Dealing with Chronically Overworked Employees

Summary: When Enough is Enough: Stress and a Culture of Overwork. This opinion blog discusses just how counterproductive overwork is and offers tips on how to recognise and manage it.

“Leisure is only possible when we are at one with ourselves. We tend to overwork as a means of self-escape, as a way of trying to justify our existence” (Josef Pieper)

Employee stress levels are now past breaking point. With the increasing demands of modern work, instances of employee burnout are set to get even higher due to increased competition, job cuts/cost reduction, over-ambitious business targets and increasing expectations to do more with less. 

Competitive or ‘over engaged’ individuals have an unhealthy tendency to work crazy hours regardless of exhaustion, stress, and the potential detriment on their physical and mental health. They will do whatever is required to meet ever more unreasonable targets and get the job done. This is not the sort of unsustainable employee engagement culture that we seek in organisations.

Unfortunately work, rather than enhancing and preserving human dignity, is becoming the primary cause of poor mental health among employees: stress, depression and anxiety. It affects employees’ psychological and emotional wellbeing and is the single biggest cause of long-term sickness absence and increased turnover in the workplace. Yet, managers do not realise that the largest cost of mental ill health occurs through presenteeism – i.e. those employees who come to work whilst unwell, displaying sub-optimal performance and productivity.

Dealing with the Culture of Overwork

Overwork is not achieving what organisations assume it does. Overwork is not sustainable and will negatively affect the engagement levels of your employees and their subsequent performance. Managers will not get more done by pushing employees harder. It is not efficient to work more than 40 hours per week, it does not result in more and better business outputs/results. Work-related performance is optimised at moderate, and not at high, levels of ‘encouragement’. Work-related stress is the adverse reaction people experience when presented with work demands that outweigh the available resources to cope with them. 

People managers want employees to put in long days, respond to their emails/be on call at all hours and willingly donate their off-hours — nights, weekends, holidays — without complaining. The so-called ‘work martyrs’ give hundreds of hours in free labour to their employers every year. Some organisations even keep ‘Desk Counts’ after 7 pm as a ‘performance indicator’ to make sure they are making ‘good use’ of their ‘resources’ - shame on them!

I still do not understand why people choose to work through nights, weekends and holidays? Is it the overall corporate culture where overwork cascades from the top of the organisational pyramid to the bottom? Economic incentives? Always-on gadget technology that keeps the office just a tap away? Ambition? Greed? Machismo? Anxiety? Guilt? Fear of losing their job? Enjoyment? Pride? Short-term rewards? A desire to prove they are important? An over-developed sense of duty?

Whatever it is, trading sleep or personal time for unpaid work is obviously a bad deal for employees, but there's a growing body of evidence that even apparently ‘free’ labour might not be a good deal for an employer’s bottom line either.

Signs and symptoms of excessive workplace stress

In terms of productivity, it has been proven that there is a negative relationship between overwork and productivity. Research has found that employee output falls after a solid 45-hour work-week, and falls off a mountain after 55 hours. Longer hours are also connected to absenteeism, employee turnover and general work dissatisfaction – we all know this, right?

In terms of employee wellbeing, overwork and the resulting stress can lead to all sorts of health problems including impaired sleep, depression, diabetes, impaired memory, anxiety disorders, headaches, musculo-skeletal pain, reduced immune response and heart disease.

Sometimes you wonder why employee morale is low? When employees feel overwhelmed at work, they lose confidence and may become angry, irritable or withdrawn. Other signs and symptoms of excessive stress at work include: anxiety, depression, apathy, loss of interest in work, noticeable fatigue, trouble concentrating, muscle tension or headaches, stomach problems, social withdrawal - some employees may even use alcohol or drugs to cope. Stress and the ultimate loss of coping can manifest in so many different internal and external ways, depending on the individual. So, yes, it is time for employers to manage their employees’ work conditions/workload and wellbeing better.

Employer's responsibilities

Organisations have an obligation to identify, monitor and manage any work-related stress problems. The law requires organisations to actively manage the workplace to try to control potential causes of work-related stress. The process of risk assessment, as well as being required by law, provides a simple and effective method for preventing the day-to-day pressure of work from becoming excessive. Employers have a duty to:

• Identify significant and foreseeable risks to employee health (including instances of bullying and harassment).
• Prevent harm to employee health that is foreseeable and caused by work (including physical safety at work).
• Consider any physical or mental impairment that has a substantial or long-term effect on their ability to work, and subsequently offer reasonable adjustments.
• Consult with employees on health and safety matters regularly (including employee wellbeing surveys).

Employers committed to reducing work related stress need to have a strategy as well as specific mental health policies in place, which ensure that any workplace risk assessments specifically address stress, make sure that workloads are monitored and offer genuine flexible working opportunities. Employers should put all these responsibilities in writing. These should be included in the employee’s handbook, along with other related policies and procedures.

