# Overload and burnout > Read eight weeks of workload data, spot the early signs the average hides, and use the levers you control, including on your own week. - Course: [From Specialist to Manager: Your First Year Leading a Team](https://productovi.com/courses/from-specialist-to-manager.md) - Module: Conflict and pressure - Lesson 23/32, ~28 min - Source: https://productovi.com/courses/from-specialist-to-manager/overload-and-burnout ## "We're all drowning" **Alex Tutor:** Late June. Taras posts in the team chat: "We're all drowning, nobody can keep up this pace." Two people react with a thumbs-up. **Sofia:** The peak was hard, he's right about that. Who has it worst? Probably Taras: he closes the most tickets. **Alex Tutor:** Check before you guess. Here are the last eight weeks of the peak: hours, out-of-hours messages and tickets for everyone, you included. **Dataset (CSV):** [Support workload by week and person, May–June 2027](https://productovi.com/datasets/from-specialist-to-manager/overload-and-burnout/klasna-support-workload-may-jun.csv) Eight weeks, seven people. Weeks start on Monday (3 May – 21 June). Everyone has a 40-hour contract. "You" is the lead. - `week_start`: Monday of the week - `person`: Who worked - `role`: coordinator, seasonal_coordinator or lead - `contract_hours`: Contracted hours per week - `hours_worked`: Hours actually worked that week - `out_of_hours_messages`: Work messages sent outside the person's own shift (team chat and tickets) - `tickets_closed`: Tickets the person closed that week **Alex Tutor:** **Overtime** here means hours worked minus the 40-hour contract. Nobody is under contract in any week. **Alex Tutor:** Start with the team view: the six coordinators' mean overtime per person-week. > **Exercise:** Use the workload data. What is the **mean overtime per person-week** for the six coordinators (everyone except You) over the eight weeks? Round to two decimals. ## The average hides the person **Sofia:** 1.79 hours a week is nothing. So the team is fine? **Alex Tutor:** The average is fine. Now look at the people inside it. Taras: 4 hours of overtime in eight weeks and the most tickets, 740. Loud is not the same as most loaded. **Alex Tutor:** Olha has the most overtime overall, 38 hours. Maryna has 36, but look at the direction: her week never gets shorter, from 40 hours to 49. **Alex Tutor:** Compare Maryna's first four weeks with her last four. Work out her mean weekly overtime in the last four. > **Exercise:** What is Maryna's **mean overtime per week in the last four weeks** (31 May – 21 June)? **Alex Tutor:** Now her output. Work out Maryna's tickets per hour in the last four weeks. > **Exercise:** In the last four weeks (31 May – 21 June) Maryna closed **226 tickets in 189 hours**. How many tickets per hour is that? Round to two decimals. ## Early signs **Alex Tutor:** Her out-of-hours messages went from 11 in the first four weeks to 50 in the last four, 17 in the last week alone. And she closes fewer tickets per hour: 1.47 (245 in 167 hours), then 1.20 (226 in 189). **Sofia:** More hours, less done, messages late at night. Is she burning out? **Alex Tutor:** That's not yours to diagnose. **Burnout** builds up from chronic work stress nobody managed: exhaustion, growing distance from the work, a sense of doing it worse. Only a health professional can assess that. **Alex Tutor:** What you can see are early signs of overload: longer hours, late messages, slower output, skipped breaks, unused leave, withdrawal, new irritability. One sign is noise. Several together, for weeks, are a reason to talk. > **Exercise:** Which conclusion from the data is the **fairest** one for a lead to act on? ## Levers a lead controls **Alex Tutor:** In the one-to-one, Maryna told you she answers EU families' evening emails "because otherwise nobody does", and until last week she also picked up reopened tickets after her shift. **Alex Tutor:** Four levers are yours. **Workload**: move, drop or postpone work, and say no upward. **Clarity**: who owns what, like the evening inbox. **Control**: let people decide how and when they do it. **Fair recognition**: notice the work nobody sees. **Alex Tutor:** A resilience webinar or a pep talk doesn't move any of the four. It may be pleasant; the load stays the same. **Olha:** The evening inbox never had an owner. I answered it too in my first year. It just goes to whoever cares most. > **Exercise:** Which of these actions use a lever the lead actually controls? Choose all that apply. ## When it is more than workload **Alex Tutor:** Some things go beyond workload: weeks of poor sleep, feeling hopeless, panic, a health scare. Then say what you've noticed, without labels, and suggest professional help: a doctor or a psychologist. **Alex Tutor:** Night air-raid alerts and power cuts add load that never shows in the hours column. Ask, don't assume. And keep what you hear confidential. **Alex Tutor:** If what you hear goes beyond workload, what do you do? > **Exercise:** In a one-to-one a coordinator mentions weeks of poor sleep and says things feel hopeless. What's the lead's best response? **Sofia:** And my own numbers? **Alex Tutor:** 59 hours of overtime, every week above 45. Now the messages: what share of all out-of-hours messages are yours? > **Exercise:** Use the workload data. What **share of all out-of-hours messages** (everyone, eight weeks) did You send? Round to two decimals. **Alex Tutor:** So what does the lead do about those 108 messages? > **Exercise:** You sent 108 of the team's 234 out-of-hours messages and worked 59 hours of overtime in eight weeks. Which response deals with it best? ## Your own load **Alex Tutor:** When the lead writes at ten at night, people learn that replying at ten at night is normal. Your 108 messages set the norm more than any rule. **Iryna:** And you? I can't have my Support lead running on 47-hour weeks into the summer. What are you dropping, and what do you need from me? **Alex Tutor:** Schedule messages for the next shift, say no to one thing, and take your own leave. A lead who is visibly overloaded can't credibly protect anyone else. **Alex Tutor:** Now back to Maryna. Start with what you saw, ask before you suggest, then offer changes you control. > **Exercise:** Over the last four weeks Maryna's hours rose to 49 a week, her out-of-hours messages went from 11 to 50, and her tickets per hour fell from 1.47 to 1.20; she answers EU families' evening emails "because otherwise nobody does". Write what you'll say to her in the one-to-one (**4–6 sentences**): what you've noticed (facts, no labels), an open question, two changes you can make with her, and where to turn if it's more than workload. > **Key ideas** > > - Averages hide people: the coordinators' mean overtime was 1.79 hours a week, Maryna's 7.25 in the last four weeks. Look at trends per person, not only totals. > - The loudest complaint isn't proof of the heaviest load: Taras worked 4 hours of overtime in eight weeks. Hear the complaint, then check the data. > - Early signs of overload: longer hours, late messages, slower output, skipped breaks, unused leave, withdrawal. Several together, for weeks, are a reason for a private talk. > - **Burnout** is not yours to diagnose. Your levers: workload, clarity of ownership, control over how the work is done, fair recognition. Point to a doctor or psychologist when it's more than workload, and keep it confidential. > - Your own load sets the norm: 46.15% of the out-of-hours messages were the lead's. Schedule messages, drop something, take your leave. **Alex Tutor:** Next, the case: Olha and Taras, one refund ticket, and two rules that both claim it. - Previous lesson: [Mediating between two reports](https://productovi.com/courses/from-specialist-to-manager/mediating-between-two-reports.md) - Next lesson: [Case: ticket ownership, Olha and Taras](https://productovi.com/courses/from-specialist-to-manager/ticket-ownership-case.md) --- Productovi Learning. Free, no sign-up needed to read.