Does Your Prospective Employer Have a Burnout Culture?
| When you’re looking for a new job, how can you identify if a prospective employer has a burnout culture? Here are some red flags to look out for and questions to ask during the interview process. * Lack of autonomy. To assess how much choice you’ll have over how and when you’ll work, ask your interviewer questions like: Will I have flexibility over when I do my work during the day? How do you assign workloads and deadlines? * Lack of fairness. To learn how invested the company is in equity, ask: What sort of employee data do you collect? How are promotions decided? Do you have a diversity officer? How many people are on the DEI team? * Lack of reward. To get a sense of the potential employer’s investment in your career growth, ask: What are the criteria and processes for promotions? How often are people promoted in this unit? Do you have a professional development budget? * Lack of community support. To assess whether you’ll be working on a supportive team, ask: How do you give feedback to employees? Can you describe how you handle mistakes on your team? How does your team manage conflict? * Unsustainable workload. To understand how a potential employer values your time both inside and outside of the workplace, ask: What are standard work hours? How often do people have to work on weekends? What is the culture around emails and direct messaging? |
| This tip is adapted from “How to Tell If a Potential Employer Has a Burnout Culture,” by Emily Stark et al. |
