Employee Wellness

Why are shift workers burning out faster than ever? and can be done about it? You watch your team arrive for their shift and you notice it straight away. The energy is flatter than it used to be. The quick jokes aren’t happening. Someone’s snapping at a coworker over something small. And when you ask how they’re doing, you get a tight smile and “yeah, all good” – but you know they’re not. This isn’t just a feeling. In Q3 2025, 40% of Australian employees reported feeling burnt out. For shift workers – the people who keep hospitality venues running, NDIS care services staffed, and industrial operations moving, that number climbs higher. But here’s what often gets missed: shift worker burnout isn’t the same as regular job stress. It’s unique, compounding, and it happens faster. The difference is rhythm. Office workers can predict their week. Shift workers live in fragmentation. Their body clock never settles. Social plans crumble. Sleep becomes a luxury. And if your rostering system makes it worse, changing shifts at the last minute, with no way for people to swap, no visibility into what’s coming – you’re not just managing a tired team. You’re actively building the conditions for burnout. The good news? You can change this. Not by working harder or pushing through. By actually listening to what your team needs and building a rhythm they can count on. The real cost of unpredictability Shift work is inherently unpredictable in ways that office work isn’t. Your barista doesn’t know if tomorrow will be a lunch rush or a quiet Tuesday. Your disability support worker doesn’t control which clients she’ll be caring for or how their needs might shift. That’s the nature of the work. But there’s a difference between the unavoidable uncertainty of the job itself and the uncertainty you create through poor scheduling. When rosters change without notice, when people find out their shift is cancelled 24 hours before they were supposed to work, when there’s no way to swap with a coworker who has that day off, you’re adding a layer of stress that has nothing to do with the actual work. This uncertainty has real physical consequences. Your nervous system stays in a low-level alert state. Cortisol levels stay elevated. Sleep becomes harder, even on nights when you’re technically “off”. You can’t plan anything with certainty – childcare, transport, even just a reliable dinner time. Over months, this becomes exhaustion that no amount of sleep on a weekend can fix. For team leaders and business owners, the impact is direct. Burnt-out shift workers call in sick more often. Turnover spikes, and the cost of replacing skilled hospitality, care, or industrial staff is significant. More subtly, engagement drops. People show up, do their job, and leave. The loyalty and discretionary effort that makes a team function smoothly – the person who stays late to help a struggling coworker, who mentors new staff, who takes pride in their work – that disappears. Stability doesn’t mean less flexibility Here’s where many employers get stuck. They think that fixing burnout means reducing the number of shifts people work, or locking everyone into rigid schedules. Neither is realistic or necessary. What works is predictability with flexibility. It means publishing rosters far enough in advance that people can plan their lives. It means having a clear system for shift swaps so that if something comes up, your team member can solve it themselves instead of going to a manager. It means communicating changes early, with genuine notice, not at the last minute. Some of the most engaged shift teams we’ve seen are ones where the roster is clear three weeks out. They know roughly what they’re working, they can arrange childcare or transport or social plans. And when something does need to change, it’s handled transparently, ideally with the team member’s input. The paradox is that this kind of stability actually makes your rostering more flexible, not less. When people have visibility and control, when they can offer available shifts to the team, when they can see what’s coming and adjust, they’re more willing to pick up extra work when you genuinely need them. When people feel like their schedule is done to them, not with them, they become defensive. They’ll say no to extra shifts. They’ll look for another job. They’ll burn out. What this looks like in practice A hospitality group in Brisbane started seeing the same pattern. Good staff, decent pay, but turnover was high and the remaining team looked exhausted. They made three changes. First, they moved to publishing rosters two weeks ahead instead of a few days. Sounds simple, but it meant the team could actually plan. Second, they created a shift swap system where people could propose swaps directly, instead than going through a manager. Approval took minutes instead of being a negotiation that happened in bits of quiet time. Third, they started sharing actual workload data – not just shifts, but a simple weekly view of how many shifts each person was working, so busy periods were visible to everyone. No one was suddenly discovering