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Recognising the Symptoms of Telephone Staff Burnout
Chapter 3 of the Telephone Staff Burnout Workbook
Burnout can affect anyone in what psychologist Mary Stanley calls "the intensity and repetitive nature" of outbound calling.
However, our less scientific obervations have shown that some people are less likely to suffer from burnout than others. We have identified two telephone staff communities that fall outside the "at risk" group, and therefore by default can identify those who are most likely to burn out.
Our impression is that more mature telephone staff with little expectation of career advancement are less prone to burnout.
Discussions with this community have highlighted that they know how the world works and have come to terms with the fact that "it takes all sorts".
They seem to be able to take the slings and arrows in their stride.
A second community with some avoidance is burnout is graduates. This seems to be because graduates are not expecting to spend the rest of their careers in a call centre.
And therein lies a clue as to why burnout occurs more frequently among other groups. It may be that they expect to spend the rest of their lives in a call centre. So once the honeymoon period of a new job has worn of, they face the stark reality.
In fact, the end of the honeymoon period is critical, because this is the first time that burnout is likely to set in. The honeymoon period varies with the type of work.
For example, in our company, the project oriented nature of our work means that we rarely become as deeply involved in products than telephone staff working in-house.
Therefore our staff have a lower level of involvement with products than telephone agents working in-house.
In the past, we have found that call centre staff were at most risk of burning out between the 9th and 14th weeks of their employment. and again in month 9 and once more at some point during the second year of employment.
The point at which burnout first manifests itself can be delayed until 14-18 weeks, as discussed below.
While the variety of projects on which our agents work would be expected to lengthen the burnout curve, the fact is that agents working in-company tend to burn out later.
One of our clients has an initial 16 week training period for telephone staff, and sees the first signs of burnout in weeks 26-36.
The importance of identifying your own "at risk" community and the times at which burn-out is likely to occur is so you can prime your supervisors to be ready to look for the symptoms.
It is the time at which they occur that is significant.
First, there is the change in the telephone agent's behaviour.
This often begins with a "snappiness" when the agent is addressed by the supervisor, and a great deal of huffing and puffing between calls.
You may also notice a tendency for telephone staff to abuse the last prospect they've spoken to directly after hanging up.
Most of us have cursed or called someone a rude name after we have hung up, but burnt out telephone staff do it increasingly, until it becomes habitual.
Look out too for the normally boisterous agent who becomes sullen, particularly during team meetings, or the quiet one who becomes more vocal and aggressive.
If you employ a call centre team that likes to spend social time together, look out for the team member who starts to decline invitations, especially to team events.
When there are no problems at home and no apparent health problems, sudden bursts of tears may also be a sign the agent is burning out.
The next symptom is a gradual drop in attendance, often as a result of some minor but unproven illness.
The drop off in attendance usually begins with lateness, then half days being missed. This then develops into one or two days absences.
You may also notice a decline in dress standards or hygiene.
Such behaviour is not surprising over time, as the nature of outbound selling is to invite rejection and there is only so much an individual can take without showing the strain.
Perhaps most importantly, American Richard Bencin writes that "burnout ultimately causes low productivity (as low as 1.92 completed calls per hour in some full-time operations), high turnover and an unnecessarily demanding job".
So be on the lookout for a gradual decline in productivity.
In our organisation, we have identified a typical burnout pattern that reinforces Dr Hamberg's statistics.
As mentioned earlier, before we took steps to deal with it many of our telemarketers used to show the first signs of burnout between 9 and 14 weeks from the start of their employment. We would see their productivity drop in a manner similar to this.
It is important to note that the average duration of the bottom of the burnout curve is 3-6 weeks. Professional call centre managers will therefore seek to reduce the risks of burnout.
