CEO burnout may be visible. The CEO of Calm, the world’s leading sleep and meditation app, said business leaders are losing sleep, feeling burned out and considering quitting their jobs. But when asked how they are doing, they say they are doing very well.
Calm CEO David Ko, speaking to an audience at the Fortune Brainstorm AI conference earlier this month, said his company conducted a survey of more than 250 senior executives and asked them a simple question: “How are you?”
“Most people said they were doing good,” Ko said.
But when Ko analyzed measures of well-being, from whether leaders felt anxious or depressed to whether they were mentally present at work, the results were very different: 48% of respondents said they were overwhelmed, and a quarter said they felt anxiety or depression. Additionally, 34% said they were mentally exhausted and 40% reported being unable to be mentally present at work. Half of survey participants said they were considering resigning from their position.
Ko also asked leaders to compare their energy to that of a battery, arguing that it is a more accessible metric for individuals to assess their mental health. Only one in four executives say their batteries are “fully charged”.
“Most leaders, like in this room, operate at about 20 percent,” Ko said. “Think about what that means.”
The Cost of CEO Burnout
Burnout, experienced by the majority of executives in small and medium-sized businesses, can not only cause executives to take more sick leave, increase absenteeism and increase turnover, but it can also eat into companies’ bottom lines. A study published by the American Journal of Preventive Medicine in April found that burned-out workers can cost an average of $3,999 per hourly worker and up to more than $20,000 per manager. The social contagion effect, whereby employees pick up on the mood of their colleague or boss, can lead to a “downward spiral” for the entire office, according to human resources experts.
Ko said companies that have invested in mental health interventions report less burnout, higher returns on investment and greater engagement. Nearly 85% of those surveyed by Calm said they believe mental health has a direct impact on a company’s bottom line.
The CEO said mental health interventions, such as using a mindfulness app like Calm, can help employees manage AI-related anxiety, especially amid growing concerns about AI displacing human workers. According to a February Pew Research Center report, more than half of employees surveyed said they were concerned about the future impact of technology in the workplace. Calm, for its part, has integrated AI-guided meditations into its app, and Ko suggested that its mindfulness app can not only alleviate AI anxiety through mindfulness, but also by allowing users to interact directly with the AI.
“In a world currently being transformed by AI, organizations are realizing that our greatest assets are not just technology,” he said. “It’s the people behind them.”
