The workload conversation: out of ten, honestly, every week.
Workload, pressure and line management sit together at the top of the causes of work-related stress in the HSE and CIPD figures. A manager who asks one number a week sees the strain months before the absence data does.
On this page
One number a week, acted on at eight or above; your own hours visible; leave checked monthly; one stressful thing changed a quarter; the pattern every six months.
Nobody tells their manager they are drowning until they are. By then it is a sick note, a resignation or a mistake. The alternative is a number, asked every week in the one-to-one, written down, and acted on when it moves.
The number
- In every one-to-one: “Out of ten, how is the load this week?” Then: “What is the eight made of?”
- If it is eight or more, do one of three things there and then: take something off, move a date, or say what can wait. Say it out loud so it is real.
- Write the number down. One high week is a week. Three rising weeks is the warning.
Your own hours are the permission slip
Leave on time at least two days a week and let people see you go. Schedule evening messages to send at eight in the morning. Never mention a long day as a virtue. Nobody believes the wellbeing policy; they believe what you do.
Leave, once a month
Look at who has booked no leave in the last three months. Ask them to book some, and mean it: offer to cover. If they say they cannot because of the work, that is a workload finding, not a leave finding, and it is yours.
One stressful thing, once a quarter
“What is the one thing about this job that stresses you most?” Not the whole list. Change something about that one thing inside the quarter, tell them what you changed, and ask if it helped. One visible change buys more than a wellbeing week.
Every six months, look at the pattern
Your numbers and your leave notes, across the whole team. Who has been at eight or more for more than a month at a time? Who has had no leave? Rebalance the work before anyone asks, and say why.
Write it down
Per person, per week: the number. Over a year it is the most useful wellbeing data you will ever hold, and it is yours alone.
The clearest thirty minutes in your week.
Send us your last engagement survey and we’ll show you what it’s missing – no charge, no deck, no obligation. Or start with a pilot or a 30-minute conversation.