A new survey reveals some shocking realities for UK office workers. An astounding 84% of them report constant pressure to work unpaid overtime. This ongoing pressure has pushed countless employees to speak up. In reality, 65% of them believe they need to work on weekends just to keep up with the requirements of their job. Shockingly, almost half of young workers in this demographic regularly work unpaid overtime. This trend signals a deep-seated culture that promotes overwork. Zahaan Bharmal has lived through burnout himself. To help explain this phenomenon, he relates it to tenets of physics, with a particular emphasis on surge capacity.
While we see the effects of burnout suddenly, it is a state that develops in layers over time. Bharmal compares burnout to a power grid constantly running at 100 percent capacity with no backup power. With a grid that operates at 100% capacity, any sudden increase in demand from a weather event or other occurrence can lead to cascading blackouts. A grid that runs at 80% is much more vulnerable to shocks, sudden demand increases, etc. This analogy serves as a visual to illustrate how life’s constant pressures can wear a person down. Imagine a national electrical power grid that’s pushed past capacity and eventually fails.
The intensifying demands made on workers, also known as effort, are not new. The author recalls significant economic events such as the 2008 sub-prime mortgage crash, which led to widespread financial disruption. The eurozone crisis in 2011, the turbulence of the Chinese stock market in 2015, and the rupee crash in 2013. Each of these crises became a turning point for job security, fundamentally changing what it meant to work in America. This transition of moving work remote imposed additional anxiety on workers.
Bharmal’s fight against burnout began on his very first job. Only seven months later the company was redundant, having made him redundant only nine months after his joining! This sudden change, while challenging, created an opportunity for him to re-evaluate his work-life balance. As a result, he learned strategies to build his own surge capacity. Combined, this empowered him to deal with the innumerable pressures of the workplace today much more successfully.
Surge capacity, according to Bharmal, can be best illustrated by Newton’s three laws of motion. Inspired, perhaps, by the cosmic three-body problem from physics, an example of the repercussions of interacting forces and how they can counterintuitively alter outcomes. Likewise, employees encounter many competing demands that result in burnout if left unaddressed. By understanding these dynamics, we can all develop solutions that strengthen our collective resilience. This allows them to be more productive and not be crushed by the weight of stress.
When we invest in the well-being of employees, it pays off—not just for workers themselves, but in productivity and morale across the workplace. As more workers voice their concerns regarding excessive workloads, employers face increasing pressure to implement changes that prioritize sustainable working practices.