they’d been scheduled for five nights in a row by surprise. Within two months, requests for shifts off dropped – because people actually had time to ask for them. Turnover dropped too. And when we asked the team to rate their stress around scheduling specifically, the numbers improved significantly. The role of small, consistent systems Burnout often gets framed as an individual problem – “you need to take better care of yourself” or “you’re not managing your stress.” But when 40% of Australian employees are burnt out, and shift workers are even higher, that’s not an individual failing. That’s a system problem. You can’t fix a system problem with individual effort. Your team member can’t meditate their way out of unpredictable rosters. They can’t sleep better if they don’t know when they’re working. What they need is for their workplace to stop building stress into the

April is National Stress Awareness Month in the United States. It’s been observed every April since 1992, when the Health Resource Network launched it to bring healthcare professionals and the public together around a topic that affects nearly every working person in the country. This year, we want to talk about workplace stress a little differently. It Lives in Your Body, Not Just Your Head When we talk about workplace stress, we tend to talk about it like it’s a mood. Something you feel on a tough day. Something that passes once the shift ends or the schedule finally sorts itself out. But stress is not just a feeling. It’s a full-body event. When the brain perceives a stressor, it sets off an alarm that ripples through the entire nervous system. Hormones are released. The pulse quickens. Muscles tense. Respiration deepens. The senses sharpen. CDC Your body is preparing for action whether you asked it to or not. Physically, this shows up as headaches, muscle tension, elevated heart rate, fatigue, trouble sleeping, and an unsettled stomach. Emotionally, it can look like irritability, restlessness, and difficulty staying focused. SingleCare That’s not just a bad day. That’s your whole system under load. When stress becomes chronic, the effects go deeper. Research points to increased risks for heart disease, hypertension, digestive problems, and weakened immune response. Stress also disrupts sleep and poor sleep makes stress worse, creating a cycle that’s hard to break. American Institute of Stress For shift-based teams especially, this matters. Irregular hours, last-minute roster changes, and communication that’s spread across too many channels can quietly pile pressure onto people in ways that aren’t always visible. The team member who seems distracted might be running on three hours of sleep. The manager who snaps in the group chat might be holding together five competing schedules. Stress doesn’t announce itself. It accumulates. The Numbers Behind Workplace Stress The American Institute of Stress a nonprofit founded in 1978 to serve as a central source of knowledge on stress-related research has tracked workplace stress for decades. What they’ve found is hard to ignore. According to the American Institute of Stress, 80% of US workers say they experience stress because of ineffective communication at work, and 39% report workload as their primary source of workplace stress. American Institute of Stress Approximately 65% of US workers describe work as a very significant or somewhat significant source of stress in their lives, and 83% say that work-related stress affects their home life. Occupational Safety and Health Administration That last number is worth sitting with. Workplace stress doesn’t stay at work. It comes home. It shows up in relationships, in sleep, in the ability to switch off and rest. Workplace stress has been linked to around 120,000 deaths in the US each year. Occupational Safety and Health Administration This is not a peripheral issue. It sits at the centre of how we think about work, teams, and the people in them. But Stress Isn’t the Enemy Here’s something that gets lost in most conversations about stress: not all of it is harmful. In fact, some stress is essential. Eustress — derived from the Greek word “eu,” meaning good — refers to the kind of stress that arises when we face challenges we feel equipped to handle. Unlike distress, which depletes us, eustress is energising and can support personal growth, job satisfaction, and stronger performance. Leadership IQ The concept was introduced by endocrinologist Hans Selye in the 1970s, who proposed that stress could be a constructive force — one that leads to motivation, adaptation, and resilience. The difference between stress that builds us up and stress that wears us down often comes down to one thing: context. When people have clear expectations, good communication, a manageable workload, and a sense of support around them, pressure becomes something they can work with. When those conditions are absent, the same pressure becomes something they endure alone. Research has shown that employees who thrive under stress are more likely to be engaged, resilient, motivated, and productive. Where one person finds a tight