3 ways leaders can help ease workplace stress and avoid employee burnout

The crisis is subsiding, but its wounds run deep. For all the heroic efforts of employees to keep companies operating, the past 16-plus months have left a powerful psychological scar.

A recent Workhuman survey of more than 3,000 US workers reveals a workforce in trouble. The data shows 48% of employees agree they've experienced burnout, 61% feel elevated stress levels, and 32% agree that they've felt lonely at work. 

The emotional toll has been greater for working parents (especially mothers). Observed differences in stress and burnout levels between men and women appear to be related to caregiving responsibilities as well as the disproportionate loss of jobs among women.

Early in the crisis, for example, mothers with young children decreased their work hours four to five times more than fathers. The survey, which asked seven questions related to psychological safety, also discovered that non-White employees experienced lower levels than their White co-workers.

The impact of psychological safety

Google's People Operations team found that the number one driver of successful teams is psychological safety, an environment where people feel safe to take risks and be vulnerable in front of one another.

When people feel safe, they will innovate, cooperate, and show up as their full selves at work, which are critical qualities in today's agile environment. Conversely, lack of psychological safety in the workforce is corrosive; it endangers all plans to return to the "next normal."

Rebuilding psychological safety after a crisis requires leaders to speak candidly about the toll employees have suffered, and show the way forward with a more human-centered approach to managing: 

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