Managing your Employees Workload is Critical to Success – Here is Why

Cathie Leimbach • November 11, 2021

Your employees’ engagement and productivity are significantly impacted by how reasonable their workload is. More than ever, while we’re dealing with continued uncertainty due to the pandemic and a tight labor market, managing workload expectations is critical to ongoing performance and productivity. 

 

The research is compelling. Multiple studies have uncovered a strong connection between workload imbalance and stress, burnout, and lowered productivity:

  • The American Institute of Stress reported that 46% of workers cite unmanageable workloads as significant stress.
  • 26% of employees are often or very often burned out, and 22% are juggling to balance work and their personal life. 
  • Unreasonable heavy workloads cause stress and anxiety, leading to accidents, health issues, conflicts, and poor overall performance.
  • In a 2017 survey by Bizfluent, 60% of workers said that work-related pressure has increased over the past 5 years.
  • Not surprisingly, a recent study by KPMG reports that Covid 19 has increased work-related stress, with 94% of workers reporting stress and anxiety.

 

Employees who are stressed are more likely to experience anxiety, depression, and health-related issues. Working longer hours leads to hypertension, fatigue, changes in mood and behavior, problems with focus, decreased motivation, and concentration issues. Covid 19 has exacerbated these symptoms, reduced productivity and employee engagement, and impacted many companies’ profitability. 

 

As the impact of the pandemic lingers, your team is still struggling with balancing family and work responsibilities and often doing more than their job as open positions become harder to fill.


As a manager, one of your critical roles is to advocate for what your team can and can’t reasonably accomplish and identify resources to support their efforts. The first step is to understand how each employee evaluates their workload and the support they need to succeed.

  • Prepare for one-on-one discussions by identifying what mental and physical demands your team members face to perform their responsibilities efficiently. 
  • Have one-on-one conversations with each direct report to evaluate their current workload:
  • Ask, “How are you doing with your overall workload?” “Are there additional resources you need?”
  • For each project, routinely check in by asking, “How is that project going?” “What can I do to support you?”
  • Work with each of your direct reports to uncover meaningless and time-consuming tasks. These typically drain energy, decrease productivity, and lead to a lack of motivation.
  • Identify ways to automate repetitive tasks if possible or find lower-cost resources to complete them.  Maximize your team’s focus and energy on doing the work that matters.
  • Manage deadlines – don’t let your lack of planning be your teams’ emergency. 
  • Plan ahead and create a reasonable project timeline, including a margin for the unexpected – because it always occurs.

 

Today, more than ever, managing each of your team members’ workload is critical. Doing more with less staff, reacting to ongoing uncertainty, and managing employees in different locations make communication and planning around workload and deadlines the key to success. Ensure that your team has what they need to succeed and reduce the scramble due to unreasonable deadlines and poor planning. Productivity, engagement, and employee motivation will increase, leading to higher retention and a better quality of work. 

Why New Tools Don’t Change Behavior

By Cathie Leimbach • January 27, 2026
New tools promise big results. New software, dashboards, and systems all look great on paper. But months later, many leaders are still asking, “Why hasn’t much changed?” Because tools don’t change behavior — leadership does. A system can organize work, but it can’t create ownership. It can’t set expectations. It can’t follow through. Without strong leadership habits, even the best tools just make problems more visible. What really drives results? Clear expectations Consistent follow-through Helpful feedback Leaders who model the right behavior When those are missing, people work around the tool instead of with it. Adoption drops. Frustration rises. And the old problems stay. So the better question isn’t, “What tool do we need next?” It’s, “Do our leadership habits support the results we expect?”  👉 Join our 60-minute Leadership Conversation to explore the habits that actually drive performance.

If Nothing Changes, What Will This Cost?

By Cathie Leimbach • January 20, 2026
When things feel “manageable,” leaders often continue with status quo. People are busy. Work gets done. But small issues quietly add up. Rework becomes normal. Deadlines stretch. Decisions take longer. None of it feels like a crisis, but together it eats away at time, energy, and profit. Inconsistent leadership makes it worse. When expectations change from day to day or from one manager to another, people stop giving their best. Some coast. Some get frustrated. Some start looking elsewhere. Turnover rises, along with hiring and training costs. The warning signs are usually right in front of us: Work keeps getting redone. Managers avoid tough conversations around poor performance. Good people are doing less than they could. Progress feels slower than it should. The real question isn’t, “Can we live with this?” It’s, “What is this costing us if nothing changes?” 👉 Join our 60-minute Leadership Conversation to explore how today’s patterns may be impacting your results — and what small shifts could make a big difference.