People in many workplaces are talking about burnout – perhaps due to the time of year, and perhaps because the World Health Organization recently and publicly discussed it. Whatever the reason, it’s a hot topic; burnout degrades both employees’ wellbeing and their professional performance.
Burnout related research makes it clear that there are a number of forces that contribute to people being burned out, many of which are beyond the responsibilities of people who design and manage workplaces. Published research also makes it clear that design can reduce the likelihood that people will feel burned out, primarily via creating a more positive atmosphere that is inconsistent with burnout.
One burnout risk factor, for example, is employee workload; when job demands exceed employee ability to achieve, burnout can ensue. Workplace design that supports the effective completion of the task-at-hand and also provides opportunities for cognitive refreshment can help make these “overload” type situations less likely.
In this column, we’ve regularly covered research detailing how design can enhance professional performance and help restock levels of mental energy after they’ve been depleted via knowledge work. For example, people are more likely to think creatively in areas featuring the color green and warmer white light. Our professional performance is also enhanced when we work in appropriately ventilated, biophilicly designed spaces, located in proximity to colleagues with whom collaboration optimizes organizational outcome. Cognitive refreshment is supported by hearing the sounds of a northern meadow with a stream running through it or seeing a few green leafy plants, just for starters. Each of our sensory experiences has an influence on how we think and behave as do space-in-use factors such as access to areas where we can have privacy and that align with the expectations of our national and organizational cultures and our positive experiences within those cultures.
Another factor that contributes to burnout is lack of control over professional experiences. This column frequently mentions the links between providing people with a comfortable level of environmental control and those individuals’ wellbeing and professional performance. A carefully curated set of options, from four to six, that align with how a space is likely to be used is “comfortable.” So, a set of four or so lighting color and intensity preset alternatives in a conference room is comfortable while dials that can be tuned through every color and intensity imaginable is not. Another way to provide control is via an assortment of workplace options, for instance.
Future columns will discuss additional ways that design can beat burnout and, also, encourage employee engagement. Design is not magic, many forces can contribute to negative employee experiences, but design can definitely create conditions that make burnout less likely to occur.
Sally Augustin, PhD, is the editor of Research Design Connections(www.researchdesignconnections.com).Research Design Connectionsreports on research conducted by social and physical scientists that designers can apply in practice. Insights derived from recent studies are integrated with classic, still relevant findings in concise, powerful articles. Topics covered range from the cognitive, emotional, and physiological implications of sensory and other physical experiences to the alignment of culture, personality, and design, among others. Information, in everyday language, is shared in a monthly subscription newsletter, an archive of thousands of published articles, and a free daily blog. Readers learn about the latest research findings immediately, before they’re available elsewhere. Sally, who is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association, is also the author of Place Advantage: Applied Psychology for Interior Architecture(Wiley, 2009) and, with Cindy Coleman, The Designer’s Guide to Doing Research: Applying Knowledge to Inform Design(Wiley, 2012). She is a principal at Design With Science (www.designwithscience.com) and can be reached at sallyaugustin@designwithscience.com.