Software Engineering

Beating Burnout: A Complete Guide for SMB Leaders

Burnout has become an epidemic in today’s 24/7 business world. Employees feel constant pressure to do more and be always available. As a leader at a small or midsize business (SMB), you have a duty to combat burnout and create sustainable workloads for your team.
Published on
March 2024

Burnout has become an epidemic in today’s 24/7 business world. Employees feel constant pressure to do more and be always available.

This chronic stress not only damages wellbeing but also hurts productivity, performance, and retention.

As a leader at a small or midsize business (SMB), you have a duty to combat burnout and create sustainable workloads for your team.

Here are in-depth strategies to prevent burnout:

Watch Closely for Warning Signs

Keep a close eye out for any red flags indicating possible burnout on your team.

Look for signs like exhaustion, lack of engagement, increased cynicism, irritability, negative attitude toward work, and reduced output or productivity.

Make it a priority to check in regularly with staff to ask about their current workload, stress levels, and overall job satisfaction.

Listen closely to what they share. If you're not getting much back, maybe you can conduct stay interviews to better understand what motivates employees and what causes frustration or fatigue.

Track productivity metrics and attendance rates to notice any sudden declines that could signal burnout.

Re-Evaluate Workloads

Take time to thoroughly audit current workloads and responsibilities across your team.

Assess whether expectations are realistic and appropriate. Look at who might be overloaded taking on too much and who is underutilized with not enough to do.

Determine if extra hands are needed or if duties should be re-distributed among existing staff to even things out. Build in capacity planning to anticipate busy seasons, workload fluctuations, upcoming projects, and staffing needs.

This allows you to plan ahead and prevent employees from feeling perpetually overworked.

You can also teach your team to be more proactive - giving them the freedom to say no to non-essential requests.

Encourage Disconnecting

Institute mandatory vacation policies requiring that employees take a minimum number of days off.

Many organizations utilize an unlimited vacation policy and wonder why their teams are still encountering motivational difficulties. You can manage this by leading with your example. Make sure to take vacations, yourself, and set expectations for others.

Additionally, you can set limits around after-hours work and email, making it clear that people are not expected to be connected 24/7. Discourage any culture of martyrdom and normalize disconnecting outside of working hours.

Another route you can go is to provide perks like extra paid time off, flexible schedules, mental health days, and “bonus holidays” throughout the year so people can recharge.

Build Resilience

Offer stress management workshops to give people tools to navigate stress. This can be as simple as a "lunch and learn" to discuss mindfulness or meditation practices.

Go crazy and sponsor office exercise classes and walking meetings to encourage movement and mental breaks.

Make sure you're also fostering friendships and social connections among coworkers. This can bolster resilience against burnout by reminding people they are not alone and are in it together.

Shape a Burnout-Resistant Culture

Make wellbeing a core company value, not just an occasional perk.

Have leaders model taking time to recharge by being vocal about taking their own vacations, mental health days, and not working after hours.

Critically, make sure to provide management training on spotting burnout warning signs. While you'd like to think you have a pulse on the entire team, the managers can be your eyes and ears on a daily or hourly basis.

Reward those who make caring a priority and model a healthy work-life balance.

Preventing burnout needs to be a key goal across your entire organization. If you do it the right way, you'll be protecting your team’s health and wellbeing while also boosting productivity, morale, and retention in the long run.

Weekly newsletter
Join hundreds of HR and team leads—receive our very best resources in your inbox every week.
Thank you! Your submission has been received!
Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.

Whenever you’re ready, here are 4 ways WorkStory can help you:

  1. The WorkStory Platform: Our all-in-one performance management solution. WorkStory makes it easy to gather continuous feedback, run 360 reviews, and track team progress—all in one place. Perfect for teams looking to move beyond traditional performance reviews.
  2. The Performance Review Builder Tool: Create customized performance reviews that fit your organization’s unique needs. Tailor the reviews to each role, streamline the review process, and focus on growth-oriented feedback.
  3. Performance Review Templates: Access a library of pre-built, best-in-class performance review templates that are ready to use. Whether you need templates for leadership, team members, or cross-functional roles, we’ve got you covered.
  4. HR Document Templates: From onboarding checklists to change management guides, our HR templates are designed to save time and ensure consistency across your organization. Simply download, customize, and implement.
Latest Posts
Newsletter

3 Mistakes Your Managers are Making That Are Killing Your Team's Motivation

Keeping your team motivated is a critical part of being a leader. But what if the things you’re doing—without even realizing it—are actually demotivating them?
Read post
Newsletter

3 Simple Ways to Boost Employee Engagement

Engaged employees aren’t just happier—they’re more productive, more innovative, and they stick around longer. The good news? You don’t need to overhaul your entire organization to improve engagement.
Read post
Newsletter

The #1 Tip for Success in the Workplace

When we think about career success, we often focus on skills, knowledge, and expertise. But there’s another factor that can be even more important for your success: being easy to work with.
Read post