Australia is a burnt-out country, but we can fix it

Our culture and the Australian dream of home ownership might be fuelling burn-out rates - but there are steps we can take to address it, says Associate Professor Carol Gill.

Australians are among the most burnt-out employees in the world, according to the OECD Better Life Index. We rank 32nd out of 41 countries when it comes to work-life balance with almost 13% of full-time workers working very long hours. This is comparable to Switzerland with a rate of 0.4%.

This burn-out culture is costing Australian business money. While official figures place this at around $14 billion a year based on direct costs such as sick leave, the true cost can be difficult to quantify and is likely much higher. 

This is because burn-out also results in employees who are less productive, less creative and are more likely to do the bare minimum at work. 

In the post-COVID era, we saw this in the form of Quiet Quitting, a trend popularised by Tiktok which saw employees thinking of ways to meet workplace demands by doing as little as possible – rarely performing beyond their required duties. 

It also leads to a high turnover, a greater cost than organisations tend to acknowledge. When employees leave, companies lose organisational knowledge and must spend more resources on recruiting and training new staff. 

This all begs the question: why are Aussies still working overtime? 

Australia: A burnt-out country

Our culture is partly to blame.

The Globe Project, a large study of cultural practices and leadership ideals spanning 150 countries, found Australia fits in a category called the Anglo cluster.

Countries in this category, including the USA, Canada, South Africa and England, score highly on a metric called Performance Orientation which means we reward high performance and value competition. 

This makes us more susceptible to burn-out and explains our intrinsic motivation for putting in long hours.

Anglo cluster countries also score poorly on In-Group Collectivism, meaning we are more inclined to individualistic behaviour. 

This individualistic notion may partly explain why Australia is less unionised that other countries with only 12.5% of employees a member of a trade union, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

Adding to these cultural norms, Aussies aspire to the ‘Great Australian Dream’ of home ownership, despite having some of the highest rates of housing unaffordability in the world.

In its assessment of the housing markets of 94 cities across eight countries, Demographia found nearly all our capital cities are in the bottom 25% of affordability, with Sydney the second least affordable city behind Hong Kong. 

While in some countries people rent for a lifetime, we still prioritise home ownership further incentivising a need to work more hours to afford a hefty home deposit.

This stress is compounded in the current high-interest rate environment, with Australia highly reactive to cash rate changes by the Reserve Bank due to our largely variable home loan environment.

Cultural, societal, and economic pressures combined, it is clear why Aussies are feeling burnt-out, so how can we fix it?

Working smarter not harder

The first step in addressing burnout and changing the culture is leaders must declare burnout bad for business. Changing an organisational culture comes from the top, it’s your senior leaders, line managers and HR policies, all having a mantra of “work smarter, not harder.”

This involves assessing how we work and making sure our habits are the correct fit for the job. 

The nine-to-five model came about after the industrial revolution, which was largely based on manual labour. While this traditional model worked well on a factory production line, for workers in high cognition load jobs in a global world it’s counterproductive.

Concentration and willpower are like muscles that get worn out over time. In a high cognition load role, this means you need to schedule work differently and incorporate mundane tasks and breaks to reduce your mental load and refresh.

For example, you might write for 25 minutes and then take a break utilising the Pomodoro Technique. Taking breaks for productivity isn’t new, the theory of Taylorism has found people who take breaks are more efficient.

Equip teams to manage flexibility effectively

Employees want flexible work, to be able to work the hours that suit them and fit them around their personal commitments. We also know organisations that offer flexible work are more popular and find it easier to attract and recruit top talent.

However, organisations are also seeing the benefit of having people back on site, citing increased organisational culture, innovative collaboration and a more effective work force as reasons to encourage a return to the office. 

The burden of managing hybrid working is another driver for some calling for employees to come into the office. Setting clear performance indicators, required for effective hybrid working, takes effort and a high degree of communication.

The sweet spot lies in the middle - finding time for those water cooler conversations and collaboration while also allowing for flexibility. This balance might look like three days in the office and two days working from home or finding a way to measure outcomes more than hours. 

Upskill line managers to spot and stop burnout at work

Line Managers play a crucial role in spotting signs of burnout and preventing it from happening in the first place.

At work, burnout might look like someone behaving irrationally, a colleague having an emotional outburst, missed deadlines or high rates of sick leave.

Here are five ways managers can proactively prevent burnout:

1. Build relationships with your staff 

As a line manager you want to build relationships and be sitting down with your direct reports actively asking, “how is the work life going? How could we support you to meet demands?”

2. Consider different individual needs

HR policies need to consider individual needs, with some people more prone to burnout than others. Women may be at increased risk of burnout as they have bigger social roles they often comply to. They do more housework statistically than men and they tend to care for elders more than men do. 

Parents are prone to burnout with resources thin on the ground and those with a mortgage are also at greater risk with some working multiple jobs to meet interest rate demands. 

3. Encourage Mindfulness

Mindfulness is a key resource many tech companies are adopting with companies such as Google and Facebook all investing in mindfulness. The practice provides individuals with additional emotional resources to deal with stress and protect their health to prevent burnout.

4. Prioritise hobbies and holidays

Individuals need to prioritise hobbies outside of work and take holidays. Often employees will report feeling more creative and have greater problem-solving abilities after taking time off. Internal psychological forces can stop us from taking our leave and disconnecting from work. In this case, it is not so much the organisation, but our capacity to say ‘no’ to work that gets in our way.

5. Practice setting boundaries 

Individuals need to practice setting boundaries, not just at work, but at home which means being smart about how we manage all our demands in life, that take up valuable time and energy.

We need to equip managers and arrange our organisational culture to manage flexibility more effectively and spot signs of burnout before it’s too late. Ultimately, changing culture starts at the top and we must empower our people to protect their limited resources of time and energy.

Doing this is not only better for our people it is better for business.

Carol Gill is an Associate Professor of Organisational Behaviour at Melbourne Business School. Carol teaches People Management and Leadership on MBA programs and designs and delivers Executive Education. 

To find out more about studying at Melbourne Business School, visit our Degree Programs and Short Courses pages, or learn about our range of services For Organisations.