deadline energising, another might find it draining — the difference often lies not in the deadline itself, but in how supported and informed they feel going into it. ADP This is why the environment matters as much as the individual. A team that’s well-connected, clearly informed, and not constantly chasing updates is better placed to channel pressure in a direction that helps rather than harms. What You Eat Shapes How You Handle Stress Managing workplace stress isn’t just about changing how you work — it’s also about taking care of the body that does the work. Diet plays a meaningful role in how the body responds to stress day to day. The food your team eats affects energy levels, mood, concentration, and the body’s ability to recover. Small, practical changes — made consistently — can make a real difference to how people show up and how they feel. What Helps at the Team Level Understanding stress as a physical and systemic experience changes what “support” actually looks like in a team context. It’s not just about mindfulness resources or a wellbeing poster in the break room. It’s about the day-to-day experience of work. The clarity of a shift. The ease of a message. The confidence that comes from knowing what’s expected. When schedules are clear, communication is in one place, and people aren’t spending their energy chasing updates or decoding messages from three different platforms, something shifts. The background noise of operational uncertainty goes quiet. And that quietness – that bit of relief – is where people do their best work. Research consistently shows that empathetic management practices, open communication, and a safe environment for transparency about mental health and stress levels can meaningfully reduce burnout and help teams work better together. American Institute of Stress Stress awareness isn’t a one-day conversation. But National Stress Awareness Month is a good moment to look honestly at the conditions your team

According to Dr. Arnsten, professor in Neuroscience at Yale University, people have a shorter attention span due to stress post pandemic. Hence, managers have a shorter attention span in reading piles of resumes on their computers. Not to mention the stricter guidelines that the company might have set before recruitment, picking only the best among the best.Applying for a new job became more difficult during these times. You have little time or opportunity to make it to the cut, or else your resume would end up in the recycle folders.To catch the attention of hiring managers, you must be able to come up with a superb resume that contains all the qualities they are looking for. Getting interested? Don’t go away and keep reading as we reveal the must-haves of a standout resume. Essential Social Skills That Must Be Added to Your Resume Social skills or Interpersonal skills allow us to communicate and interact with other people efficiently. These skills involve those non-verbal aspects such as emotional intelligence and active listening.Social skills are the first must-haves in your resume. Don’t forget to include the social skills you are good at, so hiring managers would definitely see you as a strong candidate for their job position.Whether you are talking to a potential client, mingling with your officemate, or understanding people, these interpersonal skills will help you ace any battle involving people. Here are some of the skills that you may pick or decide on your resume: 1. Empathy Have you once sympathized with your friend who wasn’t able to land on his first job yet? Are you compassionate with the people around you? If yes, start writing this trait in your resume because you might be the one that the manager is looking for.Empathetic people are needed in the office because they have the sincerest care that relieves challenging times. Compassionate people are most likely to have the potential to become good leaders because they understand and interpret people’s emotions and harness those feelings to create a tornado of possibilities. 2. Active Listening Active listening can be viewed by many applicants as an unneeded skill because everyone can listen; however, not everyone is willing to listen. Active listening involves your full attention to the speaker for you to show empathy.In the workplace, active listeners play a vital role in hearing out instructions from the manager and interpreting them to perform practical actions. For example, suppose the boss says that the company will undergo an economic recession. In that case, active listeners won’t just hear the report but think of creative solutions that will help the company.Remember that the first step in finding a solution is identifying the main problem, but you can’t if you don’t know how to actively listen. 