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WITH
WITH
JOE BALLEK, MBA
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RECOGNIZING AND
PREVENTING BURNOUT
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Burnout poses
a signifi cant
challenge
to worker health
and productivity.
Addressing it is
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crucial for creating
a positive and
sustainable work
environment.
We compete globally and constantly review practices and procedures to lower costs, improve effi ciency, and increase
profi tability to foster growth. If we can tweak our EDM setup to save two minutes per part by investing in a new tooling
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system, we can calculate the ROI and make a business case for whether the investment is justifi ed. It’s easy when you
can quantify the costs and benefi ts. However, perhaps one of the most signifi cant drains on productivity cannot be
measured so easily.
Employee burnout is one of the insidious and pervasive problems affecting manufacturing today. It knows no bound-
aries and is global in scope, affecting employees at all levels and age groups. The World Health Organization (WHO)
recently estimated that burnout and the depression and anxiety that accompany it are responsible for approximately
$1 trillion per year in lost productivity. A Gallup Research study found burnout costs employers in the U.S. up to $190
billion annually on healthcare costs alone.
The Gallup study also shed some light on the number of employees who are impacted by burnout. Surprisingly, the
study reported that 23% of employees feel burned out often, or even daily, while 44% report feeling burned out some-
times. But what exactly is burnout? In a 2023 article, the Mayo Clinic says that burnout, also called occupational burn-
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out, is not a medical diagnosis. Instead, they characterize it as a type of stress linked to work. Burnout affects people
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