The same qualities that make an employee go that extra mile—more hours, joining committees, or earning certifications—often carry over to personal life activities and commitments. While these go-go-go qualities to fit as much as possible into a day are admirable, they can lead to both stress and exhaustion.
Is there such a thing as too much? And is there a link between off-hour activities and on-the-job performance? We talked to go-getters from throughout the perishables supply chain to discuss the signs of overcommitment and how it can impact both personal and professional lives.
The Doubled-Edged Sword
Employers like to hire people with plenty of outside interests. Work/life balance is the watchword that has replaced being ‘married to the job’ and committing to after-hours activities—whether it’s family, fitness, education, or charity work—can make potential hires more attractive.
A study by the Corporation for National and Community Service found job candidates who volunteered had a 27 percent greater chance of being hired. But the very qualities that make people with an active private life attractive—energy, focus, dedication, and commitment—are a double-edged sword as they can make it more likely these very same individuals will become burned out, fatigued, and distracted, which can adversely impact their careers.
Lifestyle & Performance
Burnout is a very real and growing threat. A Kronos survey in January 2017 revealed that feeling burned out may be responsible for as much as 50 percent of annual workplace turnover. What makes this an especially thorny problem is the traits that make employees work hard both in and away from the office aren’t necessarily the ones employers want to discourage and aren’t easy to manage.
“Dealing with overcommitted employees is often difficult,” confirms April Morris, director of employee development and training at Grimmway Farms in Bakersfield, CA. Each worker, she explains, has unique personal motivators that helped build this particular mindset, resulting in his or her current behavior. Altering that behavior is complicated.
Identifying Burnout
One of the key ways burnout manifests itself in the workplace is through sleep deprivation. As little as a half-hour less sleep every night can have a profound effect on job performance, and according to a 2016 study by the Hult International Business School, can result in not only work-related problems like a lack of focus, inability to learn new skills, diminished creativity, and reduced motivation, but also create difficulties in physical and mental health, such as decreased immune system function, irritability, and higher levels of stress.
