%) having concerns about their ‘mental health’. In a crisis, people roll up their sleeves and get stuck in, but working at crisis capacity long term is not sustainable. Companies should be seriously concerned about their leaders and aim to provide support. There are red flags in this research (and in others) that show executives need help with burn out now, or risk more problems in the future. We all know you need to put your own oxygen mask on before helping others. If we expect executives to lead, inspire, motivate and steer companies, then we need to provide the resources to help them do this.
What do they feel about work?
LYE researchers asked ‘what has been the hardest part at work?’ no surprise to see ‘the challenge of managing people remotely’ (38%) in the top three. Remote working was imposed in lockdown and was a big learning curve. ‘Managing workloads’ (32%), is also top of the list. Leaders are well aware of the impact of the last two years on their ‘employees mental health’ (30%). There were disparities previously between leaders and staff in terms of pay, bonus and perks, but a pandemic indiscriminately impacts families, jobs, schooling and mental health and it is an issue for everyone regardless of position. LYE asked the leaders to pick from a list of statements that best described what has been positive about the experience for them. The three most popular answers had roughly a third of participants choosing each, ‘I’ve developed as a person’, ‘the way we pulled together as a team’, ‘navigating the financial challenges’.
What do leaders think about the future?
Researchers asked ‘what are your plans going forward?‘ and they were surprised by the response. Slightly more than half (52%) selected ‘support their people through this period’ as top of their priority list. We wonder if this is understood and valued by shareholders and boards. Another positive indicator from (28%) of leaders ‘If I can manage under recent circumstances, I can do anything, this has made me hungry for new challenges’. Resilience is fantastic to see. Finally, 17% said ‘it’s made them realise that they work for a company that fits with who they are and they want to stay’. The researchers expected people to be unsettled, wanting to move or retire, but in the sample very few selected any pessimistic options. This stoic group of people clearly have more to give and more they want to do. Leaders demonstrate resilience and an intention to navigate the storms facing everyone at the moment. Their concern to support their people shows they are fully aware that they need alongside them to ride it out.
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