Productivity Paranoia Is Making Worker Burnout Worse

As employees feel pressured to prove that they’re working, their stress levels increase and does their feeling of burnout.

Nearly 50% of employees and 53% of managers report that they’re burned out at work, according to new research from Microsoft that surveyed 20,000 people.

Close to 90% of workers report that they are productive at work, and productivity signals are continuing to go up. To illustrate the disconnect, 85% of bosses say hybrid work has made it hard to be confident that employees are actually being productive.

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Microsoft calls this “productivity paranoia,” which is the fear among leaders that remote and hybrid employees are being less productive working from home than they would be in an office full-time. Workers are also paranoid that they’re being monitored by workforce bossware that tracks their productivity.

“There’s confusion and frustration about what, exactly, the purpose of going back to the office is and how productivity is being measured, especially if you’re productive at home,” said Brooke Weddle, a partner at McKinsey & Co.

Productivity paranoia is exacerbating the burnout that workers have felt for years. Leaders may want to focus more on impact rather than activity when it comes to their employees’ work product.