How to Prevent Burnout for Owners and Staff
Not all businesses are seasonal or have seasonal swings, but it’s certainly a prominent factor for many. Busy season may be weather dependent, but it is primarily a result of an exceptional demand due to specific stimuli (Christmas shopping, anyone?). A major part of my career working in contracting, our busy season was weather dependent, hitting a crescendo at Christmas. In the early years, this resulted in my staff having to work longer hours, get sick more often, and be generally miserable though the season as work-life balance suffered, exhaustion took over, and they stopped having time to pack their lunches. Why’d they even do it? Overtime pay and altruism. They liked helping people. Eventually I learned how to help my staff while my staff helped my clients. Managing a busy season in your business can be challenging, but with the right strategies, you can ensure a productive and healthy period for your team. Here’s the steps to take to have a healthy, happy busy season, whether yours is starting now or it hits some other time.
- Set Boundaries with Staff to Protect Work-Life Balance. Check in with your staff about who is available for regular OT and not. In my industry, people were hired with the understanding that we had occasional mandatory OT, but there were always plenty of opportunities for OT that wasn’t required. Start the season by checking in with your employees. Who has kids they have to pick up from afterschool care? What day do they have a standing date with their friends or partner? And, tremendously importantly, how is their mental health doing? Know which of these things are compromisable to them and which are less so or simply not. Respect that boundary. Don’t forget to have this conversation with yourself and your family. Setting clear boundaries with your staff helps maintain a good work-life balance during peak periods and protects employee and owner mental health.
- Communicate Clearly with Clients About Your Availability. Whatever your schedule is, honor it. Maybe in busy season, you will work Saturdays, but not Friday evening or Sunday. Whatever it is, communicate it to your clients so they know what to expect. Also, if you decide to work on that Friday evening (your prerogative, but I don’t recommend it. Do what you gotta do), don’t interact with clients. It’s essential that you not contradict yourself as it causes trust issues.
- Ensure Proper Equipment for Efficient Operations. This means tools (think in terms of all the types of tools that each person needs), PPE, uniforms, etc. Now is the time to address that office printer that doesn’t work, or the tech issue that one person keeps having, or the tool that someone misplaced and hasn’t seen since. You can’t afford the efficiency losses and frustration during busy season.
- Feed the people! Check with your accountant to make sure that you are complying with your local laws (because I’m not a lawyer or a CPA and I don’t give any such advice). Then feed people occasionally. Whether that is partnering with a local restaurant to bring in lunch, having someone on staff bring food to a job site, bringing coffee to an afternoon slogging through paperwork (oh yeah, know your employee’s food preferences and avoidances, drink orders and the like), it’s all good and important. The (work) family that eats together stays together.
- Plan a Celebration to Acknowledge Hard Work. Whether your busy season culminates at Christmas or some other time, there needs to be a party. Y’all need to celebrate the accomplishments, the hard work, the people helped, the support you gave each other to get through, and the relief that you now get to slow down. Here’s the important thing. Plan that party now. Not later. If you wait, you won’t be able to get a venue. Personally, I don’t like to ever have these parties at the office, but I can see that such a need might exist, but whether you have 3 employees or 30 or 300, there should be an off-site party. When you are a Hustle of 1, take your family out to celebrate busy season with you. Your absences and decreased contributions at home have been felt. They have been slogging through this at home with you. Once your business has grown, continue that practice, but have a separate party for staff. Make reservations so that a venue knows your coming to ensure a good experience for your staff. If you are intimidated by throwing and hosting a party, or you simply don’t have time, that is something I am happy to work with you on. Feel free to delegate it to me. Staff parties can range from events and activities to dinners and drinks. There can be team building activities or not. The parties were a major contributor to the strong culture on my staff and a source of cherished memories. If your staff doesn’t have any “remember that time” stories that don’t involve actually being at work, it’s time to fix that.
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