How workplace systems create burnout
Introduction
When people talk about burnout, workload is usually the first thing mentioned.
Looking back, I don't think workload was the whole story for me.
Yes, there was a lot to do. But I think the systems I was working within played a much bigger role than I realised at the time.
A lot of teachers leave teaching citing workload and burnout as the main reasons. Reflecting on my own experience, there were many threads that led me to quit my job, but the systems and environment of the workplace were a big part of it. They were systems and an environment that I couldn't ever see truly working for me.
Once I realised that, I knew something had to change.
Looking beyond education, workplace stress appears to be a growing issue across many industries. Gallup's State of the Global Workplace research found that 41% of employees report experiencing significant daily stress at work.
Everything Felt Urgent
In education – and I can only speak from my experience in primary education – everything feels important.
Obviously, everything relating to the children matters. That's why teachers do what they do.
Their:
safety
wellbeing
progress
relationships
mental health
physical health
equal opportunities
But there are many other responsibilities too. Just some of the things teachers are responsible for include:
lesson planning
creating or sourcing resources
assessments
marking
displays
data analysis
interventions
parent communication
SEND provision
professional development
safeguarding
GDPR
mandatory training
I could write a list much longer than this.
Everything felt urgent.
All the time.
It often felt like I was carrying a hundred spinning plates and trying to convince myself they were all under control.
My ADHD probably amplified these challenges, but many of the systems themselves would have been difficult for anyone to sustain long term.
When people aren't clear about what matters most, what can wait and what success actually looks like, overwhelm becomes much more likely.
The World Health Organization identifies excessive demands and low levels of control over work as factors that can negatively affect mental wellbeing.
Looking back, I think part of the challenge wasn't simply the volume of work. It was the feeling that everything demanded attention at once.
Constant Interruptions and Switching Tasks
In any one lesson there could be a multitude of things happening.
At the same time as teaching, your brain is often trying to remember:
what needs doing later today
what needs doing this week
what you've forgotten
what's due next term
For example, after morning break you could be teaching maths while all of the following is happening:
Someone fell over and needs a scraped knee cleaning.
Children are filing in and behaviour needs managing.
Someone is crying.
The interactive whiteboard isn't working.
A teaching assistant has a question.
A child is being collected for an appointment.
The PE lead needs to pass on a message.
The fire alarm goes off.
Assembly is about to start.
At the time, I assumed this was simply part of teaching.
Now I realise many workplaces face similar challenges, it’s just the interruptions may look different:
Emails.
Teams messages.
Slack notifications.
Meetings.
Quick questions.
Phone calls.
But the impact on concentration can be surprisingly similar.
Recent research from Microsoft's Work Trend Index found that many workers are interrupted roughly every two minutes by meetings, messages, emails or notifications.
While my examples come from a classroom, the challenge of constantly switching attention appears to be increasingly common across many workplaces.
Too Many Decisions
At any one time within a classroom there are a multitude of decisions to make.
I remember having conversations with other teachers in the staff room about how teaching creates huge amounts of decision overwhelm.
Psychologists often refer to this as decision fatigue – the mental exhaustion that can come from making large numbers of decisions throughout the day.
There are the big decisions:
behaviour management
safeguarding
lesson design
communication with parents
curriculum planning
And then there are the hundreds of smaller ones.
Missing pencils.
Lost jumpers.
Display boards.
Resources.
Timetables.
School trips.
None of these decisions are particularly difficult on their own.
The challenge is the sheer number of them.
Then there are the decisions that follow you home.
When will you mark those books?
Should you do the assessment analysis now or after half term?
Can you fit in a family walk this weekend?
A trip to the cinema?
A date night?
Little by little, those decisions consume energy.
No Genuine Recovery Time
Teachers receive time each week for preparation, planning and assessment.
If you work full-time, that usually means one afternoon out of class.
In reality, that time can easily be filled with:
meetings
planning
resource preparation
assessments
marking
catch-up work
For me, lunchtimes often involved eating while checking emails, squeezing in as much marking as possible and then having a quick cup of tea before heading back into the classroom.
There was no real recovery.
Just a quick breath before the next thing.
After school there might be:
parent conversations
staff meetings
training
planning
Then it was home.
Collect the children.
Swimming lessons.
Brownies.
Tea.
Bath.
Book.
Bed.
Then, once everyone else was asleep, I'd often get the marking out and start preparing for the next day.
Where was the recovery?
We often talk about productivity, but productive people need opportunities to recover too.
Recovery isn't the opposite of productivity.
It's what makes sustainable productivity possible.
Microsoft recently described the rise of the "infinite workday", where work increasingly spills into personal time through emails, messages and unfinished tasks.
Looking back, that idea resonates strongly with my own experience of finishing one role only to begin another at home.
What Employers Can Learn
Teaching is hard and, of course, I have exaggerated some examples to make a point.
Supportive leadership teams absolutely help.
Good systems help.
Good colleagues help.
But things still crop up.
Looking beyond education, these challenges don't appear to be unique to teaching. Recent HR research from Sage found that many leaders feel increasingly consumed by processes and administrative demands, with rising levels of stress and burnout reported across the profession.
That raises an important question:
Are our systems helping people perform at their best, or are they becoming part of the problem?
One simple change that helped in schools was having "Do Not Disturb" signs available after school so staff could focus without feeling rude.
Everyone needs uninterrupted time for focused work, don't they?
To reduce decision overwhelm, employers might also consider providing examples, templates and clear frameworks.
Teachers often use something called a WAGOLL — "What A Good One Looks Like."
Having a clear example removes uncertainty, reduces procrastination and helps people get started.
The same principle can apply to:
documents
processes
workflows
communication
Clarity matters too.
People need to know:
what the priorities are
what success looks like
how long something should take
when it's needed by
Before asking employees to be more resilient, organisations may need to ask whether their systems are creating unnecessary friction in the first place.
Three Questions Every Employer Could Ask
Are priorities genuinely clear?
Do people have uninterrupted time to complete focused work?
Are we rewarding outcomes or rewarding sacrifice?
Final Thoughts
Work itself isn't necessarily the problem.
Sometimes it's the way work is designed, organised and experienced that slowly drains people's energy over time.
Before we ask people to become more resilient, perhaps we need to ask whether the systems around them are helping them thrive in the first place.
Sources
Gallup: State of the Global Workplace 2024
Microsoft Work Trend Index
World Health Organization: Mental Health at Work
Sage: The Changing Face of HR