3. Emotional Intelligence If you are the type of person who can manage and understand emotions very well, you can be regarded as emotionally intelligent.People that can work on their emotions are linked to good leadership skills. The more you know, the more you can create solutions that will dissipate the stress in the workplace.Hiring managers are looking for emotionally intelligent individuals because they can manage stress on their own. Stress can negatively impact work ethics, but emotionally intelligent individuals can remain intact to their work. 4. Conflict Resolution Conflict resolution is perhaps one of the most important interpersonal skills because it allows you to solve problems in the office in your own way. Conflict is an inevitable incident in the workplace that may cause internal affairs. Hence, conflict solvers are highly demanded during the hiring process. Conflict may affect productivity in the office using unsolicited information-sharing like gossips and scandals. 5. Writing Communication Social skills involve all types of skills involving interaction with others. Writing communication involves business writing, client persuasion, and report making.If you are good at conveying messages through writing, then this is another add-on to your resume. Hiring managers like people who can effectively write, given that this pandemic has only allowed virtual interaction. Virtual Work Skills That Must Be Added to Your Resume The pandemic has caused companies to shift into a skeletal work operation. Some people who are not in the office are either tasked to do virtual works or nothing at all. Hence if you are applying for a job that does not require you to attend the physical office, here are some of the skills that you might add to your resume: Self-Motivation. Working in a virtual office has a lot of distractions. Assuming that you have no personal office area in your house, the distraction of social media, the internet, movies, and sleeping are always on the side. Often, the focus is compromised since the things and people around you keep battling on your professional mindset. Hence, having a solid motivation could help you fight these disturbances. Adaptability. When your internet was suddenly lost, you will find a way to connect to your laptop with your mobile data; that is adaptability. During virtual set-up, all the free things offered in the offices should be facilitated by yourself. Hence, you need to be adaptable to deliver your work without hassle. If you believe that you can adapt to this working scenario, add this to your resume Digital Competency. Don’t know how to enter a video conference? You should be agile in learning how to utilize virtual applications to perform your work effectively. Take time to watch tutorials online in navigating these applications. Hiring managers would love to hire someone keen on learning new tools. What Teamwork Skills Are Essential? To be able to play well in a team is a skill developed through constant interaction. A strong team leads to a successful goal. Hiring managers would want to recruit applicants who are team players. Here are the skills that you must have so the HR manager believes you have what it takes: 1. Reliability Reliability is perhaps the most essential teamwork skill. Being reliable roots from the trust and companionship formed when

Work looks so different from what it was twenty (or even ten) years ago.  The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the change. As the pandemic spread, our “new normal” came into effect. One of the major adjustments was working from home. Some organizations kept the changes. Specifically, they kept ‘working from home’ as part of their major policy. And yes, while remote work has given employees more control over their time, there are also downsides. Working alone all the time without your colleagues and bosses can impact your emotional, psychological, and social well-being.  Anxiety. Depression. Burnout. All of these things can be caused by isolation. Still, there are ways to manage your mental health when working remotely. Here’s how. How Did Covid-19 Affect Remote Work? Whether you remember it or not, remote work was rare before the pandemic.  Normally, employees would commute to work every day. They’d even enjoy the odd social interaction in the workplace! In March and April of 2020, this all changed. Many organizations embraced remote work. Not that they had much choice–everybody had to stay home to support the healthcare system.  From social distancing to lockdowns, everybody had to do their bit. And so, remote work was on the rise. It changed the working landscape in a few different ways. Source: intuition.com Work From Home 🏠 To keep operations running as smoothly as possible, organizations had to act quickly. They had to prevent the mixing of employees while keeping the business going. Everyone from startups to multinationals embraced the WFH life. New Technology Introduced 🖥️ Video conferencing tools. Messaging software. Cloud-based collaborations. To support the working-from-home process as much as possible, organizations introduced new technology. Workers had to adjust to these new technologies and use them to remain as productive as possible. Juggling Work and Life 🤹 The shift from working in an office to working at home can destabilize a very delicate balance. There’s already a fine line between work and home, but when your living room becomes your office, that line is suddenly very blurry! Many workers struggled with the transition, feeling increased pressure to stay online. This had a knock-on effect on mental health. Impact on Mental Health 🧠 The first year of the pandemic saw a global 25% increase in anxiety and depression. For many reasons, people felt uncertain about the future. Isolation caused loneliness to creep in. Health anxiety and fear of the new normal (coupled with the stresses of being cooped up with family members) were a dangerous mix. How to Manage Your Mental Health When Working Remotely The world may have moved on from the pandemic, but some organizations still allow their employees to work remotely.  