This mistake occurs when good intentions triumph over good business practices. From an abundance of compassion and a fear of losing employees at a time when competing for talent is difficult, employers bend and yield in ways they normally wouldn’t. They make this mistake because they think there’s no other choice.
This frequent HR mistake is coddling employees.
Coddling sounds harsh. But it’s the accurate word for what’s happening in many organizations. To coddle means to treat tenderly, to handle indulgently or with excessive gentleness, or to pamper.
You may be surprised to see coddling labeled a mistake by the owner of a company called People First Productivity Solutions. But putting people first does not translate into coddling them. Just the opposite: Putting people first means ennobling them, challenging them, and supporting their continual growth and expanded capacity. People who are coddled will be stunted in their growth.
Coddling employees is an extreme and ineffective over-reaction to Pandemic PTSD, the Great Resignation and the Quiet Quit. If you’re coddling employees, you’re inadvertently:
How can you tell if you’re making the frequent HR mistake of coddling employees? Ask yourself these 10 questions:
If you answered “yes” to even one of these questions, you’re coddling employees in ways that serve no one well. This is a slippery slope, too, that will only become more difficult to correct.
Yes, research reports higher levels of workplace burnout (including work-from-home employees). But it’s too big a leap to go that finding to a conclusion that the only solution is coddling employees.
Burnout is defined, by the World Health Organization, as “a syndrome conceptualized as resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed.” The WHO classified burnout as an occupational phenomenon in 2019 (pre-pandemic).
Note the second part of the definition that says “stress that has not been successfully managed.” It begs this follow-up question: who is responsible for successfully managing that stress?
Employers bear some responsibility like ensuring safe environments, preventing harassment, and providing adequate resources and clear expectations.
Employees share responsibility for managing their stress. Making healthy lifestyle choices, voicing their needs, and seeking professional help are ways that employees can reduce their own stress (and reduce feelings of burnout).
In a recent coaching engagement, one of our coaches was asked to work with a mid-level manager who was suffering extreme burnout. Over time, it became apparent that the employee was drinking heavily and getting an average of 4 hours sleep per night. Her long hours were the result of low productivity more than increased workload. These issues were not the responsibility of the employer. When the employee took charge of her own issues, she made changes that successfully managed her stress. She was no longer complaining of burnout and blaming the organization.
Gallup research reveals the top five reasons for burnout, according to employees.
Employers should guard against these five factors. Most are easily fixable, so long as managers are adequately trained and expectations for managers are clear. However, the perception of these issues will likely be magnified if there’s a history of coddling employees in your organization.
Burnout isn’t something that should be ignored. It causes people to feel
Without coddling employees, you can engage, enable and ennoble them. Doing so will reduce burnout while also increasing productivity. Employee retention will likely improve, too.
Here are five fast fixes for burnout that turn things around. Some of these may be counterintuitive. You may wonder how giving employees more or more difficult work can reduce burnout. Keep reading! It really does work that way.
Boredom at work is often the real culprit causing burnout. When employees are given incremental challenges that are just slight stretches beyond their current skill level, those challenges make the work exciting and interesting.
When you give employees opportunities to grow and meet higher-level challenges, you’re demonstrating your faith in them. You’re supporting their development by entrusting new work to them.
Along with new challenges, offer access to a wide variety of training. This need not be expensive or time-consuming. Refer employees to resources like People First Leadership Academy where they can choose from a variety of courses and delivery options to build soft skills, develop as leaders, work on personal effectiveness, or improve their team and collaborative capabilities.
Not all training should be functionally specific or mandated. By offering choices, you’re putting the employee in charge of his/her own development. That’s validating and supports individual interests and career development.
Feedback shows you care. You care enough to notice, to take the time to discuss, and to take the risk of a potentially negative response.
Managers need to know how to deliver effective feedback and how to use constructive feedback as a means for developing employees, not just for disciplining them.
All voices in produces big business benefits. In addition to diversity of though, you’ll reduce burnout when you genuinely seek out every individual’s opinion and input. Oftentimes, burnout is the byproduct of feeling like nothing more than a cog in the wheel.
When you are inclusive, you dignify people and stimulate dialogue. You enrich the work experience for everyone. Taking time to listen and letting employees know that you want and need their input is empowering.
Hyper-focusing on results, KPIs, performance, or processes misses this extremely important point. It’s people who deliver results, perform, implement and follow processes, and make things happen. If you put the emphasis on deliverables instead of the people delivering them, you’re probably contributing to burnout.
If you put people first by making sure they understand how worthy and important they are, the work will get done better, faster, and with less stress and burnout. It’s amazing what people can do when they know someone believes in them and cares about them.