Signs of burnout at work a manager can see
You cannot see how someone feels. You can see how they work: how late, how often at weekends, how long since their last day off. Those facts are the earliest signs a manager has, and they are worth acting on before anyone is worn out.
Updated
The workload signs to watch
- Messages or work late at night, on most nights.
- Weekend work that grows each week.
- No day off for a month or more.
- A calendar so full of meetings that their own work moves to the evening.
- Saying yes to every request.
Watch the change, not the number
Some people always start early or finish late. That is their normal. What matters is a change from how that person usually works.
One late week before a launch is normal. Several in a row is a pattern.
What to say
Ask about the work, not about their health. A question about tasks is easier to answer honestly.
- "How is your workload feeling this week?"
- "What could wait, or go to someone else?"
- "When did you last take a proper day off?"
Take something off their plate
Telling someone to rest while their work stays the same does not help. Move a task, push a deadline or cancel a meeting, and tell them you did.
Then check again a week later.
What not to do
- Do not praise late nights. People repeat what gets praised.
- Do not diagnose anyone. You are their manager, not their doctor. Talk about the work.
- Do not wait for them to raise it. Many people never will.
The signals behind this guide
- How to tell if a team member is overloaded
Someone is working too much.
- How to welcome someone back from leave
Someone just came back from a week or more off.
- 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 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.
- Overwhelmed at work: how a manager can help
What to do when someone has too much on: how to find out what they are carrying, what to take away, and how to check that it worked.
- 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.
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