Christmas overwhelm: End-of-year employee burnout

Burnout at the end of the year is a “systems failure, not an individual problem”, one burnout recovery expert has said.

Teams rush towards end-of-year goals, leaders push to close deals, and everyone works until they “crash”, said Nick Orchard, a burnout recovery expert. Orchard emphasised that burnout is not limited to any particular role. “Every industry and sector is in the same boat,” he said.

Based on Corporate Mental Health Alliance Australia’s (CMHAA) 2025 Leading Mentally Healthy Workplaces Survey, nearly one in two (46 per cent) respondents experienced burnout, while a similar proportion noted that their recent performance had dropped. Alarmingly, in addition, 60 per cent of respondents reported symptoms of burnout.

Similar results were found in Gallagher’s 2025 Workforce Trends Report, as more than one in four employees reported they experienced burnout, a decline in engagement and wellbeing. Meanwhile, HRD Australia found that 81 per cent of Aussie employees experienced burnout in the past year.

End-of-year crash

Orchard stressed that the structure of work in the final quarter of the year is unsustainable. He warned that the issue is not about employees’ resilience; it is that workplaces place the responsibility for burnout management on the individual.

“Deadlines stack up, budgets close, kids finish school, inboxes explode, and everyone’s pretending they can ‘push through’,” Orchard said.

Dynamic Leadership Programs Australia chief executive Karlie Cremin said: “Work demands coincide with social and family pressures, leaving people with no recovery time.”

Fixes for a ‘cultural problem’

In identifying the “cultural problem” that leads to burnout, Orchard recommended that workplaces must redesign team operations, the way leaders communicate, and rest between productivity cycles. He warned that if measures are not put in place to solve these issues, workplaces will burn their best people out right before the holidays.

Cremin suggested that workplaces must enhance the communication strategies of their leaders, as psychological safety “starts at the top”. “Leaders who talk openly about stress and set realistic boundaries create ripple effects through their teams,” she said.

Orchard said: “Workplaces need to come around to high wellbeing as a driver of high performance, not as a bonus once the targets are hit.”