Work overload happens when employees receive more tasks than can practically be completed in the available time and energy. This leads to increased stress and decreased productivity. Work overload is exacerbated by a hustle culture and the prevailing "rise and grind" mentality, which endorses extreme productivity and working hours. This constant expectation of extended hours puts employees at greater risk of burnout, stress, heart disease, and stroke. Over time, this negatively affects employee creativity and motivation, diminishing the overall performance of the business.
To combat work overload, organisations first have to identify early warning signs and plan ahead. Realistically assess deadlines, prioritise work, and allocate time. Work management tools can also help fairly distribute work and lower the pressure of tasks each day. A work-life balance protects employee wellness while allowing for consistency in productive time and work quality. According to a Gallup poll, 23% of full-time employees often or always feel burnt out, while another 44% experience it sometimes.
Work overload is a situation in which work tasks or responsibilities exceed the time, energy, or resources available to employees, resulting in increased stress, fatigue, and reduced productivity. Work overload often arises as a result of unrealistic timelines, excessive duties, or poor management of workloads.
Any person in the workforce can experience workplace overload, from self-employed professionals to employees tasked with excessive expectations. Employee overload results in frustration, negative health outcomes, burnout, and reduced performance, particularly once workload overload becomes normalised within workplace culture. Employee overload can be qualitative (task expectations that exceed the employee's skills) or quantitative (engagement in too much work for the amount of time available), and both create harm to workplace morale and productivity.
Reasons that relate to work overload include hustle culture, stagnated wages, and increasing costs, exacerbated by weak management practices. When employees' priorities are unclear, career roles are slippery, and employees are fearful that speaking up will lead to poor workplace responses, workloads become exaggerated into 80-100-hour work weeks, chronic stress, and serious health implications, if not addressed directly and repeatedly.
Excessive workload often develops from a combination of poor management practices as well as factors associated with an individual that push employees to go beyond their limits. Some of the main causes of excess workload are further listed and discussed below.
When deadlines are very tight, employees have constant urgency to get things done. Employees feel pressured to complete tasks quickly, leading to mistakes, increased stress, and eventual exhaustion.
It is a direct cause of excessive workload when the employee fosters a work environment where individual employees have more tasks than they are able to complete during the typical workday. This results in reduced productivity over time and will impact mental and physical health.
When managers do not have a good delegation system in place, some of the employees will have much more on their plates, while others will feel unequally underutilised. This adds fatigue and frustration for already overwhelmed employees.
Employees who fear job loss might continue to accept unreasonable workloads with little objection. The fear of speaking up does not allow them to set limits and adds to long-term stress or burnout.
Without obvious business goals, employees are working toward too many projects at once, including tasks that offer little value. When there is no guidance, they are working longer hours to make up for this inefficiency.
The effect of workload extends beyond having tired employees and can negatively affect productivity, morale, and reputation in the marketplace. Here are the consequences:
Employees who are overworked can't keep up a pace that is sustainable, leading to lower productivity. Later deadlines are being missed, and the work quality of the employee is declining.
When employees are overworked, they rush through project deadlines, skip important work, and pay less attention to detail. This results in mistakes, poor quality, and wasted money.
Consistent overload of work can create stress, burnout, and employee health issues. Sometimes this can lead to absenteeism and health problems that are more serious.
Overloaded employees lead to a high turnover rate , as employees leave for better opportunities. Other workers become more absent in general, are late to work, or frequently take days off only to recover.
Workplaces that become known for overload may develop a negative image for their company culture, creating difficulties in finding quality workers or keeping their employees. This also reduces the credibility of providing services to clients and their trust in a known missed deadline and loss of potential revenue.
Work overload can manifest in countless forms and often becomes a part of the workplace’s daily routines until it feels routine. Below are some actual examples that show how workplace overload can slip into our daily responsibilities.
Raj is a project manager and handles multiple deadlines every week. He skips lunch breaks to keep going, continues to work late nights, and checks emails after hours. As a result, he feels exhausted and overwhelmed.
Meera is a customer support associate. The supervisor assigned her a larger-than-standard number of calls and tickets from the rest of the team. Meera tries her best to work through them, but becomes frustrated as she can never keep up, runs late and makes mistakes.
Arjun is a marketing associate who takes on additional tasks his employer gives him to show his loyalty and dedication. Over time, his weekends vanish into team planning meetings, and his relationships suffer as work fills his free time.
Managing a large workload entails careful planning, open communication, and supportive procedures. To handle work overload, managers and employees should use realistic strategies to reduce risks, find practical solutions, and address the long-term effects of overwork. Here are some key methods to avoid work overload and promote a more positive work environment:
Communicate clearly about when and how you're reachable via instant message or email, so you reduce interruptions after hours. A policy discouraging non-critical communication outside work hours helps team members recharge. It also allows them to manage tasks more effectively.
Meetings can take up a large amount of time that could have been spent directly working without interruption. Replace needless synchronous communication with asynchronous options like Slack or Loom so team members can engage when it fits their schedule.
Invite team members to work on priority tasks, one at a time. Focused, single tasking eliminates mistakes, allows for high-quality production, and helps convey a sense of ownership over the amount of work being accomplished.
Use a project management tool like Time Champ to visualise tasks and workloads during regular team meetings and stand-ups. Visualising workloads helps teams discuss fair task distribution. It prevents members from over-committing without others knowing they are overloaded.
Arrange and prioritise your assignments according to your capability and skill set and encourage consistent check-ins to detect any overload early. Make sure there is open communication and provide employees with tools and resources that allow them to efficiently maintain productivity.
