Recent years have forced employees to face significant changes in their work, personal life, and overall wellbeing. Many studies have proven the impact of the pandemic on employee health and wellbeing, primarily mental and financial health.

According to the 2020 WTW Employee Opinion Norm Database, almost 89% of employees experienced anxiety during the peak pandemic period, 70% reported new financial concerns, and 67% said they faced distraction due to the remote working environment.

In addition to these challenges, disruptions at the workplace and working patterns have resulted in heavier workloads, disturbed work-life balance, and lack of social communication, eventually causing burnout.

According to a 2021 Joblist survey of 1,016 US respondents, around 48.4% of the survey respondents revealed that heavy workload was one of the key reasons for their work-related stress.

Generation-Wise Workplace Burnout Study Outcomes

Indeed US surveyed around 1500 US respondents for over a year, from January 2020 to February 2021, to understand the impact of workplace burnout in the pre-COVID and post-COVID times. The entire study population comprised different working generations from the Baby Boomers to Generation Z.

As per the study outcomes, irrespective of the working generation, all respondents experienced higher stress and burnout in February 2021.

Compared to the other groups, Millennials reported the highest burnout with 59% of them agreeing to have experienced it in Feb 2021, compared to 53% during the pre-COVID times in January 2020.

Following the Millennials was Gen Z with 58% reporting burnout in Feb 2021, while only 47% agreed to it in Jan 2020.

This was followed by Gen X at 54% and Baby Boomers at 31% in Feb 2021, which were on the higher side compared to the 40% and 24% in Jan 2020, respectively.

So, while Gen X and Gen Z were close enough, the Millennials reported much higher workplace burnout cases during the pandemic compared to the pre-COVID times.

How do Workplace Wellness Programs Help With Burnout?

Studies show that burnout causes depletion in energy and feelings of exhaustion, impacting employee engagement, productivity, and wellbeing. And so, many employers are providing workplace wellness programs to improve workforce health and wellbeing, and overall business growth.

In addition to employee wellness programs, incorporating the right corporate wellness technology has also been observed to reduce burnout issues by improving engagement in health and wellbeing solutions. Almost 76% of the surveyed HR professionals said implementing the right wellness technology reduced burnout issues.

With the right employee wellness programs and wellness software, employers can help their workforce have a proper work-life balance in ways like –

• Early detection of mental and physical health issues with assessments and screenings
• Flexible and healthy working culture
• Holistic health programs
• Educational resources and health coaching programs

Employee burnout can affect wellbeing and business growth in different ways. And the current study outcomes have reported its impact on the working generations, making it an urgent and genuine reason for employers to focus more on employee wellness.