This works great for some people. For example, with more flexibility, some employees find it easier to manage their work-life balance.  There’s also the freedom you get from being at home and the lack of a commute. Not to mention the convenience. What did people do before they could get a laundry load done on their breaks?! On the flip side, working remotely can trigger those aforementioned mental health issues. Source: Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH) To manage these negatives and put your well-being first, there are some steps you can take.  Stick to a Routine ✅ Daily routine disruptions go hand-in-hand with symptoms of mental health conditions. So, while the pandemic might be behind us, sticking to a consistent schedule is still important.  Without a reliable schedule, the line between work and personal time becomes blurred. Treat your remote working schedule like a regular 9-5 in the office.  Follow your usual sleep and work patterns, getting up at the same time you normally would.  Get dressed and have breakfast, using what would be your ‘commute time’ to exercise, read, or listen to music. Then, when your workday ends, it’s time to switch off from work in every possible sense.  Shut down your laptop, leave your workspace, and stop checking work-related emails/messages.  Now is the time to enjoy your personal interests and detox from work. Take Regular Breaks 🌷 Taking care of your mental health includes taking regular breaks, no matter how pressing your deadlines/tasks are.  Allocate time during your work schedule for a lunch break and regular screen breaks. Why not try the Pomodoro Technique?  Even just taking five minutes away from your work can really boost your productivity. Better yet, exercise your green thumb in the garden during your breaks.  In fact, several studies have shown that spending time in green spaces is great for your mental health. Stay Connected 🗣️ Feeling isolated can be difficult. It’s enough to negate the positives of working from home. That’s why it’s so important to connect with your loved ones and co-workers. Source: Sage Journals So, ditch the emails and make time for video and phone calls. Call a friend on your break, or arrange a meet-up outside of work. Don’t forget that your co-workers are in the same boat here. So, reach out!  Ask how they are doing and see if you can find ways to support each other. Celebrate Positivity 😄 When you’re not interacting with your coworkers, you might not feel like you’re contributing to your team’s performance. Get over this by celebrating your own accomplishments. Embrace positive thinking and celebrate every day, regardless of how small your achievements are. Maybe you went above your targets on a particular day.  Maybe you used your break time to read a chapter of a book that has been collecting dust on your shelf. Everything is worth celebrating. It’s the small wins! Managing Your Mental Health: Final Thoughts Your mental health matters whether you work remotely or on-site.  Make sure you adopt healthy lifestyle patterns to protect yourself. Most importantly, always strive to stay connected with those around you.  Together, we can strengthen and protect our mental health. For more advice relating to employee wellness, check out our blog! How Did Covid-19 Affect Remote Work? How to Manage Your Mental Health When Working Remotely

In our everyday lives, stress plays a large part in our well-being. From personal relationships, financial issues or even daily tasks, stress can immerse our minds and affect our moods. Workplace-related stress is a common concern and affects everyone, no matter their profession. According to Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace 2023 Report, Australia and New Zealand have the second-highest stress rate of 47%. As a manager, considering your employee’s mental health is vital when creating a positive work environment.  By implementing strategies to reduce the stress of your employees, you’ll foster a culture of support where productivity thrives!  