We’re living in a split-screen world when it comes to burnout and the employee experience.
On one side are all the investments CEOs and human resources executives have been making in recent years—and especially since the pandemic began—to support employee well-being and mental health. This is not just a warm-and-fuzzy benefit—rather, it’s an essential part of their business strategy, improving not only employee productivity but also recruitment and retention. Indeed, more than 100 companies, including Walmart, CVS Health, Pfizer and Accenture, signed a pledge earlier this year with Thrive and the Society for Human Resource Management to prioritize the well-being and mental health of employees through the uncertain times that lie ahead.
On the other side of the screen is Elon Musk, who has made it seem through his chaotic four-week tenure at the helm of Twitter—full of stunning missteps, reversals and mass defections—as though the last several decades of research on the science of burnout and its effect on performance had never happened.
