Canadian Safety Reporter

4 Canadian HR Reporter, a Thomson Reuters business 2015 CSR | September 2015 | News being pretty effective problem- solvers," said Gorkin. "They're used to taking on things by themselves — sometimes their ego gets in the way of asking for help. So their default mode is 'OK, I'll be the one that does it.'" Stages of burnout Burnout happens gradually, as stress accumulates from day to day with no relief, said Bill Howatt, president of Howatt HR Consulting in Kentville, N.S. "If you look at burnout, it falls on a continuum," he said, adding most research suggests there are four stages of burnout. Initially, most people are ex- cited about their jobs, he said. "But then, life happens. Dif- ferent priorities start happening — it could be your personal life, your finances, you have a child, you need more flexibility, your career is not meeting your needs, you're not making enough mon- ey, you've got too much debt. So you start to feel that the intrin- sic and extrinsic reward systems aren't really kicking in," he said. "That's taxing the resources." Also, burnout effects differ- ent individuals in a different way, said Gorkin. "Not everybody will be burnt out at the same level — some people will bail out sooner; some people unfortunately take great pride and almost look down upon you if you haven't earned your burnout 'merit badge.'" As burnout symptoms start, one of the early signs is people start to have difficulty with prob- lem-solving, said Howatt. "What they'll end up doing is moving to what I call 'facilitator tasks' to create distraction. Like, 'I'll start organizing a file' or 'I'll starting picking trivial work.' They want to still be productive, but dealing with that problem right now just seems too hard." Tasks that used to be simple become a little bit more taxing, a little bit more anxiety-inducing, and employees often become more short-fused, confused or tired, he said. The final stage of burnout is apathy, he said. "And when a person is burnt out, they're in a state of what's called disequilibrium. It's state- dependent, meaning in (one) state — in your workplace — you could be paralyzed, but you could be at home and function," said Howatt. "Some people say, 'It's all in their head.' And my re- sponse is, 'Of course it's in their head. That's what the issue is.'" Safety risks Some risks associated with em- ployee burnout happen soon af- ter symptoms begin, said Renée Gendron, founder of Vitae Dy- namics in Russell, Ont. "The first ones are really phys- ical and psychological, because the person who's experiencing the burnout at first doesn't tend to be aware that they're experi- encing the burnout. So the lack of awareness means that they're often pushing themselves physi- cally to the brink. So instead of eating healthily, they're eat- ing basically unhealthy foods and caffeine to get themselves through the day; they're not sleeping well, and they're not getting enough rest," she said. "They're ignoring physical little aches and pains that come from overworking, so the little stress in the neck or the little pinch in the lower back gets ig- nored until it snowballs into something more serious." From a psychological stand- point, employees begin to cope with the cumulative effects of stress, and the lack of resiliency that comes with chronic stress, she said. "And then when they crash, there (can be) mental health issues like depression." When people reach the more serious stages of burnout, they suffer lapses of concentration and lower morale, said Howatt. "They get to the point where their emotions and their cogni- tions (suffer)… and they start to really move up in the metre of indifference," he said. "You had a picture of yourself being compe- tent, and you can't do it anymore and you don't understand why. It can be pretty challenging." People start becoming very inattentive, working automati- cally instead of paying attention or being thoughtful, he said. "When a person has cognitive distraction where they're focus- ing on things that aren't work, they'll increase their safety risks," said Howatt. "If a person's a little bit confused because they've de- creased their problem-solving and decision-making, that can put them at risk as well." Another key aspect of burn- out is chronic exhaustion, said Michael Leiter, professor at Acadia University and Tier 1 Canada research chair in occu- pational health and well-being in Wolfville, N.S. "When people are chronically exhausted, then their attention isn't as focused, their capacity for problem-solving and respond- ing to situations is compromised to some degree, and that de- creases the possibility of people, when they encounter a risk, of being able to manage that en- counter well, just because they don't have all their capabilities." Because they're losing inter- est, those lapses in judgment, those omissions, the lack of engagement snowballs, said Gendron. "And it creates tunnel vision because they're in sur- vival mode. They just kind of go through the day like a zombie. "Where they used to be vigi- lant and they used to be sharing information with colleagues, that's gone, because the willing- ness to engage and the morale and the enthusiasm for the work has collapsed." Communication breakdown The reluctance to communicate, to share information with col- league is one of the more subtle but insidious safety risks of burnt- out employees, said Leiter. "In addition to that, burnout has all these implications for your relationships with others with whom you're working. And as that capacity for teamwork gets eroded among people on the team, then that safety culture takes a hit as well," he said. "But also, more important in terms of teamwork, is the quality of cynicism where people, one, sort of get more distant from each other — they're not as in- volved with their work and the people with whom they work — and, secondly, you get a culture of being cynical, saying cynical things, expecting indifference or a very counter-organizational kind of value that gets shared among people. And with that, people are less likely to comply with something rigorous like a safety culture. "That gets shared among peo- ple, they start talking that way to each other, and that becomes sort of a counter-norm to the idea of having a safety culture." In fact, instead of communi- cating constructive information, people may begin communicat- ing cynicism and negativity in- stead, said Gorkin. "One of the real dangers is that you may have some of the senior people who are being burnt out, and they're going to be trans- ferring their cynical attitude to younger people who still may have some enthusiasm and ex- citement," he said. "That's a real problem, that it can spread to others who are not affected yet." It takes a significant toll on safety culture when the com- munication breaks down and all that's shared is apathy and cyni- cism, said Leiter. "They don't care enough, and partly it's just that personal indif- ference… but also, a big part of what drives burnout… is when people decide that my values and this organization's values are really not aligned. We're work- ing at odds with each other. And so, in that case, even if I have the energy to devote to this, I don't really care," he said. "You're not connected to the culture, you're not caring about yourself and others in a con- structive way." Burnout < pg. 1 Cognitive distraction leads to lack of focus "You may have some of the senior people who are being burnt out, and they're going to be transferring their cynical attitude to younger people."

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