Cultures of Wellbeing: Why We Need Reasonable Workloads

Mar 2

If you’re a nonprofit leader, you know your passion and commitment to making a difference are huge drivers in your work. But what happens when the workload becomes too much to handle? When your passion is overshadowed by overwhelming deadlines and stressful demands, how does that affect the impact you strive to create?

Welcome to the first edition of Cultures of Wellbeing. This blog series highlights key factors that influence nonprofit workplace wellbeing while providing actionable steps to create healthier, more sustainable work environments. In each blog, we’ll explore a different aspect of workplace wellbeing, starting with one of the most pressing issues for nonprofit leaders: the need for reasonable workloads.

What Is Workplace Wellbeing?

At its core, wellbeing is a combination of factors that impact our ability to live healthy and fulfilling lives. It encompasses every facet of our lives, from our physical health, to our finances and our social connections. Work is no exception. Everything from workplace culture to daily tasks directly impacts our wellbeing. For nonprofits, where teams are often stretched thin due to funding limitations and high expectations, the impact can be even greater.

Workplace wellbeing has become a critical focus for organizations looking to create a supportive and productive environment for their employees. These initiatives are meant to help professionals feel valued, supported, and equipped to sustain their passion for their work. For nonprofit leaders, this means creating environments where people can thrive in their roles and contribute to an organization's mission without sacrificing their mental and emotional health.

What Are Unreasonable Workloads?

If you work in a nonprofit, you’re likely familiar with the concept of “wearing many hats.” This describes the experience of staff members taking on multiple roles and responsibilities—sometimes outside of their job descriptions—due to limited staff and urgent needs within the organization.

This high level of multitasking is common in the nonprofit sector, and it is not without its challenges. Namely, wearing many hats poses the risk of staff members taking on unreasonable workloads. This might include increased expectations in one’s role that demand more time or energy than one can provide, or unattainable goals and deadlines. Essentially, when work demands are impossible to meet or seem never-ending, employees may feel forced into overworking, rushing through tasks, or cutting corners.

Why Do We Need Reasonable Workloads?

When faced with unreasonable workloads, nonprofit leaders and their teams may begin to make sacrifices to keep up with the work. Additionally, heavy workloads may subconsciously begin to change workplace behavior. Here are some of the sacrifices and changes we commonly see:

Emotional and physical exhaustion – Constant and unrelenting work pressures take a toll on cognitive and physical functioning. This is especially true if staff feel like they’re unable to take meaningful breaks from their work. This type of exhaustion is one of the three components of burnout, an occupational phenomenon that is the direct result of unmanaged workplace stress.

Decreased work quality and productivity –Increased work demands can lead to employees sacrificing quality. High demands can also reduce professional efficacy, which is another component of burnout. A reduction in professional efficacy typically manifests as decreased productivity and/or confidence in one’s ability to complete their work.
Increased workplace tension – A third component of burnout from unreasonable workloads is depersonalization, also known as cynicism. When individuals are stuck in a cycle of overwork, their relationships with colleagues might suffer, leading to misunderstandings, miscommunication, and mistrust.
Disconnection from the mission – In some cases, burnout becomes so severe that employees develop negative feelings toward the mission. This is the biggest risk of unreasonable workloads: the loss of the compassion and care that brought them to the work in the first place.

Nonprofit employees aren’t alone in feeling this way. Research across different sectors shows that workloads have a significant influence on their feelings of burnout. Those most affected often include teams with managers who lack awareness, remaining staff dealing with job vacancies, as well as organizations adjusting to demands as a result of social, environmental, or economic changes.

Addressing this issue isn’t just about taking work off of people’s plates—it’s about creating a culture where people can trust that their wellbeing is valued as much as their productivity. Ensuring that all of your employees have workloads that match their abilities and capacity creates a staffing culture where:

Individuals can maintain their mental, physical, and emotional wellbeing, reducing the risk of burnout.
Employees stay focused and deliver high-quality work without feeling forced to rush or cut corners.
Teams collaborate more effectively, minimizing the risk of cynicism and workplace tension caused by overwork.
The organization is driven by people who remain fully connected to the mission, rather than sacrificing their passion and purpose to meet relentless demands

What Our Community Says

In conversations with nonprofit leaders just like you, we’ve heard consistent feedback:

“My biggest issue with workloads is that I have a boss who isn’t listening.”
“I’m not sure what to do because my boss is overwhelmed with her workload and completely tapped out.”
“I want to quit because of the workload but know that it’s going to fall on other people that I care about.”

These voices highlight a common theme: when workloads become unreasonable, employees not only feel overwhelmed, but also worry about the impact on their colleagues. The good news? There are steps leaders can take to relieve pressures for themselves and others.

3 Questions to Consider

Many of us feel constrained by the age-old, nonprofit pressure to always “do more with less.” Now is the time to shift this thinking towards sustainable impact rather than unsustainable overwork. This requires intentional and dedicated change. Here are three questions to reflect on and discuss with your team:

Do people understand how their workloads impact their wellbeing? For example, do deadlines and growing demands affect their ability to sleep, socialize with loved ones, or balance personal responsibilities?
Is it possible for us to achieve a similar level of impact with less work? If not, then what would it take for us to be okay with reducing our impact and workloads?
How can I create a culture with my team where we can be more honest about our workload expectations and limitations?

2 Action Steps to Get Started

No matter how buried you might feel in your work, relief is still possible. Here are small and meaningful actions you can take today to move toward more reasonable workloads:

Do a workload audit – Set aside time to assess all your tasks and responsibilities. Review your to-do lists, project management systems, and scheduling tools to get a full picture of your workload. Once you have this information, consider using the Eisenhower Matrix to prioritize tasks effectively. Share this audit with your team and supervisor to ensure everyone is aware of what’s on your plate. If you’re in a leadership role, conduct this audit exercise with your team to encourage open conversations about workload distribution.
Create a strategy screen – Sometimes, workloads become unreasonable because we say yes too often. A strategy screen is a decision-making tool that helps teams define clear criteria for accepting tasks and projects. When your team is aligned on what’s necessary for success, it becomes easier to decline projects, tasks, and opportunities that don’t fit within your capacity or goals.

Overall, if you see others struggling with workloads, try to spark up a conversation to challenge the existing norms. Even if you aren’t in a formal leadership position, you can begin to set new expectations.

Here are some additional, small tips that we have seen organizations successfully implement:

Implement a “No Meeting Day” to give teams uninterrupted work time.
Introduce a weekly check-in where team members can openly discuss workload capacity.
Train across roles so that no one on your team feels like they’re the only person who can do a particular task (e.g., make sure everyone knows how to use the CRM).

1 Healthy Mantra To Keep In Mind

“What I can get done, I can get done.”

Join the Conversation!

At Do Good Leadership Collective, we believe that nonprofit employees shouldn’t just survive their work—they should thrive in it. If you’ve found ways to balance workloads in your nonprofit, we’d love to hear your strategies. Share your thoughts in the comments, or reach out to learn more about how we can help you and your teams better manage their workloads. If this post resonated with you, share it with your network or reach out to continue the conversation!

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