Most workers are exhausted at the end of their working day, a new TUC report has found. It warns pressures including low pay, staffing shortages, creeping surveillance and runaway work intensity are creating a ‘perfect storm’ which is fuelling burnout at work.

“Gruelling” work intensity is a growing problem in “burnt out Britain”, with workers reporting that they are working harder and longer now compared to previous years, the TUC has found.

A poll of over 2,000 workers for the union body reveals:

• More than 1 in 2 (55 per cent) feel that work is getting more intense and demanding.
• More than 3 in 5 (61 per cent) say they feel exhausted at the end of most working days.
• More than a third (36 per cent) are spending more time outside of contracted hours reading, sending and answering emails.
• 1 in 3 (32 per cent) are spending more time outside of contracted hours doing core work activities.
• 4 in 10 (40 per cent) say they have been required do more work in the same amount of time.
• Almost 4 in 10 (38 per cent) say they are feeling more stressed at work.
  
  

Overwork hurts

In Work intensity, the report of the research, the TUC points to its August 2023 findings of its safety reps’ survey, where over 3,000 “union health and safety representatives told us that factors relating to work intensification are some of the most common workplace hazards they encounter:

• 59 per cent identified stress as one of the most common hazards.
• 45 per cent said bullying and harassment by management and colleagues was a common concern in their workplace.
• 28 per cent said overwork specifically was a safety concern widespread among their members.”

The report warns that more intensive work is bad for your health. It notes: “When workers are tired, or under excessive pressure, they are also more likely to suffer injury, or be involved in an accident. Fatigue results in slower reactions, reduced ability to process information, memory lapses, absent-mindedness, decreased awareness, lack of attention, underestimation of risk, reduced coordination etc. Fatigue is said to cost the UK £115-£240 million per year in terms of work accidents alone.”

It adds: “Long term-ill health conditions caused by overwork include hypertension and cardiovascular disease, digestive problems, and long-term effects on the immune system, increasing risk of autoimmune disease diagnoses.”

WORK THING  Burnout was officially recognised as an ‘occupational phenomenon’ in 2019, when it was included in the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) 11th Revision of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11). more

Pointing to findings published by the UN’s World Health Organisation (WHO) and International Labour Organisation (ILO) in 2021, it adds: “It can even result in death: one study found that in 2016, 745,000 people worldwide died as a result of working long hours alone.”

The TUC says women face greater work intensity than men.  

The polling reveals that compared to men, women are more likely to say they feel exhausted at the end of most working days (67 per cent to 56 per cent) and that work is getting more intense (58 per cent to 53 per cent).

WOMEN’S WORK   Women face greater work intensity than men, and are more likely to say they feel exhausted at the end of most working days. Two-thirds say the problem is getting worse. www.hazards.org/women

The report notes: “Women are overrepresented in sectors such as education and health and social care. These are sectors where staff shortages and other factors, such as burdensome scrutiny and long working hours, have led to increased work intensification.

“And women continue to shoulder most of the caring responsibilities at home, which can further add to time-pressures on them.”

Perfect storm

The TUC says there are several factors combining to create a “perfect storm” for work intensity. These include:

Surveillance technology and AI  Algorithmically set productivity targets can be unrealistic and unsustainable – forcing people to work at high speed. Algorithmic management using Artificial Intelligence (AI) can also force workers to work faster through constant monitoring, including monitoring the actions they perform and their productivity (Hazards 157).

Staff shortages  Low pay, excessive workloads and a lack of good flexible work are key drivers of the staffing crisis. Staff shortages put huge strain on those who remain as they try to plug the gaps, fuelling excessive workloads and long working hours. This leads to high attrition and absenteeism rates, worsening the workload crisis. 

UNION EFFECT   A decline in collective bargaining coverage, fuelled by anti-union legislation, has led to more work intensification, the TUC says. Unions have a strong positive effect on occupational health and safety and terms and conditions at work. www.hazards.org/unioneffect

Working time abuses  The TUC says working time regulations contain important rights for workers which could help safeguard against work intensification and the consequential health and safety risks, but enforcement is inadequate. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE), which is responsible for enforcement of the maximum weekly working time limits, night work limits and health assessments for night work, has had its budget slashed in half over the past decade.

Decline in collective bargaining  Industrial changes have combined with anti-union legislation to make it much harder for people to come together in trade unions to speak up together at work. This decline in collective bargaining coverage has led to less union negotiation around work organisation, resulting in work intensification.

Action plan

The TUC says ministers must take urgent action to tackle burnt out Britain, including:

• Introduce a new right to disconnect to ensure workers get a proper rest break away from work and make sure that work doesn’t encroach upon a worker’s home life.
• Strengthen enforcement of working time regulations – that means funding the HSE properly and ditching proposed changes to how working time is recorded.
• Fix the public sector recruitment and retention crisis, bringing down excessive workloads and dangerously unsafe staffing levels, delivering year-on-year fully-funded pay rises and making improvements to working conditions.
• Make flexible working a genuine legal right from the first day in a job. People should have the right to work flexibly from day one, unless the employer can properly justify why this is not possible. Workers should have the right to appeal any rejections. And there shouldn’t be a limit on how many times you can ask for flexible working arrangements in a year.
• Promote collective bargaining to make it easier for unions to speak with and represent workers – including broadening the scope of collective bargaining rights to include work organisation, the introduction of new technologies, and the nature and level of staffing. 
• Introduce a statutory duty to consult trade unions before an employer introduces the use of artificial intelligence and automated decision-making systems. This would ensure that both the employer and worker can benefit from the introduction of new technologies and that productivity gains lead to decent pay rises for workers.

Burnout: It’s a work thing

Burnout was officially recognised as an ‘occupational phenomenon’ in 2019, when it was included in the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) 11th Revision of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11).

In the classification, which came into full effect in 2022, burnout is described in the chapter: ‘Factors influencing health status or contact with health services’ – which includes reasons for which people contact health services but that are not classed as illnesses or health conditions.

The classification notes:

“Burn out is a syndrome conceptualised as resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed. It is characterised by three dimensions:

• feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion;
• increased mental distance from one’s job, or feelings of negativism or cynicism related to one's job; and
• reduced professional efficacy.

Burnout refers specifically to phenomena in the occupational context and should not be applied to describe experiences in other areas of life.”

Burnout was also included in ICD-10 in the early 1990s, but the definition is now more detailed.

The ICD-11 definition came ahead of WHO developing with International Labour Organisation (ILO) a 2022 policy brief on mental health at work (Hazards 159).

The ILO/WHO policy brief notes “how the job is designed, including high job demands, low job control (ie. low authority to make decisions about work) and unclear roles can all exacerbate work-related stress and heighten the risk of exhaustion, burnout, anxiety and depression. Psychosocial risks at work are associated with negative mental health outcomes, including suicidal behaviours.”

It has four key messages:

Prevent work-related mental health conditions through psychosocial risk management, which includes using organisational interventions.

Protect and promote mental health at work, especially through training and empowering workers to identify mental health issues at work and to seek support and care early.

Support workers with mental health conditions to fully and equitably participate in work through reasonable accommodations, return-to-work programmes and supported employment initiatives.

Create an enabling environment with cross-cutting actions to improve mental health at work through: Leadership, investment, rights, integration, participation, evidence and compliance.

Mental health at work: Policy brief, ILO/WHO, 28 September 2022. www.ilo.org

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BURNT OUT

Most workers are exhausted at the end of their working day, a new TUC report has found. It warns pressures including low pay, staffing shortages, creeping surveillance and runaway work intensity are creating a ‘perfect storm’ which is fuelling burnout at work.