The Hidden Cost of Leadership Overlooking Employee Workload

In this episode, we explore the all-too-common leadership failure of undervaluing dedicated employees and their workloads.

Inspired by a personal story of one woman who carried an unsustainable workload without recognition or support, we learn what happens when leadership waits for employees to quit before addressing systemic issues. We’ll discuss actionable strategies for leaders to assess workloads, provide resources, and foster healthy work environments that prevent burnout and turnover. This is a call to move beyond management and embrace leadership with a human lens—because true leadership starts with understanding and supporting your team before it’s too late.

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Transcript

 Welcome back to Relationships At Work – Your leadership guide to building workplace connections and avoiding blind spots..  I’m your host Russel Lolacher

I’m a communications and leadership nerd with a couple of decades of experience and a heap of curiosity on how we can make the workplace better. If you’re a leader trying to understand and improve your impact on work culture and the employee experience, you’re in the right place.

This mini-episode is a quick and valuable bit of information to help your mindset for the week ahead. 

Inspired by our R@W Note Newsletter, I’m passing on to you… 

When Leadership Turns a Blind Eye: The Cost of Taking Employees for Granted

When I was a kid, my mom would tell me the story of my grandmother, who worked tirelessly in her role for years.

She worked for SunLife doing payroll, and she was so efficient that she would finish her tasks early and ask for more work just to avoid getting bored. This continued for years. You can imagine that, over time, she ended up taking on quite a lot. And with all that extra work, what did she get? More tasks, but no recognition or reward.

To the company, it was just convenient to keep piling work on her. And she didn’t complain. She just kept busy. 

So, when she finally retired, they hired someone to take over her position. The problem? That person quickly realized they couldn’t do it all in one day. They were forced to take work home just to get everything done. And then they quit.

Only then did leadership realize the magnitude of the problem. It turned out they had to hire three people to replace my grandmother. One person, replaced by a team.

But leadership only noticed there was a problem after the fact. Instead of recognizing her efforts, rewarding her, or planning for the future, they waited until someone else didn’t want the job anymore to take action.

This happens far more often than we’d like to admit.

Sure, there can be valid reasons why one person’s role might eventually need a team: maybe they’ve accumulated so much institutional knowledge that they can work far faster than anyone else, or maybe they have an unusually broad skill set that allows them to take on far more. But should they?

And how undervalued does that employee feel when they’re taken for granted? My grandmother had six kids. She wasn’t going to push back to get the recognition she deserved. She needed that job. She wasn’t going to rock the boat. Sure, that was a different time, a different generation—but let’s be honest. Leadership still takes employees for granted. It’s not a new problem.

We only seem to fix things after people are fed up with a lack of support or recognition and decide to leave. Where is the relationship with our staff? Why don’t we do something while they’re still with us?

I’m often reminded of my grandmother’s story when I hear from people who are in roles, begging for resources and support, only to be told it’s not coming—while they’re expected to do more with less. And less. And less. 

When they finally quit out of frustration, feeling undervalued or burnt out, that’s when leadership takes the time to understand the role. 

Suddenly, they realize the job was undersupported all along. So what do they do? They finally offer some compassion, consideration, and change—and often post the job at the salary it should have had all along, because no one would apply otherwise.

What message does that send? It tells employees they have to leave for things to get better. Or to be taken seriously.

Most employees want to do a great job. So they’ll push themselves to the breaking point rather than let things fall apart. And because nothing is “broken” in leadership’s eyes, they assume there’s nothing to fix. But that comes at the expense of the employee.

That’s not leadership. That’s turning a blind eye.

As leaders, we need to spend time regularly assessing workloads and resources. This isn’t just management—it’s management with a leadership lens. A human lens. We can be part of the solution by being informed and collaborative. This looks like:

·       Regular Check-ins: Schedule regular, meaningful check-ins with team members to discuss workloads and challenges. These conversations need to happen in a productive and psychologically safe way. This helps identify potential issues before they escalate into burnout.

·       Provide Adequate Resources: Ensure employees have the tools, training, and support they need to do their jobs efficiently. If additional staffing isn’t an option, rethink workloads and push back on unrealistic expectations.

·       Balance Work Distribution: Regularly assess and adjust workloads to prevent any single employee from being consistently overloaded. This might mean redistributing tasks, hiring help when needed, or empowering your team to say “no” to more work until things are under control.

Here’s a red flag: when your employees say “yes” to everything. That’s a cultural hangover from the old world that needs to go. A great leader shouldn’t be surrounded by “yes” people—and that includes how tasks are taken on. Some employees are scared to say no to their boss or to say, “Yes, and…” to communicate what other tasks they’ll have to deprioritize to take on more work.

If we’re turning a blind eye to our employees—whether they’re pleading for help or silently waiting for us to step up—then we are part of the problem. We’re fostering an unhealthy work environment and encouraging turnover.

What do our employees need to do their jobs well? Do we even know the scope of their roles? As leaders, it’s our responsibility to understand our teams, their workloads, and their working conditions. That’s how we provide the support they need to thrive—and stay.

What a great opportunity to show what kind of leader we are.