Since transitioning to remote work, employees have added nearly an extra hour to their workday, according to a new report by the Harvard Business School and the National Bureau of Economic Research.
The data supports growing leadership concerns that as the lines between work and home blur, remote employees across industries are experiencing burnout. Many managers are scrambling to find new ways to prevent employees from feeling overworked and to address burnout when it arises. According to the following tech leaders, there’s no one-size-fits-all approach. But they do have some tips they’ve gleaned from the last six months.
When a Headspace employee expressed burnout to Darianne Kagioglu, the senior manager scheduled a meeting with that person to review their workload and identify which projects could be reassigned or paused.
After trimming the list down, Kagioglu scheduled another meeting 30 days later to check in with that employee, reset workflows, establish new project management techniques and see if providing extra mental space allowed them to feel caught up, she said.
For other remote managers, encouraging employees to take chunks of time off to unplug and regroup has proved beneficial.
“Recovery is the most important step,” said N3TWORK Product Director Gina Reams. “You need to give people some time to recover and find balance.”
To find out how tech companies are approaching remote-life burnout, Built In LA spoke with the leaders above, as well as professionals from MediaAlpha and Honeybee Health.
Tigran Mekikian, a senior director at MediaAlpha, said the data science marketing company has always emphasized work quality over the number of hours worked. After employees shifted to working from home, leaders grew hyper attentive to understanding their team members’ individual workloads.
What examples do you set as a leader of remote workers to ensure employees feel empowered to create and uphold healthy work-life boundaries?
We emphasize family time and disconnecting after hours. Since going fully remote in March, we have become more attentive to team member burnout and morale by encouraging people to take PTO and to schedule meetings during normal working hours, similar to when they would start and conclude their days when they were in the office.
Personally, I lead by example and mark time on my calendar to eat lunch versus powering through the day. I repeat myself as often as possible to ensure my team understands my stance on healthy breaks as important for productivity and expect it of them.
We try to refrain from contacting our team late after hours and on weekends, and we instill that everyone should embrace their afterwork routines as much as possible whether it’s taking a nice walk, working out or just relaxing. By making it an ongoing conversation, we help everyone put balance into practice.
Remote Perks at MediaAlpha
- Home office equipment
- Grubhub lunches on Mondays and Wednesdays
- Internet and mobile devices stipends
- Calm app subscriptions
- Lunch and learns, book clubs, fitness classes, happy hours, and a new monthly series featuring activities like cooking, crafts and arts
Say a remote employee came to you and said they were feeling overworked. How would you address the situation?
We try to keep the lines of communication open. It’s important to understand why my team members are feeling burned-out or overworked because we’re all different. As such, I begin all our group and individual meetings by trying to understand the team and individual pulses. I too feel emotionally and mentally exhausted and try to put myself in their shoes as much as I can. By being vulnerable with them, I invite them to be vulnerable with me.
As a company and a team, we pride ourselves on communication, collaboration and cooperation, and consider ourselves to be proactive in all areas versus reactive. For me, the most important step to help my team find balance is by consistently evaluating workload with their home life and then helping them determine if the core burnout is due to lack of time, internal and external expectations, or external stresses that are adding to the problem. The pandemic has asserted certain pressures we were not prepared for, which is why I take it upon myself to assist them with barriers they may not be aware of.
Headspace’s Senior Manager of People Experience Darianne Kagioglu encourages her teammates to take time off by taking time off herself. The meditation app offered perks that promote work-life balance prior to the pandemic, and has since added several more benefits to help with remote work, like company-wide mental health days off.
What examples do you set as a leader of remote workers to ensure employees feel empowered to create and uphold healthy work-life boundaries?
I make an intentional effort to ‘walk the talk.’ It can feel strange to request time away from work when there are not many places to go and plenty of work to do. It’s still vital for people to take breaks though. I take time from work because it’s good for me and also shows my team that they should do the same. When they request time off, they often say they’ll just take one or two days, and I ask them if there’s any reason why they feel they can’t take more in order to truly unplug. We try to have open communication about where they’re at and how to best recharge and support their wellbeing and mental health.
Remote Perks at Headspace
- Lunch and learn stipend
- $1,000 for home office upgrade
- Company-wide calendar blocks on Fridays that toggle between a “no meeting day” and a “MINDay,” which is a day off for employees to protect their mental health
How do you address when an employee tells you they are feeling overworked? What’s the most important step you take to help that employee find balance?