Guidelines to avoid stress and overwork in the workplace

The six main risk factors for stress can be summarised as demands, control, support, change, role and relationships. Amongst the most common causes of excessive workplace stress are: bad line management, fear of being laid off, more overtime due to staff cutbacks, pressure to perform to meet rising expectations, increased pressure to work at optimum levels all the time, lack of control over how employees do their own work, poor technology, bullying, harassment, lack of support networks and work underload: dull, repetitive, unrewarding work with no prospects of personal and professional growth. Excessive workload pressures (such as deadlines and levels of responsibility) and a lack of managerial support are cited as the main factors causing work-related stress.

In this respect, line-managers can intervene to lower workplace stress. Regardless of business ambitions or work demands, there are concrete steps that can be taken to protect employees from the damaging effects of stress, improve their job satisfaction and enhance their wellbeing in and out of the workplace:

1. Show that individual workers are valued. Signposting is key. Provide information about burnout and how employees can prevent and cope with it. Employers can provide access to confidential counselling through employee assistance programmes.
2. Reduce job stress by planning and prioritising. Assign realistic tasks and deadlines to employees. Increase their effectiveness and overall work impact by training employees on time management skills and techniques.
3. Allocate projects that match employees’ preferences and personality. Allow employees to work and innovate on satellite projects of their own preference that are linked to the company’s core business.
4. Keep reasonable working hours – don’t encourage your employees to work more than 40 hours per week. Encourage your employees to take their lunch break as well as 15-minute breaks throughout the day.
5. Don’t stretch your team too thin, ensure there are enough resources to handle the workload. Make sure that the physical infrastructure, tools, technology and resources are right for employees to be able to perform.
6. Clearly define employees’ roles and responsibilities. Train your employees properly, confirm that they know their jobs well. Ensure that each team member understands and has a well-defined role in each project.
7. Provide ample line-manager support – ensure managers spend time getting to know each employee on a personal level. Always recognise and reward good performance, showing that individual workers are valued. Empower employees to speak up and become involved in decision-making.
8. Encourage co-operation and teamwork culture. Ensure everybody is supportive of each other. Encourage socialisation to ensure team bonding. Establish a zero-tolerance policy for bullying and harassment.
9. Make communication friendly and efficient. Share information with employees to reduce uncertainty about their jobs and futures. Give workers opportunities to participate in decisions that affect their jobs. Ensure your actions and behaviour are consistent with organisational values.
10. Get the little things right. Provide opportunities for social interaction among employees. Make sure there is enough food in the office kitchen. Surprise the team with treats for specific achievements. Create a fun work environment, encourage good times and laughs. Get some dart boards, ping pong/pool tables, allow people to bring in pets, etc.

Protecting employees from the damaging effects of stress involves not only ensuring the existence of resources and support pathways for struggling employees, but building an open, understanding and destigmatised culture around workplace mental health. Rather than simply organising occasional ‘mental health awareness days’ when work stress related issues are suddenly identified (and sadly then swept right back under the carpet), the best workplaces in the UK take a more holistic cultural approach around ensuring ongoing awareness and continuous support campaigns for all their employees throughout the year.

The way forward…

To boost productivity, organisations need to abandon the culture of overworking and adopt a hands-on approach / invest more in structured wellbeing programmes that prevent work-related stress, ill health and depression among employees.

Unfortunately, many organisations still fail to act on this front. In practice, the first step in managing work-related stress involves surveying employees through a range of quantitative and qualitative research tools and techniques. The results of this research will help develop a well-informed wellbeing strategy, which is to be followed by the implementation of specific HR policies, programs and practices to support it. Naturally, employee stress levels, potential risks to health and wellbeing, and the subsequent impact on engagement must continuously be monitored, acting accordingly where these risks become evident.

Although employers have legal responsibilities to ensure a safe and healthy workplace, employees also need to be alert. They are responsible and accountable not only for their own wellbeing, but also that of their peers: these work related concerns must be communicated early on. Perhaps another important task of organisations is to create the sort of environment were employees feel comfortable and empowered to do this. 

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Disclaimer: The author is making this ‘Opinion Blog’ available in his personal effort to advance the understanding of best practices in workplace related matters. The author assumes no responsibility or liability for any errors or omissions in the content of this ‘Opinion Blog’ or for the results obtained from the use of the information provided. The information is provided on an ‘as is’ basis with no guarantees of completeness, accuracy, usefulness or timeliness and without any warranties of any kind whatsoever, express or implied. The views expressed are solely those of the author in his private capacity and do not in any way represent the views of any entity whatsoever with which the author has been, is now, or is to be affiliated in the future.