Burnout is a factor of high workloads impacting firms that are not optimally staffed. Call it what you want – “quiet quitting,” “not being engaged” or “doing the bare minimum” – it affects over half of America’s workers according to a Gallup poll. In fact, they’re the lowest engagement figures since Gallup started tracking them in 2000.

Quiet quitting is a sign that your staff are exhausted. It’s linked to how hard firms have asked their people to work for a long time. Like the Great Resignation, workers are saying “enough is enough” and taking back their power. What we are seeing is self-preservation.

New generations of staff have greater expectations for work-life balance and fair treatment, so these issues are not going away. Millennials and Gen Zs think differently about their work lives and what they want out of life. There are steps leaders can take to help their employees work at a higher level and still have time for themselves:

Give permission
Grant your staff permission to restore themselves and restock their energy. Make it a practice that is not only expected but rewarded.

Build resilience into your organization
Develop standard operating practices that encourage longevity at an organizational level. This could look like creating rules that prevent practices like back-to-back meetings without breaks.

Modeling
When a senior manager is not taking breaks, they are modeling that rest and recuperation is not important. Regardless of what your firm says, it’s often what leaders do that sets the tone.

Outsourcing
If you simply don’t have the time to implement some of these practices because your organizational culture is so entrenched, you can always outsource. Take the load off your staff by handing over some of the workloads to a skilled partner you can rely on.

Building resilience is not about bouncing back. It’s about giving your staff the tools and the space to restore themselves so they are prepared to face any challenge with maximum energy.