Social Awareness

Always available: when work takes over your life

Your job regularly spills into evenings and weekends. You are expected to answer messages at any time, even during meals or time off. You feel guilty switching off, sleep poorly, struggle to concentrate and feel increasingly irritable and exhausted. A colleague says, 'Everyone works like this. Your body will get used to it.' You wonder how long you can keep going before you burn out.

The situation

What is the healthiest way to understand this situation and respond?

A. Keep being available. If you are committed enough, your body will adapt and you will no longer need as much rest.B. Wait until you have worked this way for six months. Burnout follows a predictable timetable, so there is no need to act sooner.C. Take the warning signs seriously now. Discuss workload, priorities and agreed availability, protect recovery time and seek support if symptoms persist. There is no fixed time before burnout.D. Use caffeine and catch up on sleep occasionally. As long as you still finish your tasks, constant availability cannot be affecting your health.E. Resign immediately without considering your finances or other options. Leaving at once is the only way anyone can recover from work stress.

Recommended Response

C. Take the warning signs seriously now. Discuss workload, priorities and agreed availability, protect recovery time and seek support if symptoms persist. There is no fixed time before burnout.

Context matters. This is a recommendation for the situation described, not a rule for every interaction.

Why is C the recommended response?

Understanding this situation

C is the strongest answer. Constant work demands and too little recovery can disrupt sleep, increase fatigue and irritability, affect concentration and strain relationships.

Long working hours are also associated with increased heart disease and stroke risk; this is not a prediction about any one person.

Understanding burnout

WHO describes burnout as exhaustion, growing mental distance or cynicism about work, and reduced professional effectiveness resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed.

There is no fixed timetable

There is no universal number of days, weeks or months before it develops: workload, control, support, health and opportunities to recover differ.

These symptoms can have other causes too, so they do not prove burnout.

A practical conversation

You could say, 'I cannot sustain evenings and weekends as normal working hours. Which tasks should take priority, and what response times and emergency cover can we agree?'

Protect recovery and seek support

Keep a record of your hours, discuss realistic deadlines and protect breaks and time off.

Rest and relaxation help, but they cannot replace changes to an excessive workload.

If concerns are dismissed, consider HR, a union or occupational health, and plan alternatives that fit your circumstances.

Speak to a GP or other qualified health professional if symptoms persist, worsen or affect daily life.

Why the other choices are less helpful

A, B and D encourage ignoring warning signs; E overlooks practical constraints and other routes to support.

Key takeaway

You do not have to wait until you are unable to cope before asking for change.

Practice. Speak. Improve. — Spekero Playground

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Another perspective

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