What does burnout look like? It varies from person to person, but some of the most common signs of burnout are emotional exhaustion, disengagement from work or home life, feeling drained, and more. Burnout can make a serious impact on your mental health and success, so everyone — employees and managers alike – should be working to prevent burnout in the workplace.

Almost half (45%) of workers in 2022 said their level of work-related stress increased somewhat or substantially in the past year. Even the prime minister of New Zealand has stepped down, citing burnout as a contributing factor.

Here are some ways to reduce employee burnout in 2023.

How can employees reduce burnout?

It’s all about balance. The temptations of hustle culture surround us, especially when we see everyone’s highlight reels on social media. But finding a balance between work and life can make all the difference in keeping burnout at bay.

How can you find that balance? 

For some workers, it’s about establishing boundaries. When it comes to remote and hybrid work, it can be easy to lose track of your hours and work far into the evening. It’s important to make your hours clear and communicate them to your coworkers. Setting reminders to close your laptop right at 5pm and changing your Slack status can make all the difference in after-hours messages and requests.

For others, communication goes a long way in re-establishing balance. You have a life outside of work, and it’s important to remind your team of that. Sometimes you need to ask for help—which can be hard to do. Communicate when you have a lot on your plate, whether you’re overallocated, you or your kids are sick, or you need a break. You’ll be surprised where you can find a helping hand.

Remote workers can set themselves up for success by following a proper regimen to promote balance. That means setting up your own best practices, like a dedicated working space at home — not working from the bed — taking regular breaks for meals and physical activity, and creating a routine. Keeping your work life separate from your home life will prevent the two from bleeding over.

Sometimes, though, your environment is what makes the difference when it comes to burnout. Of the workers we surveyed in 2022, 78% of workers changed roles for better work-life balance, and 77% of workers changed roles to reduce stress.

How are companies responding to employee burnout?

The best companies come prepared with solutions for burnout before it affects their workers.

The biggest trend right now is cutting out unnecessary meetings during the workday. Shopify, one of the biggest e-commerce platforms, is completely overhauling its meeting strategy. From eliminating recurring meetings that include more than two people, to disallowing meetings on Wednesdays, to subtracting large group meetings and chats, Shopify is hoping that meetings will no longer creep into the daily workload and lead to excess hours.

Another idea, start by revising your meeting policies, like limiting meeting times to 45 minutes or following Amazon’s pizza rule: no meeting should be so large that two pizzas can't feed the whole group. You’ll save your team’s workload and help them realize their time is valuable.

With burnout as a prime focus in the workplace, many businesses are incorporating wellness benefits in their HR and operations policies. People Operations companies like Compt help companies incorporate employee well-being into benefits packages to provide employees with the opportunity to relax, re-center, and breathe.

Here at Owl Labs, we practice balance with our flock. Policies like no meeting Fridays and unlimited vacation remind us to take our entitled time to relax and recuperate. And our communication policies help us establish boundaries, like setting Slack and Google Calendar working hours that are visible to everyone and scheduling delayed sends in Slack to not bother people during their off hours. It helps us work asynchronously without expecting others to interrupt their personal lives. 

How do you motivate employees who are experiencing burnout?

There’s no easy answer here once an employee has experienced burnout. Research shows that it can take five years to recover from burnout. So the best solution really is preventing it. But if you’re a leader who is seeing the beginning stages of burnout creeping in, you can take action now to right the course before it takes over. Use these tips as a stepping stone to improve your company culture and help your people find balance.