How To Combat Workplace Fatigue And Unleash Your Potential

Everyone goes through some form of exhaustion at work from time to time. It’s part of being human. All occupations come with their own challenges and for the customer experience industry, workplace fatigue can be a concern even if the job feels fulfilling. Nothing great comes easy, after all.

Excellent customer service requires real effort, patience, and empathy. And that’s why it’s important for BPO companies to help employees refill their cups… to reignite your passion and spark your career once again. To do that, a company needs to know how to identify signs of burnout in employees.

Spotting workplace fatigue

You might not realize it but you could be experiencing exhaustion yourself. It can often creep up on you at work without much warning. What are some symptoms of burnout?

- Lowered efficiency at work: delays in tasks, poor communication with the team, losing track of deliverables

- Decreased motivation: less satisfaction when accomplishing tasks, indifference towards skills improvement and career growth opportunities

- Mental and physical exhaustion: becoming impatient and frustrated at work, low energy despite getting enough sleep, physical problems like headaches, upset stomach, etc.

- Mental distancing from work: lateness, feeling disconnected from colleagues, lack of focus, procrastination

Countering burnout with a positive employee experience

These are just some of the potential signs of wearing down at work, and if you’re experiencing a few of them, then it’s time to focus on reenergizing yourself. Luckily, there are plenty of things that can help improve your work fatigue. But, what can a customer experience company do to help ensure its people can rest, recover, and rededicate themselves to their customer service jobs?

Give regular praise, have an employee rewards and recognition program – Working hard at your job can feel twice as tiring if you don’t feel valued for what you bring. A company showing regular appreciation for your efforts can lift your spirits and reassure you that your contributions are acknowledged. Tying great performance to incentives and rewards can maximize your potential and energy at work even more.

At TTEC, we make sure employees know how valuable they are. Top-performing associates receive great incentives and amazing prizes through various employee rewards and recognition programs. We also often incorporate employee engagement activities when celebrating each other’s wins, especially at a team level. For example, we create informal for-fun-only awards for team members who achieved milestones at work. We don’t shy away from showing appreciation here.

Be supportive as leaders and as a company – So much of recovering from burnout depends on who’s surrounding you and what they do for you in times of stress. The company and its leaders should set a top-down culture on how to treat your job fatigue

If respect, good communication, trust and collaboration exist between all colleagues in your company, you likely get the right kind of technical and personal support to help you find your way back to level. Leaders who listen, take feedback, and make you feel understood are essential in combating burnout.

Provide career growth opportunities – Having clear objectives in your career allows you to have a good sense of purpose for what you’re doing in your customer service job. While you can get worn out at work, knowing your goals can help you endure and push through professional challenges. Without a realistic path and consistent opportunities for you to aim for, you can lose drive and energy much faster.

Leaders also give you proper mentoring, advice on your career path, training and development options, and any tools that let you succeed at work. TTEC, for example, promotes continuous learning among employees, because we want our leadership roles to be filled by people from within. Here, preparing employees to level up their roles goes hand in hand with providing career growth opportunities (such as senior agent roles with TTEC Novaliches in the Philippines).

Inject joy into employee life – Fun is infectious. It permeates everywhere. When you enjoy any part of your work experience – simple team lunches, after work parties, company events, games during meetings, team outings, a giveaway during a company townhall session – it can all carry over to the more difficult parts of the job and make those a bit lighter.

If your company loves to hold employee engagement activities to connect and enjoy life outside of work, especially events focused on health and well-being, you’re in luck. You’ve found a community that wants you to recover from any work fatigue. At TTEC, we enjoy spending time with each other at work and after hours!

A good work environment goes a long way

We all go through ups and downs at work. Challenges are part of pursuing a great BPO career. What can really reduce wearing down at work is being part of a company that‘s ready to pick you up through the tough times. TTEC can spark your passion with its amazing company culture.

Energize your career! Unleash new opportunities with us in the Philippines: as Customer Service Representative with TTEC Santa Rosa or TTEC Cebu or Senior Customer Service Representative with TTEC Novaliches! You can also visit the TTEC website to find more amazing roles across the globe.