The secret to ending burnout — the one HR Gurus don’t talk about.
By: Braedon Leslie
Tags: Employee Engagement, Employee Retention, Employee Benefits, Human Resources, Employee Burnout

What a 9-day field trip through the jungles of Belize taught me about ending employee burnout in America.

Can you feel it now, Mr. Krabs?

Welcome, fellow traveler.

Today, you are going to learn one of the most successful methods out there for ending burnout — on your own.

*Disclaimer, I didn’t learn this hack for happiness and well-being in the middle of a fu*king jungle.

Instead, I stumbled on this all-to-obvious insight after kicking myself in the a*s for the last 25 years.

The secret to ending burnout boils down to one thing: taking care of yourself.

Here’s what I realized: Humans, unlike European sports cars, need more than the occasional tune-up. Rather, we need consistent R&R, structured high and low output days, appropriate nutrition, exercise, community, great sleep, and sex (if that’s your thing).

Pretty damn simple, right? However, who’s actually doing this for themselves?

Let’s break it down

Why should we even care about burnout?

Because “burnout,” unbeknownst to many, describes real conditions that are affecting millions of people, such as; anxiety, depression, insomnia, hypertension, obesity, suicidality, low self-efficacy, relationship stress, familial stress, financial stress, and so on.

Burnout is not just a phrase that applies to lawyers, doctors, sales reps, and those who work dead end jobs. It’s hurting all of us. Why? Because we fill up on fast food and soda, sleep like total dog sh*t, get worked like machines, and forget that we’re human.

As much as we like to say this, it isn’t the employers and HR gurus that are hurting us. If anything, they just aren’t helping us the way we need to be helped (working on that).

Truly, it’s us who got ourselves here. And it’s due to the fact that we have an unhealthy relationship with work. Tough pill to swallow, right?

However, because of a long history not worth recounting, it’s fallen on the shoulders of our employers to provide us with the care and resources we need. I mean, it’s the least they can do, right? After all, we help them make astronomical amounts of money.

So, where does the road to wellness start?

For employers to truly empower their most valuable asset (their people), they should start by aligning themselves with a provider who can give them the tools to assess, manage, and energize their people.

Here’s the caveat; it needs to be people-first, predictive, and comprehensive for it to work well.

A Band Aid will not do.

And to all you humans out there who would like to get access to cool sh*t that makes you better at being human, spread the damn word. Dammit.

What if I don’t believe in wellness?

Allow me to ask you a question in return.

What is prevention? Simple. Doing things that are good for you now to prevent harmful and costly things from happening later.

You see, America has practiced reactive care over preventative care for longer than any of us would like to admit. Treating people acutely or “as needed.”

Yet, when almost 90% of our annual healthcare spend is devoted to treating chronic conditions, we must be doing something seriously backwards.

Here’s one solution:

Give people what they really need. A lot of it. When and wherever they need it.

Where? Well, at work. The place where people spend nearly 75% of their adult life (yeah, that’s probably a great place to start). And if you can, give it to them before they even realize they need it. Wouldn’t that be flippin futuristic?

The fact of the matter is, a one-dimensional wellness program isn’t going to cut it anymore, not on paper and definitely not for the people who are supposed to use it.

Say hello to LEON

At LEON, we found that sewing people into the fabric of our approach makes all the difference. Oh, and we’re pretty flippin futuristic.

Got another question for ya. If no two people are alike and no two companies are the same, why should their response to wellness be?

This isn’t a trick question, the answer is: it shouldn’t be.

Can I tell you another way of saying LEON? Human-first. Predictive. Individualized. Comprehensive.

Whatever your company’s goal is, if it involves people, LEON has the resources to support it — while also optimizing for performance, health, creativity, and happiness.

Ask yourself, am I implementing an effective wellness program? If you have no clue, or you could be doing more, a dash of LEON should do the trick.

Want to learn more? Set up a discovery call, here.

Namaste.