Overwhelmed at work: how a manager can help
An overwhelmed person often keeps saying yes while they fall behind. Telling them to take it easy does not help. What helps is a clear look at their work and a decision from you about what goes.
Updated
Start by listing everything
Ask them to write down everything they are carrying, with who is waiting on each item. Do it together, in one sitting.
You will often find work you did not know about.
Decide what goes
- What can wait until later this month?
- What can someone else do?
- What can stop altogether?
- Which deadline can move?
Make the decision yourself
Do not ask an overwhelmed person to choose what to drop. They will say they can manage it all. You hold the priorities, so you decide, and you tell the people who are waiting.
Watch for the cause
One busy week is normal. If it keeps happening, look for the reason.
- Are they the only person who can do certain work?
- Are they waiting on others, so everything stacks up?
- Do they find it hard to say no?
- Is the team too small for the work?
Check again
After a week, ask: "Is it lighter? What is still too much?" If nothing has changed, take more off.
The signals behind this guide
- How to tell if a team member is overloaded
Someone is working too much.
- How to tell if someone on your team is blocked
Someone is stuck waiting on a teammate.
- How to tell if someone could take on more work
Someone has had much less of their own work than usual, and could take on more.
More guides
- Why employees leave and the signs before they go
Why employees leave, the changes a manager can see before someone resigns, and how to start the conversation while there is still time.
- Quiet quitting: the signs, and what to do
What quiet quitting looks like on a team, how it differs from a quiet week, and how a manager can respond without blame.
- One on one questions to ask your team
One on one questions for every part of a 1:1 meeting: workload, the team, growth and you as their manager. Plus what to talk about, and a simple agenda.
- Employee recognition: how to thank good work
Employee recognition that costs nothing: how to notice the work that deserves thanks, how to say it so it lands, and ideas to make sure nobody is missed.
- Signs of burnout at work a manager can see
The signs of burnout at work a manager can see early are about the work: late nights, no breaks, no say. What to look for, what to say, what to change.
- Signs an employee is secretly struggling
The work changes that show someone may be struggling, why they hide it, and how a manager can ask in a way that gets an honest answer.
- How to tell if an employee is disengaged
What disengaged looks like day to day, how it differs from a bad week, and how a manager can find the reason and respond without blame.
- Bus factor: how to find it and raise it
Your bus factor is how many people could leave before work stops. How to find the one person your team relies on, and how to spread what they know.
- How to support an employee returning from leave
What to do before, on and after someone's first day back from leave, so they can catch up without being rushed or left out.
- Employee onboarding: a 90-day plan
A practical plan for a new hire's first days and first 90 days: what to prepare, who they should meet, and what to check on each week.
- Performance review examples for managers
Performance review examples you can adapt for results, teamwork, growth and problems, a short template, and how to write a fair review from facts.
- Employee retention: how to keep your best people
What employee retention depends on, why good people leave, and the habits that keep them: fair workload, real growth and a manager who notices.
- Team health check: how to run one
How to run a team health check in half an hour: what to ask, how to get honest answers, what to do with the result, and what to watch between checks.
- First time manager: what to do first
A plan for a first time manager: meet each person, learn how the team works, start one on ones, and avoid the mistakes most new managers make.
Ready when you are
A quieter morning, starting in your inbox.
Connect the tools your team already uses. Sonarwork reads the past of the ones that keep one, so there is something to look at on day one. Then every weekday morning, the brief lands.
No card · Invite only right now