Fixing the Overload Problem at Work

Companies keep burning out their employees — and promoting ‘balance’ doesn’t help. Work redesign offers a better solution.

Erin L. Kelly and Phyllis Moen

April 27, 2020

The way that companies expect employees to work isn’t working. Despite growing awareness of widespread and chronic overload and its ill effects, companies often expect professionals and managers to be “on” well beyond traditional work hours — attending meetings at night, responding to requests on weekends and during vacations, and monitoring their phones, texts, and emails whenever they are awake.¹ Many people become exhausted and burned out struggling to meet such expectations. The result is an overwhelming, demoralizing sense that the demands ...