Burnout and Productivity Rates Go Hand-In-Hand

By George Anderson


Lili Von Schtupp has lots of company in the real world.


In Mel Brooks’ Blazing Saddles, the character of Ms. Von Schtupp played by Madeline Kahn sang a barroom tune about being “tired”, “uninspired” and “pooped.”


The same can be said for many American workers who have found that they are working longer hours (beats being unemployed), as companies have laid-off workers as a means to bolster the bottom line.


The result nationally has been what a Star Tribune writer calls “a remarkable surge in productivity.”


On an individual level basis, this productivity increase has meant a corresponding upsurge in the number of workers suffering from burnout. Some leave the workforce entirely, while most, say the experts, go looking elsewhere for a better balance between their personal and professional lives.


Steve Kenney, recruiting manager at Robert Haft Finance & Accounting in Minneapolis said, “You find your best people are the first to volunteer to help out with projects, and the least likely to complain if they’re overworked or overwhelmed. Instead they just disappear, they go take a new job.”


Moderator’s Comment: What are your thoughts on the
productivity gains of recent years? Have you seen others or personally experienced
burnout?


We once chose to go it alone to start our own marketing
communications firm with zero clients rather than accept the vice president
of sales and marketing job for one of the grocery industry’s trade publications.
Turning down the money was easier than we thought it was going to be. It was
the only way to buy back the life we were afraid of losing at that time.

George
Anderson – Moderator

BrainTrust

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