Workload for Wellbeing: Getting beyond the trade off
Workload versus wellbeing
As Professor Jarrod Haar described New Zealand workplaces in 2023 when commenting on his burnout research, “We are a place that rewards productivity. So if you are a productive person you get rewarded with more work.”
No-one plans for someone to break. We simply keep reaping the short term gain while hoping that today won’t be the day we feel the long term pain.
That long term pain will come, just please not today.
A construction supervisor told me that he knows he asks more of the same few people, over and over, because they are the experienced, highly skilled people he needs more of, but doesn’t have. They are reliable and loyal to him and will keep doing what he asks. He feels awful about it and doesn’t want to keep putting himself or them in that situation, but under high pressure for delivery now, he feels trapped.
It’s not only in construction, it’s how we run so many workplaces: Offices, hospitals, schools, the list goes on. We don’t need to look hard to find this scenario playing out somewhere.
In April 2023, Haar’s research showed that workload was the most significant factor contributing to high levels of burnout risk. More recently, in the 2025 Construction Industry Well-being Survey, the top site-based stressor was high workload.
We trade workload for wellbeing.
What if we break?
The breaking point comes in many forms of ugly. Sometimes people burnout, taking months or even years to recover. Others develop physical health issues, like chronic back pain, while many experience the toll on their mental health.
Sometimes it’s even worse. As reported in the 2025 Construction Industry Well-being Survey, “Every week, more than one construction worker dies by suicide, and a further 31 workers take time off due to self-harm.”
We can’t keep putting ourselves, those we work with and those we love in this short term bind. Hoping that “today won’t be the day” that we pay the long term price is failing all of us. It’s breaking too many of us.
What if we brake?
The solution isn’t easy, of course. If it was all the good people out there would already be doing it. But the status quo isn’t easy either. No-one is enjoying this situation or feeling good about it. As Devon Brough’s famous poem puts it, “Choose your hard”.
We must put the brakes on and stem the flow of chronically high workloads. We must allow others to put the brakes on too.
This at least brings respite, and is the first thing to do, not the only thing. Putting the brakes on, taking a rest, only to come back to the environment that broke you, isn’t a solution. It’s folly.
Redesign for wellbeing (and you’ll get productivity for free)
The brakes come on to create space for redesign. If we are able to put some longer term solutions in place we will start to change the workplace. We can design the work for wellbeing and no longer trade it in for workload. By redesigning for wellbeing we get productivity for free, as people work at their best, delivering more and better than ever before.
In the work I do every day there are some reliable options for us to redesign with confidence. Here are just three to get you started.
Training: When there is a robust, non-negotiable training programme for people to learn more skills they become yet another superstar in your team. This takes the pressure off the one or two carrying the load and everyone has more choices about the work they do, when and how much they do it.
Creative work schedules: More people, especially our site-based workforce, need more choices about when and how much they work. Just like the hybrid workforce now has more choice than ever before in how they fit home life and work life together, we need to offer more creative roster options to our frontline.
Focus on retention, not recruitment: When teams are in this bind, it’s tempting to put all your energy into recruiting more people. The problem here is you’re bringing hopeful people into a system set up to break them. Instead, focus your attention on retaining the people you already have (e.g. with training and creative work schedules) and recruitment will start taking care of itself, as people stay longer and recommend it as a better place to work.
We don’t have to stay stuck in this cycle of trading workload for wellbeing. It’s hard to change, but it’s even harder to stay stuck. Let’s allow ourselves to put the brakes on, redesign for wellbeing and watch our productivity rise.