Between the long hours and the relentless travel, consultants are some of the hardest working professionals who sometimes have to sacrifice their work-life balance. And with the constant pressure to perform and win clients, the consulting industry is highly susceptible to employee burnout.
This explains why the industry sees a higher turnover rate than normal. While the average voluntary turnover rate in the U.S. stands at 13%, the consulting industry experiences annual turnover up to 20%.
Firms can keep these numbers low by addressing consulting burnout. This post provides an essential guideline to reducing burnout in the consulting industry through a workplace food program.
Consulting burnout refers to the severe mental, emotional, and physical exhaustion that consultants experience because of the intense demand of the industry.
Burnout is common because consultants are under pressure to adapt to a culture that promotes back-to-back deliverables, billable-hour models, and up-or-out advancement.
When consultants experience burnout, it can show up in the form of:
Consulting burnout may even show up in the form of physical pain, such as stomach issues and frequent headaches. As such, firms could end up dealing with a higher rate of absenteeism.
In a study of over 34,000 consultants by Consulting Success, 40% of consultants feel depressed at least occasionally. This could be linked to chronic, unmanaged burnout that’s rampant in the consulting industry.
So what exactly is behind the high rate of consulting burnout?
With the billable-hour model being the norm in consulting, it’s not uncommon to see consultants working late into the night. Employees in the “Big Three” (McKinsey, BCG, and Bain) reportedly pull an average of 55 to 65 hours per week, with some exceeding 80 hours during peak weeks.
Even smaller boutique firms average 45 to 65 hours a week. In comparison, the average workweek in the U.S. is just over 34 hours.
When work takes up most of their time, consultants have hardly enough time left for their personal and social lives. The lack of consulting work-life balance is a major reason for burnout in the industry.
The nonstop travel is another aspect of consulting that contributes to a lack of work-life balance. Reports show that consultants travel between 3 to 4 days a week on average.
That means most of their workweek is spent traveling back and forth between cities and countries. The early morning flights and the over-reliance on hotel food can take a toll on their physical and mental well-being, contributing to fatigue and burnout.
The industry culture itself puts extreme pressure on consultants to over-perform and put in long hours to keep up with their peers. This is especially true because practices like up-or-out advancement are common, where consultants are expected to grow and evolve within a certain timeframe, or they’ll be asked to leave.
As a result, they try to make themselves indispensable by always being online and taking on the extra workload. The combination of long hours and persistent mental stress will ultimately lead to consulting burnout.
So what’s the harm in consultants pulling long hours and performing their best?
More billable hours and high-performing employees mean more revenue for your firm, right? But no amount of revenue can make up for the fact that you’re hurting your primary asset, human capital, in the process.
Here’s why consulting firms should address burnout:
As you promote a healthy consulting work-life balance to reduce burnout, you build a workplace culture and experience that makes employees want to stay. This helps you keep top talent and retain experienced problem-solvers whose value increases with time. And you’re no longer draining your resources trying to replace burned-out consultants.
Need practical ideas to improve employee retention? Download our guide on Employee Retention Strategies: How Workplace Benefits Keep Top Talent.
Consultants who are constantly burned out lack focus, enthusiasm, and energy. So they’re less productive, make mistakes that are easily avoidable, and call out of work more often.
Addressing consulting burnout helps you revive the passion that employees had when they initially started the job. This will improve focus and give them the drive to come up with creative, high-value solutions for better client success.
Practices like up-or-out advancement create environments that amplify stress and push consultants to make endless sacrifices. But when firms promote flexible timings, realistic utilization caps, and recovery times, they build a culture that prioritizes work-life harmony.
This is the type of workplace culture that’s sustainable in the long run as it directly contributes to employee well-being and reduces the risk of consulting burnout.
So what can your firm realistically do to reduce burnout among consultants?
Your staffing strategy directly impacts the workload and productivity of consultants. It’s easy for employees to experience burnout when they’re constantly struggling with unfamiliar tasks in spite of their limited capacity.
Go beyond assigning projects based on practice areas. Create consultant personas so you can match real skills and working styles to specific client needs. For example:
Those late-night “urgent” emails and unnecessary weekend work will have consultants feeling constantly burned out. And it doesn’t help that clients keep asking for more without increasing the budget or adding more staff.
Setting boundaries that respect the time and energy of consultants will help you protect their well-being and reduce burnout risk. Set clear work rules like:
With long hours and heavy workloads being the norm in consulting, most consultants have the drive and mental capacity to thrive in the industry. So consulting burnout isn’t solely because of the workload. It’s when consultants feel unappreciated and undervalued for their contribution that the burnout actually surfaces.
