Stress in the workplace has become a constant concern in people’s minds in the last few years as people are more aware about their overall health and well being. Moreover, intense levels of stress can also affect businesses as it can lead to fatigue, missed workdays and a general decrease in productivity – also known as burnout.

As such, many companies are careful not to overwork employees while also looking for ways to help employees deal with burn out. Chief among them has been Ariana Huffington, founder of the famed Huffington Post.

Huffington started her journey to help companies deal with burnout by publishing her books “Thrive” and “The Sleep Revolution”, which targeted subjects such as sleep and rest and how they can contribute to improving one’s work performance.

That was just the tip of the iceberg. To further tackle this issue, Huffington left her leading news organisation and created her startup Thrive Global. In just six months, Thrive Global has already expanded from apps that help to silence your phone, to everyday products such as beds and fitness trackers – all for the sake of improving conditions in the workplace.

Huffington isn’t the only one that’s taken an interest in this movement. Other such companies, such as Uber, Airbnb and Accenture are putting in efforts in fighting burnout. It’s particularly interesting how so many companies are focusing on solving it, considering that for a long time it was estimated that one of the burnout was due to the stress of people overworking themselves, only for the companies they worked for to simply push harder.

Another issue that has risen with burnout is how women rather than men are being more affected by it. It’s most likely for women to suffer a burnout as they deal with a lot more stress from both work and home; particularly in an age where women are starting to gain more influence and have to work harder to show their worth while also juggling traditional roles such as motherhood.

Good news is that there is a lot more focus on preventing one from burning out, leading to innovative ways to destress and even applications programmed with the purpose of aiding users to vent out their accumulated stress.

The continued efforts of Huffington’s Thrive Global in helping educate people more on the benefits of rest and disconnecting from technology has also helped it stand out, having organised workshops focused on participant’s needs to “unplug” from technology to relax and get some proper rest. After all, always being glued to our phones or computers can also create burnout if our brains are forever active.

We certainly hope that more such companies will keep flourishing and spread the message about holistic health and thus, preventing burnout. After all, overworking ourselves isn’t good for our health and we must learn to unwind once in a while.

Photo Credits: AdWeek, Poynter