Helping Others Can Reduce Work Burnout

Source: Mei-Ling Mirow/Unsplash

In 1946, a baseball manager named Leo Durocher commented that nice guys finish in seventh, referring to the lackluster seventh-place finish of the New York Giants that season. Shortly after, the maxim was shortened to “nice guys finish last, " now a commonly used phrase.

Employees often adopt this mindset, viewing their workplaces as competitive spaces where only the cutthroat succeed. Yet, research shows that this interpretation of how to attain success at work is often wrong.

Being kind has important benefits for the person receiving the support and the person giving the support. For example, when MBA students were asked to write an email expressing gratitude to someone in their life, they significantly underestimated the positive impact the email would have on the recipient’s mood. However, the benefit of the email did not stop with the recipient; the email writers were also in a better mood after sending the email.

Being nice, in the form of generosity, support, and kindness, can help employees succeed. Helping other people benefits the helper from improving their mood to reducing burnout. In other words, nice guys don’t always finish last, and many actually finish first.

Improving Status

Advocating for others counterintuitively benefits the recipient and the advocator. A recent study demonstrated that when someone publicly endorses another’s idea, this recognition increases the endorsee’s and the endorser's status. Counter to many people’s expectations, the researchers found that endorsing someone else’s idea increased the endorser’s status more than contributing new ideas to the conversation or self-promoting.

A concept called competitive altruism helps to explain why endorsement benefits the giver and the receiver. This perspective suggests that people can gain status by helping others rather than trying to beat them, especially when reputations are important. Endorsing someone else’s idea is especially helpful if it is viewed as generous and focused on the good of the group.

Reducing Burnout

Supporting others can also help alleviate both the recipient and the giver’s burnout. Burnout is defined in part by apathy and cynicism towards one’s work, such that employees are increasingly emotionally disconnected from their coworkers, customers, and employers.

Although apathy can keep burned-out employees from helping those around them, research has shown that doing the exact opposite helps them to recover. A recent study showed that when employees were compassionate towards others, their supportive actions helped reduce their own burnout. In other words, helping someone who is going through a difficult time can help you get through your difficult time. Small actions such as texting someone who is struggling or buying them a coffee can make a big difference for them and you.

Finding the Good

Research has also shown that giving genuine compliments is a simple yet powerful way to facilitate joy for the recipient and giver. When people give sincere compliments, the positive impact is greater than they expect. In the work setting, the most beneficial compliments are typically those bringing attention to work being completed or the pursued goal rather than those that focus on appearance.

When people recognize the benefits of compliments, their focus tends to shift to looking for positives around them so they can sincerely compliment the good they see. In doing so, people become more attuned to the positive things. Psychologists have found that when we experience positive emotions, we tend to think more broadly and are open to new ideas. Cultivating joy can give you a new resource and perspective at work.

Taken together, this research makes a strong case that the act of helping others helps them and you. Helping others can reduce burnout, improve status, and cultivate joy. There is a very selfish reason not to be selfish at work.