How to identify a company where you won’t burn out
Emily Stark, Becca Carnahan, Jacqueline Kerr
This article was published in the Harvard Business Review
https://hbr.org/2023/03/how-to-tell-if-a-potential-employer-has-a-burnout-culture
The article focused on the workplace burnout conditions identified by Dr Christine Maslach. This blog contains more suggestions not included in the published article.
Burnout symptoms include exhaustion, cynicism, and loss of productivity. It can lead to illness, absenteeism, and turnover. Burnout is often seen as an individual problem, but when it comes to work, its source is typically systemic negative conditions in the workplace: a toxic boss, a lack of fair play or equal promotion opportunities, a lack of autonomy and flexibility, a lack of guardrails around meetings and focus time, a lack of psychological safety or a values misalignment, such as a lack of support for working parents.
So if you’ve experienced burnout and you’re looking for a new role, how can you identify in advance whether a potential employer has a burnout culture? Will the company support your well-being and productivity? Or will they leave you exhausted and looking for a new job again?
It’s important to devote time to research companies on the front end. That way you've proactively sifted out companies with burnout red flags and gravitated toward those that prioritize employee well-being. You can glean a lot from publicly available information. The job posting will give you information about the company culture. Look for inclusive language and mentions of flexibility or remote work. Also, look at the benefits – does the company offer mental health and other wellness benefits? Does it provide subsidized childcare or paid leave for caregivers? Lastly, you can look at external factors, such as reviews on sites like Glassdoor, annual Best Places to Work lists, or a signature on Thrive and SHRM mental health and well-being pledge. You can also look up company leadership on LinkedIn and see if they post about how they manage burnout or maintain their own wellbeing.
However, this information is only the starting point. Unfortunately, sometimes what’s publicly available is more of a branding exercise to convey a commitment to diversity or mental health without investments in the company culture or systems that reward daily healthy work habits. So the next critical step is to be prepared to ask probing questions during the interview stage and make pertinent observations of people’s behaviors.
How to detect burnout red flags and leaders committed to burnout prevention
The following guide provides signals to look for, questions to ask, and ways to evaluate answers during the interview process to assess whether a company has a ‘employees are commodities, burnout culture’ or whether they have a ‘human-focused, whole person culture’. The following topics reflect common issues that are related to burnout.
Autonomy: Burnout researcher, Christina Maslach, found lack of autonomy is related to burnout because you have little choice in how and when you work, and you do not feel like you can control your schedule. Autonomy conveys trust that you can get the job done and inspires confidence.
Ask:
Do I have autonomy for when I do my work during the day? How do you assess my work hours?
How do you assign workload and deadlines? If shift work, how much notice do you provide?
Is job crafting an option?
How do you communicate your work schedule, do you have a shared calendar function?
Pay attention: You’re looking to make sure your manager is open, flexible and doesn’t micromanage. Listen for clear answers to these questions as an indication that expectations are aligned across the team and that employees are given appropriate autonomy. If they share their calendar with you to demonstrate their transparency, notice whether they block out time for personal reasons. If they assess your work hours through software to track online time that indicates a focus on presenteeism rather than impact. If they use tools to assess team members’ strengths (e.g. Enneagram or Clifton Strength Finder) this suggests a flexible approach to teamwork.
Toxicity: McKinsey found over 60% of turnover is due to toxic workplace behaviors. If there is a competitive win at all costs workplace culture, you will not be nourished in this environment and collaborations will not flourish. You may end up feeling undervalued, blamed for problems, and traumatized by aggressive behaviors such as personal attacks or having your boss take credit for your work. https://www.mckinsey.com/mhi/our-insights/addressing-employee-burnout-are-you-solving-the-right-problem.
Ask:
How do you give feedback to employees?
What did you learn on your last 360 review?
Can you describe your management style?
Do you use coaching techniques to support your staff?
How do you assess team morale?
Pay attention: You’re looking for signs that your manager is not authoritarian or biased. Watch your interviewer’s body language when you ask challenging or personal questions. Are they uncomfortable or defensive? How inclusive is their language? If your interview is in a group setting, observe how he/she interacts with others and how their counterparts engage with them. Is there openness to collaboration? Are they patient and personable with others? Does anyone dominate the conversation or interrupt?
Fairness: Christina Maslach found lack of fairness is related to burnout. Lack of equity leads to having to re-prove yourself, which is also the first stage of Freudenberger and North’s 12 stages of burnout. When hard work is not valued, it is exhausting and demoralizing. It has also been shown that women who work for companies with greater leadership equality have greater well-being. https://www.deloitte.com/global/en/issues/work/women-at-work-global-outlook.html?icid=learn_more_content_click
Ask:
What sort of employee metrics do you collect?
How do you report on diversity goals?
How many senior leaders are women of color?
What ERGs do you support and are members paid for leading initiatives?
How has the nation-wide conversation about salary transparency been received at your company and how do you approach salary conversations with existing employees and prospective employees?
How are promotions decided? Do you have a process for equity reviews?
Do you have a diversity officer, and how many people are on the DEI team?