We have had this come up in recent months. In the last situation, we set an extra meeting beyond our one-on-one, and I had my team member create a full list of everything they had on their plate so we could review it one line at a time. We flagged any tasks or projects that could easily be paused or volleyed to another person on the team who was already a collaborator. We trimmed the list down to just a small set of tasks and projects and then set a 30-day check in to see if that extra mental space allowed them to feel caught up. We also set small goals in that time, reset their workflows, and adjusted their project management and note-taking techniques. This way, they could be set up for a long runway of smoother working habits after the 30-day reset.
While companies love to have empathetic employees, Sarah Mayo pointed out how this trait can sometimes lead to employees not taking time for themselves. The director of customer operations at online pharmacy Honeybee Health said she makes it a priority to encourage her colleagues to take time off.
What examples do you set as a leader of remote workers to ensure employees feel empowered to create and uphold healthy work-life boundaries?
I know how hard it can be to recognize when you’re ready for a break and am vocal about our PTO policy and encourage my team to take advantage of it. We are fortunate to have a company made up of empathetic individuals. They are constantly thinking of how their absence may negatively affect a customer or a co-worker, which is a generous trait, but it means they might at times not prioritize their own health and happiness. It’s part of my job to remind them to take care of themselves.
It also helps that on my team, we have set working hours. While I’m not personally accountable for these same hours, I align my time anyway. I feel this structure helps us keep a sense of normalcy around our hours, and if I sign off at the end of the day, it empowers my team to disengage too.
Remote Communication at Honeybee Health
How do you address when an employee tells you they are feeling overworked? What’s the most important step you take to help that employee find balance?
The main thing I try to do in these situations is to understand the root cause. Do they need training? Do they have too much work on their plate? Are their days too long? Are they feeling isolated and need additional support? Do they need to be recognized for their work? Is there something going on in their life outside of work? Or do they simply need some time off? Understanding this will inform how you address the issue. Once we understand the root of the issue, we can find a solution that helps them feel supported and balanced.
Gina Reams is her name, and calendar blocking is her game. The product director for the gaming company N3TWORK blocks out time daily for periods of uninterrupted work and keeps her calendar updated so teammates have visibility into her availability.
What examples do you set as a leader of remote workers to ensure employees feel empowered to create and uphold healthy work-life boundaries?
Support from the very top, through a company’s official policies and culture, is the most important. When the company takes a stance that demonstrates empathy and prioritizes the physical and emotional wellbeing, it empowers individuals within the organization to do the same.
Personally, I keep my calendar up to date with my commitments and working hours, and I am clear about communicating my availability. By knowing each other’s working hours, we prevent ourselves from scheduling someone for a long day or encroaching on their personal time. We have intentional conversations about when flexibility is necessary.
I make time for my emotional and physical health, and I always have lunch blocked off on my calendar to remind me to actually take my lunch. We also put a daily half hour on everyone’s calendar to remind people to take a break because taking care of your emotional wellbeing is as important as getting your work done.
Additionally, I block out time on my calendar daily so I’m able to get work done without interruptions. Frequent interruptions or context switching can really slow down someone’s work process and over time that can cause them to work late or miss deadlines.
Remote Perks at N3TWORK
- Laundry and house cleaning services
- Home office equipment stipend
- Fitness and emotional wellness stipends
- Live meditation, yoga and workout sessions
How do you address when an employee tells you they are feeling overworked? What’s the most important step you take to help that employee find balance?
I’d first try to identify why they are overworked and burned-out. Are they working long hours? Do they feel unproductive? Are they not taking time for themselves? Are there external stressors that are making it tough for them to be present? The goal is to find out their unique situation and challenges and figure out what type of support they need, whether logistical and emotional. The key is to always be aware of the emotional component and that after reaching this point, people often need time to recover. If someone has been struggling doing two times their normal workload, it’s not enough to just reduce it. They might need reassurance or time off to come back motivated and refreshed.
Recovery is the most important step. You don’t take cold medicine and instantly feel better, or put a bandage on a cut and it instantly goes away. It’s important to remember that a lot of emotional impact will lag behind your logistical solutions. You need to give people some time to recover and find balance. Don’t expect people to rebound immediately.
