Burnout is taking its toll on the Australian workforce, with more than a third of workers taking time off over the past 12 months due to mental exhaustion.
New research also shows more than half of Australian workers have taken sick leave due to mental exhaustion at some point in their careers.
Head of HR Solutions at people2people Recruitment Suhini Wijayasinghe said the survey results indicated a workforce struggling under increasing pressure.
Ms Wijayasinghe said 1 in 2 workers reported logging on outside office hours at least once a week to catch up on work, while another 20 percent logged on every evening, with 29 percent working between 5-10 hours of overtime every week.
“Burnout isn’t something that’s happening to a small group of workers anymore, it’s becoming a mainstream workplace issue,” she said.
“When more than half of workers have needed time off because they were mentally exhausted, it tells us this is no longer an individual resilience issue. It’s a workplace issue.”
Ms Wijayasinghe said the research found Australian workers believed poor workplace culture was doing the most damage to employee wellbeing, with 48 percent identifying it as the biggest contributing factor.
She said unrealistic KPIs followed at 25 percent, while staff shortages (15 percent) and lack of flexibility (12 percent) were also seen as significant drivers of stress and burnout.
“Employees are telling us very clearly that burnout isn’t just about workload.
“It’s about workplace environments that create constant pressure, unrealistic expectations and little opportunity for recovery. Culture has a bigger impact on wellbeing than many organisations realise.”