Pay attention: You’re looking for proactive processes that ensure greater equity and how many resources are dedicated to it. If the company is not collecting data on diversity or equity or if they do not know the number of senior leaders who are women of color, then they are unlikely to be paying attention to this as an issue. You want to see if they are transparent about their deficits and desire to improve. You can reflect on whether the company is transparent about the interview process and whether they publish salary bands. See how comfortable they are answering these questions and whether they have the facts at their fingertips. If promotions are decided by a team, manager bias is less likely to be a problem. You can look for diversity in the people represented by the company in interviews, company newsletters, or photos on the wall, not just stock photos on the website.
Well-being/mental health: Burnout is defined as chronic unmanaged stress. It is important that a company supports stress management but also that employees can talk about mental health issues openly. If there is stigma about mental health, it will be harder to ask for help if you need it and there may be fewer resources available if the company is unaware of having a burnout problem.
Ask:
How do you prioritize your own mental and physical well-being?
How do you support team members to practice well-being?
How do you talk about mental health issues with your employees?
How often do you take vacation and can you completely disconnect?
Do you measure employee engagement or burnout?
Do you create well-being plans as well as career plans?
Can I schedule my start date to take time between jobs to reset before starting a new position?
Pay attention: You’re looking to see if health is openly spoken about and whether they talk about their own mental health challenges. Do they mention seeing a therapist, do they have a coach? Do they know some good wellness behaviors like mindfulness or physical activity? You are looking to see if there is time during the day assigned to wellness or if it is considered an individual problem. If your manager sees self-care as a bath and something you have to manage on your own time then you are unlikely to get support for burnout.
Respect for your Time: According to a Gallup survey, employees are 70% less likely to experience high burnout when they have enough time to do their work. Time is an important resource and it's critical to understand how your time is valued both inside and outside of the workplace.
https://www.gallup.com/workplace/237059/employee-burnout-part-main-causes.aspx
Ask:
What are standard work hours? How often do you work weekends?
When do you have team building events, during the workday or outside of work hours?
Can you tell me when mandatory or cadenced team/departmental meetings are scheduled?
How do you assign office housework tasks?
How does your team manage setting deadlines for projects and effective delegation?
How do you prioritize tasks and mitigate overload? How does the team communicate when they have too much on their plate?
How do you communicate roles and responsibilities to avoid overlap?
Pay attention: You’re looking for signs that people value your time and that you are not expected to take on a lot of unpaid tasks. You can observe that during the interview process for example, do your interviewers arrive at the scheduled time? Do they give you time to highlight your strengths? Are they keeping in touch frequently during the interview process? Are meetings regularly scheduled early in the morning or after four showing a disconnect of typical working parent schedules? You also want to know that there are guardrails around work hours especially if it is an international company. If there is expected to be 24hr connectivity, then you will be looking for signs of appropriate staffing or job sharing.
Focus: To do impactful, creative work, you need time to focus. If you are constantly distracted and disturbed, you can experience brain fog, a burnout symptom where you can’t concentrate. If you are in online meetings all day you will also experience zoom burnout and have no time to get your work tasks done, leading to long work hours.
Ask:
Can you explain the meeting and head-down ratio for this position?
How much time do you spend in meetings on a normal day?
Do you have criteria for scheduling a meeting?
Do you have agreed upon collaborative hours?
Do you have times when you can switch off company notifications and focus?
What are expected turnaround times on emails?
I have noticed that some of your competitors have experimented with a four-day work week. Is that a model you are considering as well?
Pay attention: You’re looking for organizational guardrails to prevent overwork instead of signs of a hustle culture where everyone has to be on and available 24/7, You can also look at out of office replies in your email communications that showcase limits on connectivity. Meeting free days are important for focused work. See how they respond to the 4 day week suggestion. Is their reason we couldn’t get the work done or we would have to squeeze too many meetings into those days? That suggests there is meeting overload.
Purpose/Values: Values misalignment has been shown to be a condition for burnout by Christina Maslach. In addition, finding purpose with a group of people has been helpful in burnout recovery. Google also found that employees who feel their work has meaning are more satisfied. https://hbr.org/2020/04/build-a-culture-that-aligns-with-peoples-value
Ask:
How do the manager’s daily behaviors demonstrate your corporate values?
Can you describe how the company values guide your decisions?
How is this role connected to the company’s mission?
How do you communicate our impact on the company goals? How many OKRs are connected to this role?
What are the company’s sustainability goals? What does your ESG plan include?
How do you give back to local communities?
Does this company encourage community service during work hours?
Pay attention: You’re looking for concrete examples not just words. Can they communicate the values clearly to you? In an in-person interview, you can also look for signs that values are constantly communicated in the office through office decor and signage and how all people in the building are treated. If you ask why the person works for the company, you are looking for values statements. You may also want to see if your values are reflected in the manager’s own values or the company’s.
Psychological safety/Belonging: You want to be able to bring your whole self to work and feel you are safe to contribute and make mistakes. If you are spending energy code switching and are afraid you will be judged as incompetent for any misstep, you will be drained and exhausted. https://haas.berkeley.edu/equity/industry/playbooks/belonging/
Ask:
Can you describe how you handle mistakes in your team?
