Emotional Steadiness and Employee Burnout: What Every Manager Needs to Know

Self-doubt, nervousness, frustration, and sadness – these are just some of the negative feelings that everyone experiences in response to certain situations. However, the frequency, duration, and intensity of these reactions vary greatly from person to person. One reason for this variation is personality. In this blog, you’ll learn about the role of Emotional Steadiness in employee burnout and what managers can do to prevent it.

What is Emotional Steadiness?

The most widely accepted model of personality is known as “The Big Five” or the Five-Factor Model (FFM), which includes:

Emotional Steadiness reflects how often and intensely a person experiences negative emotions. It includes two key components:

  • Volatility: The outward expressions of anger and frustration. This is part of our Fight-Flight-Freeze System. It’s our way of removing a threat through aggressive behavior.
  • Withdrawal: Inward feelings like anxiety, discouragement, and self-doubt. This is our way of dealing with a threat by passively avoiding it.

People high on emotional steadiness are at lower risk of burnout.

Why Emotional Steadiness Matters at Work and in Life

Research consistently shows that Emotional Steadiness predicts many important outcomes like:

  • Job satisfaction, which impacts job performance and organizational commitment.
  • Turnover, due to feeling anxious at work (i.e., withdrawal response) and/or engaging in aggressive behavior (i.e., volatility response).
     
  • Burnout, which includes emotional exhaustion and reduced personal accomplishment. In fact, emotional steadiness out-predicts what many think are the worst culprits of burnout – job strain and working long hours.
  • Life satisfaction and happiness.

Can You Build Emotional Steadiness to Avoid Burnout?

Yes! Emotional Steadiness increases considerably between ages 20 and 40. After that, the increase is more gradual, but it continues into a person’s 60s. However, there are also things you can do proactively at any stage in life to build resilience and avoid burnout:

  • Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT). There are a wide range of therapeutic interventions, but this one has been shown to be the most effective in reducing negative emotions.
  • Cognitive Reframing (also called cognitive restructuring) techniques. There are many excellent books that teach how to use this method, two of which can be found here and here.
  • Exercise. Physical activity has consistently been shown to reduce negative emotions and improve overall mood.
  • Detachment. Completely detach from work during off hours. That means no sending or reading emails or texts! This also means using ALL of your PTO and completely detaching from work completely when on vacation.
  • Relaxation. Doing things by yourself that are not mentally demanding. Make time to do things that have a calming effect on you.
  • Mastery. Engaging in activities that allow you to experience competence – such as taking a language class, learning a new hobby, or doing volunteer work where you can apply your skills – also has protective effects. While these activities may place additional demands on your time at first, they help build internal resources like self-efficacy, which can boost mood and resilience in the long term.

How Can Managers Reduce Employee Burnout

A person’s direct supervisor can have a significant impact on an employee’s wellbeing. Here are a few things managers can do to promote emotional steadiness and help avoid employee burnout.

  • Get to know them personally. This doesn’t mean abandoning boundaries. Something as simple as asking how they are doing in your weekly one-on-ones can make a big difference. Also, learn about their hobbies that help them to relax and facilitate mastery so you can encourage them to do those things instead of working after hours.
  • Moderate perfectionism. Avoid micromanaging perfectionists, as this leads to increased stress. Encourage delegation to reduce their workload. And, don’t reward perfectionstic behavior. For example, don’t say: “Great job – this is perfect!” or praise them when they work long hours attending to low impact tasks.
  • Discuss & manage workloads. Meet with your employees at least once a week to ensure that they are not over-committing. Encourage employees to tell you when they are stretched thin and find ways to reduce job strain. Finally, be sure to align on priorities so they can channel their energy toward high impact outcomes.
  • Minimize ambiguity. The unknown is a huge source of stress for many employees. Communicating clear goals and expectations, and keeping employees informed of what’s coming, reduces anxiety.
  • Normalize Use of Wellness Resources. Don’t wait until you see an employee burning out. Take an active role in your organization’s wellness program and make sure all employees know about its resources.
  • Encourage Detachment. Don’t send emails or texts to employees when they aren’t supposed to be working unless it is a true emergency. Insist that they take all of their PTO and praise them for not checking emails while away.
  • Be observant. If you notice an employee engaging in volatile (e.g., arguing with people) or withdrawal (e.g., not participating in meetings) behavior, it can be a sign of stress. Don’t ignore it. Take time to talk with them to find out what’s going on and how you can help them.
  • Reduce triggers. Try to uncover the people, processes, or situations that cause the employee to experience stress. Facilitate the resolution of interpersonal conflicts and empower them to improve processes, If they lack confidence and feel anxious in certain situations (e.g., presenting to a group), support skill-development with a written developmental action plan.

In summary, there are alot of things that managers can do to help employees build resilience and avoid burnout. Some employees will need more support from their manager than others, depending on their personality. So, get to know your employees as people and adjust your level of support to each individual’s needs.

For a deeper dive into the research behind this article, click here.