Decades ago, Toyota instituted a practice in their automobile assembly plants. Along the assembly line for cars, if at any point a worker – any worker – noticed something wrong with what was being built, that worker could pull a handle that would stop the assembly line. The first thing that would happen once the line stopped is that people would come over to the worker and thank them. You are directly contributing to us making a better product or a safer environment. Then the problem was addressed and the line resumed its normal pace. Workers knew in advance that they would be thanked for this act, thus reducing the fear of retribution for stopping the line.
Why don’t we teach managers to do this when they see their team members suffering overwork?
The two people in the work place who are most likely to recognize you’re nearing burnout are you and your manager. In my own experience as a burned out employee I can tell you it’s really hard to notice it yourself. You live with it all the time. It creeps in a little every day. Lack of energy. Cynicism. Sense of ineffectiveness. It all seems normal. So if you don’t notice it yourself, that leaves us with managers as the best line of defense.
As part of training someone to become a manager (your company trains people before they’re made managers, right?) they should be prepped regarding burnout. Learn what it is and what a team member’s response to it might look like. Learn what a healthy baseline looks like for each of your direct reports. Be on the lookout for deviation from that baseline. And if you see something, say something. Normalize saying things like, “I saw you were on Slack after hours last night. I appreciate how dedicated you are to hitting our deadline, but please don’t make a habit of it.”
Managers should be given explicit permission to make changes to the workload of people being overworked. They shouldn’t fear retribution for raising it with their boss. They shouldn’t sit there feeling helpless, like they have no levers to pull to help someone who’s burning out. Equip them before day 1 as a leader.
I mean, look around any office you ever worked in and you’d see a fire extinguisher. Ever seen one used? No. But you have one anyway. Because everyone realizes fire can be incredibly dangerous and spending a few bucks to have an extinguisher is much better than replacing a burned out building or injured teammates. Also worth noting: you don’t wait until after the fire to buy the extinguisher.
And no company says “our building is our most important asset”. It’s always our people, right? So give your managers a fire extinguisher for burnout…before the burnout occurs.
Or…you know…you could just admit that hitting deadlines is more important than keeping your people healthy.
image courtesy of tetrebbien via unsplash