What is your process for learning from mistakes?
How often do you have personal check-ins with team members?
How do you manage conflict?
How do you ensure everyone contributes their ideas?
What holidays are recognized on the work calendar?
Pay attention: You are looking to see if the manager is emotionally intelligent ie, open to learning from mistakes and whether they are interested in you as a person. You want to know that different forms of communication are valued. In the interview process, you are looking for whether people you meet try to put you at ease. Do they ask about your interests outside of work? Do they demonstrate active listening skills? Do the people you meet represent different identities? You want to feel seen, heard and respected as well as a sense of belonging.
Balance: Work life balance is important because it allows for rest and recovery. Deloitte found that the ‘always on always available’ culture leads to burnout and is only available to those without responsibilities outside of work, leading to disparities in opportunities and promotions. https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/insights/us/articles/ca1671_design-of-everyday-men/DI_The-design-of-everyday-men.pdf
Ask:
How do you actively support work-life balance in your team?
What hobbies do you have?
Do people ever showcase their outside-of-work talents at work?
How does this company embrace working parents?
How do you support your team to have interests outside of work?
Pay attention: You’re looking for signs that the employer respects your off hours. Notice what time of day your interviews were scheduled for and when communications were sent. Do interviewers have photos of family and friends on their desk? You could also look for working parent ERGs, work-life coaching programs, or family events. You are also listening for examples of when the company has been supportive, for example if a family member is ill. If the company uses rewards that are experience days outside of the office this indicates that they want you to have times when you can relax.
Flexibility: Flexible work practices allow employees to choose when and where they work, this means people can save time on commuting and provides more time and options for them to meet caregiving or health needs during the workday. Future Forum reports consistently connect lack of flexibility to burnout.
Ask:
How many days a week do you come into the office?
Do members of the C-Suite work remotely?
Do you have specific set hour that are set aside for collaboration?
What is your process for onboarding remote employees?
Can you tell me how this team prioritizes building relationships with your hybrid/remote landscape?
How do you support personal connection among remote employees?
Pay attention: You are looking to understand the company’s flexibility policies and procedures, while at the same looking for signs of of proximity bias, or a tendency to favor in-person workers over remote. If senior leaders are in the office only, then they are communicating the expectation for others to be there too. If meetings occur at any time of day, then there is not really support for flexibility or family schedules. If there are bonuses for moving near head office then remote work is not valued. If you have zoom interviews, you are looking for signs that their digital office space is as well supported as their physical office space.
Turnover: Often burnout can lead to high turnover because if the company is not dealing with toxic managers or the stresses caused by the organization itself are not resolved, even if people employ coping strategies, the stress is out of their control. When the stress is systemic, not just related to a challenging project, it is chronic, leading to burnout. Burnout is also about the interaction between the person and their environment, so not every workplace is a good fit. https://www.forbes.com/sites/rodgerdeanduncan/2022/11/25/reduce-burnout-risk-fix-the-workplace-mismatches/?sh=764b30d54a44
Ask:
How long did the last person in this position stay in this job and why did they leave?
How many people have had this job in the last 5 years and where are they now?
How many new people do you have on the team? How many vacant positions are there?
What questions do you ask in exit interviews and what have you learned from that information?
Can you give me some examples of how this company prioritizes retention?
Have you ever managed a person who shared he/she was experiencing burnout? If so, how did you help turn around their experience at work?
Pay attention: Does the conversation get uncomfortable when turnover is brought up? “She left to spend more time with her family” might be a red flag for a parent. If a manager is committed to an employee’s development they might share how they supported them to find a position in another part of the company. If an employee left on amicable terms they will be able to tell you what they are doing now. The manager may even be able to share that they continue as a mentor to a previous employee which would show genuine connection and support.
Promotion/Career development: Lack of reward has been identified as a cause of burnout by Christina Maslach, this can be reflected in unequal pay or lack of promotions. Investing in an employee’s career growth shows a commitment to advancement and leads to more engaged and satisfied staff. If employees are demoralized or quiet quitting the work environment will not be motivating.
Ask:
How are mentors and sponsors assigned?
Do you offer leadership training or executive coaching?
Do you have a professional development budget?
How often are people promoted in this unit?
What are the criteria and process for promotion?
How are you evaluated in your role as my manager?
Pay attention: You’re looking for signs that the company has a clear process and objective criteria for promotion, rather than managerial bias. Are you interviewed by a diverse team? You want to know that coaching is to support development rather than being used when there are performance problems. If the manager is evaluated on team morale, contributions to DEI, or team development and retention, then you know the company is rewarding collaboration and well-being.
***
You can learn a lot about an organization’s culture, expectations, and support from the signals we have outlined in this article. If you are struggling with burnout, it may be advisable to get support from a coach to help you develop boundaries, reset, or identify your needs and values before embarking on a new job search. Improving your emotional intelligence and stress management skills will also help you cope with future challenging work environments that may change as you grow in your career and move up in an organization. When you are ready to apply for a new position, use this guide to help you look for supportive companies, find a good match with your needs and values, and set yourself up for success in your new role.
