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CEO burnout may be hiding in plain sight. The CEO of Calm, the world\u2019s top sleep and meditation app, said business leaders are losing sleep, feeling drained, and contemplating quitting their jobs. But when asked how they are, they say they\u2019re doing just fine.<\/p>\n
Calm chief executive David Ko, speaking to an audience at the Fortune Brainstorm AI conference earlier this month, said his company did a survey of more than 250 C-suite executives, and posed a simple question to them: \u201cHow are you doing?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMost people said that they were doing good,\u201d Ko said.<\/p>\n
But when Ko broke down wellness metrics, from if leaders felt anxious or depressed to mentally present at work, the results were starkly different: 48% of respondents reported being overwhelmed, and a quarter said they were feeling anxiety or depression. Moreover, 34% said they were mentally drained, and 40% reported being unable to be mentally present on the job. Half of the survey participants said they thought of stepping down from their positions.<\/p>\n
Ko also asked executives to compare their energy to a battery, arguing it\u2019s a more accessible metric for individuals to assess their mental health. Only one in four executives said their batteries were \u201cfully recharged.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMost leaders, like in this room, are operating at about 20%,\u201d Ko said. \u201cThink about what that means.\u201d<\/p>\n
Burnout, which the majority of small-to-medium business executives report feeling, can not only result in leaders taking more sick days, higher absenteeism, and greater turnover, but can also gnaw at companies\u2019 bottom lines. A study published by the American Journal of Preventive Medicine in April found burned-out workers can cost a workplace an average of $3,999 per hourly worker, and up to more than $20,000 per executive. The social contagion effect, in which employees pick up on the mood of their colleague or superior, can result in a \u201cdownward spiral\u201d for the whole office, human resources experts said.<\/p>\n
Ko said companies that have invested in mental health interventions report less burnout, higher returns in investments, and greater engagement. Nearly 85% of individuals Calm surveyed reported believing mental health directly impacts a company\u2019s bottom line.<\/p>\n
The CEO said mental health interventions, such as using a mindfulness app like Calm, can help employees process AI anxiety, particularly amid growing concerns of AI displacing human workers. According to a Pew Research Center report from February, more than half of employees surveyed said they\u2019re worried about the impact of the technology in the workplace in the future. Calm, for its part, has integrated AI-guided meditations into its app, and Ko suggested his mindfulness app can not only alleviate AI anxiety through mindfulness, but also by having users engage with AI directly.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn a world that\u2019s currently being transformed by AI, organizations are realizing that our greatest assets aren\u2019t just the technology,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s the people behind them.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
#Calm #CEO #business #leaders #operating<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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