Are your employees disengaged during the workday, taking more sick days, or working less efficiently? It turns out, they might be emotionally exhausted — feeling worn out and drained due to accumulated stress. The good news: managers can help.

“Managers play a significant role in creating an environment that allows for recovery from emotional exhaustion,” says John Trougakos, a professor of organizational behaviour at the University of Toronto, who has long studied the impact of stress in the workplace. “Oftentimes, ignoring that responsibility is where you end up with ineffective teams that are burnt out over time.”

Emotional exhaustion, explained

In recent research, Trougakos and colleagues studied how emotional exhaustion evolves throughout the day, and what can be done to address it. They found that energy levels are generally highest in the morning, with people feeling less emotionally exhausted at the start of the workday. As people deal with challenges throughout the day – such as difficult customers or clients or having to juggle multiple deadlines — exhaustion accumulates in a linear fashion. “Prior-evening detachment” — that is the ability of a worker to fully detach from the workday — was a strong indicator of how restored someone felt the next day; people who were able to fully detach from their workday were more likely to feel refreshed, while people who spent the evening pondering work problems or responding to emails might begin the next day higher on the emotional exhaustion chart and see a sharper increase as it goes on.  

Ignoring emotional exhaustion can lead to burnout, depression and other negative health outcomes, and managers play an important role in both creating and managing this phenomenon, says Trougakos.

High-demand jobs — those with intense workloads or tight deadlines — can be exacerbated by managers who put even more pressure on staff to perform and who don’t take into account existing workloads, perhaps expecting more productivity without appropriate resources.

Managers can also create negative work environments if they don’t do enough to limit employees’ exposure to difficult clients or customers, if they don’t address negative social interactions between employees in the workplace, and if they don’t clarify role expectations with the employee.

Trougakos adds that leaders, as well as organizations, also contribute to the problem by putting the onus on employees to be mindful of their emotional exhaustion levels, when in reality both the employee and the organization need to make the effort. (Think offering wellness training focused on the importance of taking lunch breaks, while still loading on multiple projects with tight timelines, forcing employees to choose between working through lunch or missing a deadline.)

Identifying emotional exhaustion

Managers should be on the lookout for early signs of emotional exhaustion, such as increased inefficiencies and absenteeism, and disengagement and attachment from work, Trougakos says.   

“It’s like when you’ve had that challenging day where you come home from work and tell everybody, ‘I just need an hour where nobody talks to me.’ If that disengagement is happening in the workday, and they’re detached from the things that they need to be engaged with, such as their coworkers, that’s a good indicator of emotional exhaustion,” he says.

It’s important to check in directly with employees to identify the root causes of this sign, he adds. Pointed questions  — such as whether employees have enough recovery time from work or feel properly resourced to accomplish their jobs — can be useful. 

Addressing emotional exhaustion often requires buy-in from senior leadership and a culture of workplace wellbeing. It can be difficult for middle managers in particular to deal the root causes of employee burn out when the C-suite demands even more output from their workforce without considering the long-term implications.

While there is plenty of research that shows that a well-rested employee reduces costs associated with sick leave and high turnover, which ultimately leads to greater productivity and growth, those invested in creating healthy work environments may still need to sell leadership on the importance and value of proper recovery time, says Trougakos. And though systemic changes might be needed, there are steps individual managers can take to help their teams.

Slowing emotional exhaustion

First, Trougakos says it’s important to encourage regular employee breaks. “It’s better to take breaks a little bit earlier than you think you need to, because if you wait until you absolutely need to, you’ve already drained the tank, so to speak,” Trougakos says.

Equally important is the need for employees to fully disconnect from work in the evenings, which may mean finding new workflows (such as scheduling emails for workhours) that discourage after-hours emailing.

Managers may also need to find efficiencies and try tolessen the load on workers, identifying deadlines that can be moved and prioritizing projects that are truly critical.

Allowing employees to set deadlines for deliverables — letting them decide when a task can realistically be finished — can also be useful. Not only does it allow employees to better manage their own days, but Trougakos’ research shows that employees who feel a sense of autonomy accumulate emotional exhaustion at a slower rate.

Finally, organizations can build schedules around predictable emotional exhaustion accumulation, setting important meetings for early in the day, when employees’ emotional exhaustion is at its lowest.

“If we look at pro sports, they rest their star players at critical junctures of the game to make sure they’re ready for peak performance when it matters the most.,” Trougakos says. “Organizations can take a similar mindset when it comes to making sure they’re getting the most from their staff.

“At the end of the day, it’s up to the leaders or organization to reduce the workload, clarify expectations for employees, and create a good work environment for them.”