Hippie CEO Life #06 - Avoiding Burnout
May 20, 2022
Burnout is a serious concern (or should be) for every business. According to the American Psychological Association in their 2021 Work and Well-being Survey of 1,501 U.S. adult workers, 79% of employees reported having had experienced work-related stress in the month before the survey. The survey reported that nearly 3 in 5 employees reported negative impacts of work-related stress that resulted in lack of interest, motivation, or energy.
Coming from a consulting background, i’ve been hypersensitive to burnout having witnessed many highly talented consultants, pushed to work 60+ hours a week in order to bill clients 38 hours a week, crash and burn. Some taking months or even years to fully recover from their burnout.
So when we decided to start 33 Sticks, being deliberate in how we would address the threat of burnout was of critical importance for us. We didn’t have it all figured out up front, and we still don’t as we continue to learn and adjust how we work, but putting a focus on people first have proven to be the correct strategy for us.
So what are we doing to address burnout?
Autonomy To Design How We Work Best
One of the biggest investments we made was to create an environment, a culture, a way of doing business that has allowed our employees to custom design how, when, and where they work. This freedom has created amazing value for our clients and our company, as employees are empowered to create an environment where they can do their best work, not just today, or tomorrow, but long into the future.
When asked how we were able to create such an environment, the answer always starts with, “We hire people that we trust. We trust them to do what is best for themselves, our clients, and our company.”
We’ve created a shared purpose, we’ve hired people we trust, and we’ve given them permission to make our purpose a reality.
Unlimited PTO
i know, i know. Everyone HATES Unlimited PTO. It’s called a scam. It’s just another way for employers to abuse their employees. i get it. i get the arguments but for us and our team, it works. Here is what we are doing:
No pre-set limit on the amount of time one can take off. This was primarily put in place to remove the “buy decision” of our employees every time they wanted or needed time off. If i have some arbitrary limit, then each time i want to take time off, i have to do a cost-benefit analysis. We didn’t want our employees doing that, if they wanted to take time off, we wanted to make that a simple decision.
To make sure our employees knew we wanted them taking time away from work, we have set a minimum number of days off (25 days + company holidays + end of year shutdown) we expect them to be off work. The argument i hear from other business owners is, how are you not losing money with this policy? And i really don’t have a great answer to this question other than, the more we invest in giving our team time to rest and recharge, the more the company benefits financially. i don’t know, it just works!
We got rid of the idea of “making up hours.” If one of our employees wants to take the afternoon off to go to Legoland with their kids, then they do that and then call it a day. There isn’t the concept of, “i’ll make up these hours when I get back home or on the weekend.” Our team isn’t being paid to work 8 hours a day, our team is being paid to create value. This freedom to come and go has complemented our formal PTO policy in a way that has created a real sense of comfort for our employees.
2 Weeks Off Before Starting
Something that we have recently discovered is that a contributing factor to employee burnout is this never ending cycle of moving from job to job. You quit one job on Friday, decompress (or try to) over the weekend, and then start your new job on Monday morning.
If employees are joining your company already tired and worn out, you are starting from a less than ideal position. To address this factor, we are starting to offer new employees 2 weeks off, fully paid, before they formally start work. They will be an official employee, with benefits and all, but we want them taking some downtime before formally jumping in. This time to rest, recharge, and properly prepare for a new job will pay off in a very big way for us, that we are certain of.
If you are enjoying what you are reading, please consider sharing Hippie CEO Life with your friends and colleagues.
And finally, i am very interested in your thoughts. What have you personally done to avoid burnout? What has your employer done to protect you against burnout? What can i do as a leader to better address the risk of burnout?