That’s why you need a solid employee recognition program that rewards consultants for all the work they put in. The program could include perks and benefits like:
Nothing says you care about your employees like investing in their well-being. Access to healthy food, fitness facilities, and mental health resources will make your employees feel valued. But the best part is that when employees have the freedom and tools to work on their health, it directly improves their physical and mental well-being.
And that’s how you make them less susceptible to burnout.
The Consulting Success study found that consultants who maintained a very healthy diet reported feeling more motivated, sleeping more, and feeling depressed less frequently. They also tended to be in much better shape than their counterparts on a less healthy diet.
This makes the case for a robust employee nutrition program that encourages consultants to eat healthy. For instance:
Build this into a larger employee wellness program that also provides convenient access to fitness centers and mental health support. So you can effectively promote all-round wellness and reduce the risk of consulting burnout.
Between the return-to-office tension and the need for flexibility, consulting firms are in a unique bind to figure out a work model that’s mutually beneficial. But according to McKinsey, it’s not the work model that matters. About one-third of workers experience burnout across different work models, with hybrid workers experiencing it the least (28%).
While these workers were satisfied with their work arrangement, they highlighted how their overall work experience needed to improve.
Creating a daily workplace experience where consultants aren’t constantly stressed and overwhelmed is one of the key steps to reducing burnout. Comfortable spaces, updated industry tools, and collaborative work environments all contribute to a positive workplace experience.
Foster a workplace culture that encourages employees to bond and work together instead of competing with each other. When you take away the constant pressure to outperform their colleagues, you take away the unrelenting stress that contributes to burnout.
You could also look to other improvements like comprehensive food programs that support erratic work schedules. So consultants always have access to healthy and delicious food options even when they work late into the night.
Food could even be just the thing you need to bring employees together and build workplace culture. Read more in our guide on The Workplace Food Program Playbook: How to Turn Lunch into a Culture Asset.
Fooda offers a vast range of flexible food solutions that can be tailored to the unique needs of your consulting teams.
Encourage your consultants to eat a healthier diet by making nutritious food more accessible. Fooda lets you bring in Popup Restaurants to serve fresh and healthy meals daily. Local restaurants set up temporarily during lunch, so you can bring the restaurant experience right into your office without the need for special buildouts.
For a full-fledged cafeteria replacement, Orange by Fooda lets you blend resident cafes with a rotating lineup of guest restaurants. The resident option provides a steady anchor while guests bring novelty and variety to keep things exciting.
Either way, your team always has a steady selection of nutritious meals to support their well-being.
Consulting teams don’t always get to eat at the same time. There’s a junior analyst working from home, while two consultants are traveling for a client site visit. That leaves just the engagement manager with a couple of junior analysts and consultants working onsite.
Even on the days they all get to work onsite, teams don’t always have the time to step away from their desks to eat lunch.
Fooda’s Office Lunch Delivery brings you a sustainable solution that naturally adapts to the erratic schedules of your consulting team. Each team member orders their own meal, so there’s no over-ordering or under-ordering. Food arrives in a single delivery in individual boxes, allowing team members to eat at their convenience.
For those special milestone celebrations and client meetings, Fooda provides Office Event Catering services to make sure your event goes off without a hitch. Whether you need convenient boxed meals for intensive sessions or buffet-style spreads for a celebratory meal, you get to choose a catering style that matches your event.
Consulting teams need convenient access to healthy snacks to keep them fueled through long work sessions that run late into the night. Fooda Pantry lets you create a tailored snacking experience that combines micromarkets and smart vending machines with premium beverage solutions.
So consultants can always grab something nutritious like a salad or a sandwich even during sessions that stretch to midnight. They’ll also get to enjoy barista-quality brews instead of relying on stale breakroom coffee or sugary energy drinks.
Want to beat consulting burnout with a comprehensive workplace food program? Talk to Fooda today.
Why is burnout so common in consulting?
Burnout is common in consulting because long hours, constant travel, and heavy workload are the industry norm. Consultants feel extreme pressure to outperform their peers and always be available to prove that they’re indispensable.
Why do people tend to leave consulting after two or three years?
The stressful lifestyle and lack of work-life balance are major reasons why people leave consulting after a couple of years.
How do you improve consulting work-life balance?
You can improve consulting work-life balance by enforcing “off-hour” rules, supporting flexible hours, cutting down on travel, and providing workplace perks like subsidized meals and fitness facilities.
