Is your team overwhelmed? Know the risks, spot the signs, make a change.

Accounting has always been demanding. But the pressure has shifted.

It's not just deadlines anymore. It's the expectation to keep up with AI, to do more with fewer people as the talent shortage bites, and to be available in ways that didn't exist five years ago. Pre-pandemic research already found that 98% of accountants felt stressed at work—and the years since haven't made it easier.

The result is a lot of accounting teams white-knuckling their way through. And a lot of firm leaders don't see it until someone walks out the door.

Why should you care about overwhelmed team members?

Burnout in accounting (and other high-stress industries) is a double-edged sword. Stress has an enormous impact on mental health. It wears people down emotionally and causes depression. But stress also affects physical health, increasing the chances of conditions like insomnia and high blood pressure.

From a business context, team burnout affects productivity in an organization.

Overwhelmed employees experience:

• Disengagement

• Fatigue

• Low motivation

• Poor performance

As a manager, you might notice an increase in absenteeism and employee turnover, which can affect your bottom line. In the United States, for example, workplace stress makes up 8% of healthcare spending and costs accounting firms up to $190 billion a year.

Burnout influences every part of an organization.

So, what can you do about it?

Recommended reading: Providing full visibility throughout your firm

Look for the signs of burnout

Before you can help overwhelmed team members, you need to identify the signs of burnout. The World Health Organization (WHO) recognizes ‘burnout’ as an occupational phenomenon with these symptoms:

• Feelings of exhaustion or energy depletion

• Negative or cynical feelings related to one's job

• Decreased professional efficacy

Healthline lists more specific symptoms that you might notice in your team members:

• Irritability

• Frequent illnesses

• Tardiness

• Isolation

Recognizing these symptoms identifies team members at risk of burnout, and it’s crucial to get on top of the problem early. Your team might operate well, but there is always a chance of workloads piling up and snowballing, and this is when problems start.

You might think you know your team’s capacity, but you cannot accurately assess burnout risk until you implement the right techniques.

Burnout in accounting is more common than you might think. One study reveals that 23% of all workers feel burned out more often than not, while an additional 44% experience burnout ‘sometimes’.

Recommended reading: Why busy doesn’t equal productive (and what the solution is)

How to prevent team members from feeling overwhelmed

Manage workloads

The most effective way to stop team members from feeling overwhelmed is to remove the triggers that cause stress. A team's workload is the number one cause of stress in the workplace, and is more likely to lead to burnout than lack of job security, people issues, and juggling work and personal responsibilities.

As a manager, you might not be able to reduce your team's workload, especially during the pandemic, but you can effectively manage it by:

• Planning your team's workload

• Delegating tasks to the right people

• Managing time more effectively

• Communicating with employees

• Encouraging employees to communicate with you

Managing workloads can be an exhausting task, especially if you have a large team. So investing in practice management software such as Karbon makes sense. When you manage your team from the office or at home, you can handle workflows with greater precision, communicate with team members quickly, and predict bottlenecks in your firm.

Additional ways to prevent workers from becoming overwhelmed

• Educate team members about the dangers of burnout

• Encourage better work-life balance

• Remind team members to use up their benefits (paid time-off, vacation time, flex-time, etc.)

• Promote flexible working—it reduces employee burnout

• Provide team members with tools/resources to manage stress (exercise programs, nutrition guides, meditation apps, discounted gym memberships, etc.)

It's not too late to act

All the tips above might not apply to your team. But these techniques should inspire you to change your organization and prevent team members from feeling overwhelmed.

If employees already exhibit burnout symptoms, it’s never too late to overcome this problem, but you will need to act quickly.