Research on Employee Burnout and Turnover: Don't diss the staff

"It is often not the job that burns you out, but the organization."

Difficult jobs become more difficult when people don't feel respected by managers and peers, according to new research published by Lakshmi Ramarajan at Wharton. This disrespect directly leads to burnout.

Past research has focused on employees' ability to manage their own stress level to avoid burn-out. ['It's your fault, you're just being negative'] Other research has pointed to the job itself as the culprit. ['Some jobs are just more demanding than others, there's only so much we can do about that']

But respect is pervasive and observed by everyone in an organization, according to Ramarajan:

"respect can be a powerful signal to individuals regarding their standing not only as employees but as people.... As information comes from a variety of sources, one's perceptions of respect and disrespect are not only based on how one views one's own treatment, but also by how others are treated. For example, when team members see someone else on the team being treated unfairly, they alter their own perceptions of the fairness of the team. Likewise, the extent to which others, not just the self, are treated ... can influence an individual's own perceptions of respect."

Read the Knowledge at Wharton article here. Download the whole research paper here.