7 Signs You Are Pushing Your Remote Team Too Hard (and 7 Possible Solutions)

Today’s “hustle culture” is pretty much a standard in most workplaces. Adopting a “rise and grind” approach, people are spending more time working than ever. When combined with the uncertainty of the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking that more is better. However, while this type of approach may seem like a great thing from a company perspective, it may actually be counterproductive. 

As a manager, it is your job not only to make sure your employees are productive, but also to ensure they don’t burn out in the process. Unfortunately, the latter is all too easy when your employees are working remotely, and their work-life balance has been compromised by social-distancing measures. It’s harder to set those work and life boundaries when your laptop or work area is right there in your home.

So, if what you’re after productivity and results, it’s important that you keep your team’s wellbeing in mind. That means ensuring that you’re not demanding too much, and that you’ve set up an effective support system that can help surmount the challenges of the current global situation, especially as many lives are personally and professional changing because of it.

Below you will find seven telltale signs you may be pushing your remote team too hard, along with some possible solutions.

1. Your Employees Are Constantly Working Overtime

When conducting your business from an office, it’s relatively easy to keep an eye on how much everyone’s working. After all, people will come in in the morning and will have to leave by some point. But, when the office is moved to people’s homes, it becomes all too easy to lose track of time and spend well-above the average eight hours doing work.

If your team is clocking in more than average, you need to find a way of helping them establish better routines. Spending too much time at their computers, your employees will become overworked, overextended, and eventually, they will burn out or jump ship. As a result, you or another teammate will be left with a lot to do and the cycle continues.

The solution to all of this? Your best bet would be to take a good look at everyone’s workload. If you find that there’s too much to do, it’s important to bring on someone new right away or even outsource some of your team’s time-consuming tasks. If this is the case, hiring remotely can broaden your talent pool and help you find someone quickly. Or you might also find yourself in need of software or hardware solutions that can speed the work process up. Don’t be afraid to look into business expansion financing options, which will provide you with all the necessary funds to invest in manpower and equipment. Or take a look at projects or responsibilities they’re focused on. Help prioritize and remove any tasks that can be on the back burner for now.

2. More People Are Calling in Sick

Work-related stress can affect not just your mental, but also your physical health, causing all sorts of problems – some of which can have fatal consequences. If you notice your employees are calling in sick more often, or even seem under the weather, it may be because they’re pushing themselves too hard, with no time to recover. 

To help them reduce their stress levels, and keep their health in check, try to find ways to encourage rest and de-stressing activities. Tell them it’s OK not to check their emails during the weekend, or that there’s no need to stay up late to do work. You can also implement short exercise breaks during your work hours so that they get the chance to get up and move around every 45 minutes or so. Encourage lunch breaks, encourage afternoon breaks.

Or lead by example. Stick to boundaries of not answering messages on off hours or writing them at weird times to encourage your team to balance offline and online time.

3. Employees Are Not Functioning as a Team

If your employees are under pressure, mistakes will start to happen. If they’re not communicating openly, they will begin to blame each other and talk behind each other’s backs. Lack of trust, tension, and fights are just some of the symptoms that your remote team might be being pushed too hard. 

Aside from easing the workload by hiring new people, you can foster trust and build team spirit among employees by organizing team building activities. In situations where you can’t get together physically, you can still all relax together. Online game nights are a particularly good solution as they require everyone to cooperate with each other, but without the pressures of work in the mix.

4. Your Workers Are Disengaged

If your employees are becoming disinterested or disengaged, that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re lazy. If they have a good track record, they might be withdrawing due to burnout and stress, and because they see no point in giving it their best if nothing ever changes for them. 

You can fix this by getting them more involved, whether by organizing more frequent one-on-one meetings, delegating some of the responsibilities to them, offering them project ownership, or providing positive feedback. Let them know that their hard work matters.

5. Employee Turnover Is High

While it’s normal for people to leave, if your employee turnover rate seems to be getting higher, there’s obviously something wrong with your team. Usually, the most common culprit for teams falling apart is poor work-life balance, poor relationships inside or among teams, as well as inadequate salaries. 

Now, you can find out more about the reasons for turnover during exit interviews. But you can also take some precautionary measures, such as communicating with your remote team to assess their needs and gather feedback.

6. Customer Satisfaction Is on the Decline

If your remote team is spread too thin, one of the first things that will start to suffer is your customer satisfaction. Since happy customers are the bread and butter of every business, make sure that your team has enough time to serve customers well, and in accordance with your company’s mission statement. 

But, you should also make sure to set realistic customer expectations in the first place. If you overpromise, it will add more to your team’s already full workload. 

7. Changing Attitude

If your employees have become moody or disgruntled when they were previously happy and collaborative, you need to examine the situation and identify the reason for such a change. Aside from personal (and current global) problems, one of the most common causes of changing attitudes among your team is stress and increased workload. 

To remedy the issue, you can switch things up by giving your employees different assignments, financial incentives, or additional days off. Keep your door open and have a real conversation with your team, and then you can determine how best to help and encourage your team.

Start Now

The most valuable asset for your company are its people  – more specifically, their knowledge, hard work, and dedication.

To make use of all that for the good of your business, you need to take care of your remote team and be attentive to the prevailing attitude within your company. This is particularly important in stressful times, which the COVID-19 pandemic definitely is. Make sure your employees have everything they need in order to remain both healthy and productive, even if it requires investing time and money into getting them to feel more satisfied with their role within the company. 

Natasha is a lady of a keyboard and one hell of a geek. She is always happy to collaborate with awesome blogs and share her knowledge about business management, career growth, and productivity-related topics. To see what she is up to next, check out her Twitter Dashboard.