Are you ready to learn more about stress reduction? Let’s take a closer look at work-related stress. What is Work-Related Stress? The World Health Organization claims that work-related stress is a response that “…people may have when presented with work demands and pressures that are not matched to their knowledge and abilities and which challenge their ability to cope.” Source: The World Health Organization Workplace stress occurs in jobs of all kinds, and, unfortunately, it often spills into other aspects of a person’s life. According to a study in 2023, “60% of UK employees claim that a poor work-life balance has had a negative effect on their relationships at home.” Some possible reasons for workplace stress are: Heavy workloads Tight deadlines Changes in the organization A lack of work-life balance Intense pressure 😫 Conflict with colleagues Feeling overwhelmed Long work hours 🕥 Lack of growth opportunities ↗️ Lack of support from senior members of staff 🧑‍💼 What’s the Impact of Workplace Stress? The impact of work-related stress goes beyond the physical workplace. Stress can affect a whole range of factors, like an employee’s physical and mental health 🧠. Thus, stress has a detrimental impact on both the individual and the organization as a whole. Here are some examples of workplace stress: Employee Well-Being Stress can have a significant toll on a person’s well-being. Worry and stress can lead to a whole range of symptoms that impact a person’s physical health as well as their emotional state. For example, high levels of stress can lead to high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes and strokes. According to the Mayo Clinic, some common effects of stress are: Headaches Muscle tension/pain 💪 Chest pain Fatigue Change in sex drive Sleep problems 💤 Stomach upset Weak immune system 🤮 These health problems alone can lead to bad moods, increased heart rate and blood pressure, low self-esteem, anger and, in some cases, depression. Overall, stress is extremely powerful in diminishing a person’s well-being. Poor well-being can lead to a person lacking motivation and productivity and, therefore, altering their performance at work. Productivity and Performance at Work As previously mentioned, stress can change a person’s performance at work by having a negative impact on their productivity. High levels of stress can impact a person’s cognitive function, making it harder for employees to focus on tasks. In the workplace, this might have a negative effect on a worker’s performance. Employee Morale Employee morale is a critical factor in the workplace. High morale creates a positive work environment where people feel more comfortable, engaged and happy. If your workplace has stressed employees, they might find building friendships or positive relationships at work too challenging. As a result, morale will decrease. Staff Retention Issues If your employees are suffering from stress in the workplace, they’ll likely search for a job elsewhere. This can lead to a high turnover rate, causing disruptions to workflow and an increase in costs for training and recruitment. Overall, work-related stress can have a wide range of negative impacts on not just employees but organizations. However, by recognizing and understanding the significance of stressed employees, you can implement strategies to address it. In the following section, we’ll look at some ways you can cope with stress in the workplace. Ways for Employers to Reduce and Cope with Workplace Stress As an employer, it’s your role to implement strategies to reduce and help employees overcome stress in the workplace. For individuals and organizations, putting strategies in place to support stress can foster a positive work environment. Here are some ways to support your employees and help them deal with stress: Offer Flexible Work Options Implement flexible work options for your employees and allow them the option to work some days a week. You could introduce flexitime, compressed workweeks, and remote work 💻. This will allow your employees to separate their professional and personal lives more effectively. As a result, employees can spend time with family members or enjoy some alone time away from work, guilt and stress-free. Encourage Breaks Promote the importance of taking a break away from work to recharge your batteries 🔋. Encourage your employees to take regular breaks throughout the day to give them a break from their workload. Studies found that breaks can reduce or prevent stress. They can even help to maintain performance throughout the day and reduce the need for a long recovery. Source: The Wellbeing Thesis Furthermore, encouraging your employees to take their vacation days ⛱️ can also help with their stress levels. A long break away from work will have a positive impact on their well-being. As an employer, leading by example is vital. So, make sure you take your breaks, too! By doing so, you’ll create a workspace where personal time is not only a luxury but a core value. Promote Healthy Communication There are many ways to promote healthier communication but for this article we will focus on one that is easy to do and will have an outsized effect on your team if implemented. Real-time communication tools are everywhere in todays work environment but thanks to the “Read” status that is a feature on many messaging tools where a status of if the message sent has been “shown” to a user we are often tricked into a cycle of a needing a quick reply vs a considered reply in ones own time.  Disable that “Read” receipt