The Wellness Perspective — Employees Who are Overwhelmed by their To-do List
The Wellness Perspective – Employees Who Are Overwhelmed by Their To-Do List
When deliverables are late, emails go unanswered, and team members look visibly overwhelmed, it can be frustrating for leaders.
You might start to wonder if they are disorganised.
Are they dropping the ball?
Do they just not care enough?
Some of the things you might have observed are:
🔴 Deadlines slipping or last-minute rushes
🔴 Complaints that they never reply to emails
🔴 Visible overwhelm - “I’m so busy” becoming a constant narrative
🔴 Increasing sick days or mental health days
🔴 A sense that they are always working, even after-hour, yet never quite on top of things
While these behaviours can be discouraging, they often stem from deeper reasons.
I have no ideas what they are working on - what's keeping them so busy??
What’s Really Going On?
In my Anderson Model of Burnout and Personal Recovery™, this pattern usually sits in the shift from the Activation → Over-Functioning → Depletion zones
These employees are not underperforming because they lack care.
They are over-functioning.
They are trying to keep up with demands that exceed their available time, energy, or support.
Burnout doesn’t start with disengagement. It often starts with high standards.
On the surface, it might seem like they simply lack time-management skills or discipline. However, there are often deeper issues contributing to their struggle:
🌿 Excessively high personal standards They review everything. They stay across everything. They fear being blamed for errors. They struggle to let go of control.
🌿 Lack of prioritisation skills They may never have been taught how to distinguish urgent from important. Everything feels equally critical.
🌿 Meeting overload and CC culture They attend meetings they don’t need to attend. They read emails they don’t need to read. They don’t realise permission exists to opt out.
🌿 Poor self-regulation under stress When the nervous system is overloaded, cwe can't think clearly. Simple decisions feel hard. They can’t “see” the solution, even if it’s obvious from the outside.
When demands consistently outweigh internal and external resources, the nervous system remains activated. That’s sustainable for short bursts. Not long term.
You might feel like you are doing everything you can to support them, yet they don't seem to see this.
How It Affects Performance
When over-functioning continues unchecked, it can trigger some or all of the three Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI™) dimensions:
Exhaustion – mental and physical fatigue
Cynicism or detachment – emotional withdrawal
Reduced sense of accomplishment – feeling like nothing is ever enough
In the workplace, this shows up as:
Errors
Delays
Conflicts
Presenteeism or absenteeism
Emotional reactivity
All of these deeper reasons can trigger exactly what leaders see on the surface: Disorganisation. Frustration. Missed deadlines. Slowed output.
But the root cause is often unmanaged energy and unclear systems.
What Employees Actually Need
Most overwhelmed employees don’t need pressure, and they don't need leadership training.
They need protective skills. Self-leadership skills.
Specifically:
– Stress regulation
– Energy management
– Boundaries
– Self-leadership
Recovery begins when individuals recognise their patterns and learn to interrupt them early.
That requires skills, not shame.
How Coaching Helps
Coaching addresses both internal drivers and external contributors. It restores internal resources and reduces perceived demands. It helps employees move from reactive to intentional.
Here is how we do it:
🎯 Reframe urgency
Teaching employees to identify a maximum of three real priorities at a time, and how to distinguish urgent from important, to reduce cognitive overload immediately.
🎯 Interrupt over-functioning habits
We address shiny object syndrome, meeting overload, "c.c." culture, and perfectionism. Employees learn where they are leaking energy.
🎯 Build sustainable systems
From habits to delegation, and boundaries to communication channels, we create tailored burnout prevention strategies that build long-term resilience.
Why This Matters
When employees constantly feel behind, their nervous system never settles.
..and when their nervous system never settles, their performance eventually drops.
But when teams have:
Clear priorities
Permission to opt out of unnecessary meetings
Healthy delegation practices
Agreed response-time expectations
Strong energy management and self-leadership skills
They become calmer, clearer, and more effective.
Burnout prevention is not a wellbeing luxury. It is a performance strategy. But you know this, right?
What leaders can do
As a starting point, organisations can:
1️⃣ Have the conversation early. Ask: “Do you feel there are tasks you’re doing that you shouldn’t be doing?” Give explicit permission to question workload and meeting attendance.
2️⃣ Clarify communication boundaries. Agree on reasonable email response times. Define what urgent actually means. Review the "c.c." culture.
3️⃣ Conduct a delegation and meeting audit. Which meetings are essential? Which can be summaries? Where is energy being lost unnecessarily?
Sometimes the most powerful intervention is simply giving permission.
Do you Recognise this Challenge in Your Workplace?
Have you noticed capable employees looking increasingly overwhelmed, reactive, or behind?
Coaching bridges the gap between the surface problem and its root cause — unlocking practical solutions that create sustainable change.
If you would like to explore how burnout prevention can strengthen performance in your workplace, let’s have a conversation about how we can support you and your team.
✨ Let us know how we can support you and your team through our coaching and mentoring programs.
👉 Learn more about how Cairns Coaching can support your workplace with The Wellness Blueprint Program, personal coaching packages and speaking.
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About the Author
Hi! I’m Sophie, and I’m so glad you’re here.
I help people build resilience to prevent burnout. I help them rebuild sustainable energy, habits, and mindset - one small, practical shift at a time.
We all have the power to improve our life and to be happier and healthier in both work and life.
I’m here to help you do exactly that.
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