Nearly half (45%) of US employees are currently burned out on their jobs according to CareerBuilder's recent survey on employee productivity.
When looking at burnout from the worker's perspective, employers have cause for concern. A total of 77% of workers said they are sometimes or always burned out in their jobs and 43% of workers said their stress levels on the job have increased over the last six months.
The rising stress could be a result of heavier workloads. Nearly half (46%) of employees reported an increase in their workloads in the last six months, while only eight per cent said their workloads decreased.
Looking at overall productivity trends year-round, 30% of employers said workers are more productive today than before the recession began while 12% feel workers are less productive than before the recession.
Employers who saw a rise in worker productivity during the recession primarily attribute the increase to the fear of losing a job and the effects of downsized staffs on individual workloads. In addition, 73% are seeing the increase sustain today and 14% state productivity has increased even more.
"The recession produced consequences for not just those who were laid off, but also for the many employees who were asked to work harder as a result of leaner staffs," said Brent Rasmussen, president of CareerBuilder North America. "While getting more out of a smaller workforce is a sign of organisational agility during unpredictable times, it's hard to see such yields in productivity holding forever. Headcount will be needed to meet increasing demands."
CareerBuilder surveyed more than 2,600 hiring managers and human resource professionals and nearly 5,300 employees.