The expert urged to consider employee rest as an investment in business

Professional burnout remains one of the underestimated causes of business economic losses, and full-fledged employee rest should be considered as an investment in productivity. Denis Astafyev, an entrepreneur, fund manager and founder of the SharesPro fintech platform, told Izvestia on July 15 in honor of Russian Laziness Day.

According to the expert, it is impossible to estimate the exact amount of economic losses due to burnout, since such system calculations do not yet exist in Russia. At the same time, the scale of the problem is confirmed by indirect indicators — an increase in the number of employee requests for psychological help, an increase in the number of stress-related sick days, as well as high staff turnover in departments with increased workload.

Astafyev noted that burnout costs are rarely recorded separately. They are distributed among other cost items, from reducing labor productivity to increasing personnel recruitment and error correction costs.

"Not only medicine and IT remain the most vulnerable, but also industries with high client loads and shift work. In logistics, transport, services, and the banking sector, employee fatigue directly affects the quality of service, the number of errors, and the reputation of companies," the specialist explained.

The expert emphasized that the burnout of one employee, especially a mid-level manager, can negatively affect the entire team. At first, employee engagement decreases, then the quality of task performance deteriorates, and after a few months this affects the financial performance of the business — costs rise, revenue decreases, and customer churn increases.

According to Astafyev, modern business is gradually moving away from evaluating efficiency based on the number of hours an employee spends in the workplace. More and more companies are moving to a model in which the main indicator is the value created, rather than the length of the working day.

What is burnout at work: symptoms, how to cope

Psychologists have told us how to save your career and family if things don't bring you joy.

The entrepreneur believes that a recovered employee costs the employer significantly less than a specialist who has to be replaced after emotional exhaustion. Temporary overwork can increase productivity only for a short period of time, but in the long run it leads to an increase in the number of errors, a decrease in innovation activity and the loss of qualified personnel.

The expert cited systematic review of workload, regular feedback within teams, training managers to identify the first signs of emotional exhaustion, and the formation of a corporate culture in which vacations and avoiding additional workload are not perceived as a sign of weakness as the most effective measures to combat burnout.

According to Astafyev, the key condition for successful burnout prevention is a personal example of leadership. If top management itself is working in a constant overwork mode, formal programs of caring for the well-being of employees will not bring results.

The expert expressed confidence that companies that treat the energy of their employees as a limited resource rather than an inexhaustible one will achieve more sustainable results and competitive advantages in the long term.

An expert on socio-economic policy, Yakov Yakubovich, told on June 23 how to distinguish fatigue from burnout. According to him, if thoughts about work regularly cause anxiety, apathy, or even physical malaise, this can be a wake-up call. In such a situation, you should either look for a new job, or reconsider your attitude to responsibilities, career goals, and work processes.