6 Signs Your Remote Team is Overworked (and How to Prevent It)
Among other (much worse) things, the Covid-19 global pandemic has made remote work the standard for pretty much every company that can realistically work this way. And while most articles focus on maximizing productivity in remote teams, it is equally important to cover this new work era from another angle. We’re talking about the one negative impact of remote work that is often overlooked — overworking and the subsequent burnout.
Read on to find out how to recognize that your remote team is overworked and how you can prevent this from happening in the first place:
1. Too Much Overtime
The first sign that your remote team is overworked is an obvious one — too much overtime. Overtime is supposed to be an occasional occurrence, something that people do once in a while when something unforeseen happens. Too much overtime can be a sign of a few things, and none of them are good:
- It can mean that your people simply have too much on their plate and cannot get things done during their regular work hours. This kind of situation is not fair to anyone, and you will need to ensure that your staff’s workload is reduced either by increasing your workforce in number or streamlining the work.
- For many companies that switch to remote work (not just because of Covid-19), specific work processes get disrupted or altered, leading to people taking more time to finish the work they once did more quickly. Sometimes, these issues work themselves out. More often, however, it is necessary to modify the processes to fit the new reality.
- Alternatively, too much overtime can also mean that people get distracted or procrastinate during regular work hours and have to use overtime to finish things. Figuring this out can be tricky, but a tool like ProofHub can definitely come in handy.
In the end, however, it will all come down to communication and trust.
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2. Unusual Working Hours
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For most remote employees, one major perk of working remotely is having more liberty with the work schedule. In many companies, people are allowed to have a flexible schedule, as they are not restricted by factors that might determine working hours in a physical office. This flextime approach is usually seen as a very good thing, and, in most cases, it is.
However, it can produce certain side effects. Employees will often find it difficult to give themselves structure and a semi-fixed schedule where they will be at their peak performance. As a result, they will work a few hours here and a few hours there, often wrapping up loose ends at weird times (like 11 pm or 5 am).
When this continues for a long time, these team members may find it almost impossible to separate their professional and private lives. They’ll become more stressed and lose sleep, giving them the feeling they are working 24 hours a day. And, as you might expect, feeling like you’re working 24 hours a day is a sure way to become overworked.
If you notice particularly erratic work hours in your team, make sure to talk to the people who seem to be struggling with their schedule. Perhaps that’s just how they work best and how they can best organize their time. On the other hand, maybe they’re not even noticing those weird hours, and they’re on their way down the spiral. In such a situation, you need to talk to them about the importance of a healthy routine and perhaps even help them work out a schedule that will work better for them.
3. More Sick Days
Overall, people who work remotely take fewer sick days, and this is understandable. For instance, while you might call in sick so as not to spread some nasty bug at the office or go through a 45-minute commute, you might still get work done from home. Instead of a sick day, you take a half-day or even soldier on.
This is why you should pay very close attention if you notice that a member of your remote team is actually taking more sick days now that they are working remotely.
This might be a sign that they are overworked and need a day here and there to recover. They might even be in a situation where their personal and professional lives become too intertwined, and the stress starts to accumulate.
The solution, once again, is communication. Perhaps they’re just having a bad run, health-wise, and they will get back to their old self again. It’s important not to jump to conclusions just because you’ve noticed a few more sick days than usual.
If they’ve experienced stress as a result of this new way of work, you can help as a team leader. Find out what produces so much stress for them, and work together to reduce that stress. Sometimes, these will be personal reasons, but other times, it might be something you yourself can change and help with.
4. Teamwork Is Suffering
Having a member of a remote team (or the entire team) overworked can have a catastrophic impact on the overall teamwork. The sheer amount of stress and the disbalance between work and personal life can cause stressed members to become more irritable and disruptive. Moreover, being overworked has detrimental effects on productivity, which can cause further rifts within a team.
There is a number of signs of impaired teamwork:
- Communication breakdowns
- Lack of trust
- Unresolved conflicts that simmer
- Withdrawn team members
- Tattling and scapegoating
- Cliques
- Lack of decision making
If you notice one or more of these, it might be a sign that teamwork is suffering. However, it is essential to point out that there are other potential causes besides overwork. You will need to investigate the potential causes and address them to effectively improve teamwork.
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If the main cause is that some team members or the entire team feel overworked, it might be time to rethink the workload. Or, in case only certain team members have too much on their plates, you’ll want to look at workload balance. You must talk to the entire team and try to collaboratively solve the issues that are leading to overworked team members.
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5. Increasing Turnover
Regardless of whether the team is remote or not, an increase in employee turnover is one of the most common signs that people are overworked. High employee turnover is one of the worst things that can happen to a company. Most importantly, you are losing people who know their jobs and who know how the company breathes, which takes a long time to learn. Not to mention, this sends a bad message about your company and reduces your chances of attracting top talent later. It can even hurt the revenue, as consumers have repeatedly reported that they care about how employees are treated.
This is why you must keep a close eye on employee turnover. Sometimes you cannot avoid these turnovers, but you’ll want to watch out for any uptick in the percentage of people leaving. If you notice it, talk to employees that are leaving or thinking of leaving, and make sure that overwork is not the culprit. You will easily figure out if there is a trend of people complaining about being overworked, and you will need to make sure to correct this.
6. The Little Things
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As a leader, you will also be picking up on the little things that occur on a daily basis. Perhaps it will be a prolonged sigh from one team member, an underhanded comment from another, an easily avoidable mistake here and there.
In isolation, these may not be too much cause for worry. They might just be a part of the everyday functioning of a company. However, if they persist and you start noticing them more and more frequently, there might be something wrong.
You will need to investigate this and uncover the causes. Sometimes, it can be something you cannot affect in any way, like when two people just don’t click. Other times, it can be something like people being overworked, and these are the first little signs.
Communication, Communication, Communication
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By this point, you’ve probably noticed that the solution to most overwork issues (or at least the first steps on the path to solving them) comes down to communication. This entails more than just an occasional one-on-one with your team members. This entails creating a culture where people are truly talking to one another.
For instance, other parts of the company might need to get involved in nearthing and dealing with certain issues. If you are not sure how to help someone who is having trouble balancing their private and professional lives as a remote employee, someone from HR might be able to help you with this.
Don’t overlook the need for managers and the C-suite to be involved as well. Make sure they’re ready to take a long hard look at the processes within the company and the way people take on work. The communication needs to go up and down the vertical, ensuring that everyone understands other parties involved.
At the end of the day, we have to admit that remote work puts a strain on company communications. You’ll need to be proactive about fostering a company culture where people can say what’s bothering them and feel safe doing so.
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