September often brings a noticeable change of pace at work, making it a useful time to think about workplace wellbeing in autumn and how employees are adjusting to the demands of the final quarter.
Summer holidays come to an end, schools and childcare routines restart, diaries begin to fill, and organisations turn their attention towards targets and deadlines for the final quarter of the year.
For some employees, that return to routine can feel positive. For others, it can bring a renewed sense of pressure, particularly if they are returning to workloads that were already difficult to manage before the summer.
Research from recruitment agency Robert Walters found that 66% of professionals in Ireland described their workload as demanding, while 37% said they regularly worked overtime simply to catch up. More recent research from the company suggests that workloads are not only becoming heavier but, in many cases, roles themselves are quietly expanding. Some 53% of professionals reported that their working hours had increased, while six in ten said their remit had grown over the previous 12 months without formal acknowledgement, additional pay or progression.
Against that backdrop, the September return is not necessarily the clean slate we sometimes imagine. An employee may come back from annual leave to an overflowing inbox, unfinished projects, new priorities and a role that has gradually become more demanding.
Allow time for people to find their rhythm again
There can be an assumption that people return from a holiday rested, refreshed and immediately ready to work at full capacity. In reality, the first week or two back can involve a significant amount of catching up.
For managers, this can be a useful time to have a genuine conversation about priorities rather than simply adding new tasks to an already long list. What genuinely needs to happen now? Which deadlines are fixed, and which could move? Has the employee’s role changed over the past year without anyone formally acknowledging it? Is there work that could be delegated or deprioritised?
A short conversation about workload can prevent an employee from feeling that everything must be tackled simultaneously. It can also highlight something that is increasingly common in workplaces: responsibilities that were once temporary gradually becoming part of someone’s permanent work
The growth of the ‘shadow workload’
Robert Walters uses the term “shadow workload” to describe additional duties that employees take on without a corresponding change in their job title, remuneration or formal responsibilities.
Roles naturally evolve, and taking on new responsibilities can be a positive part of professional development. The problem arises when additional work simply accumulates.
An employee may cover responsibilities while a colleague is absent, take ownership of a project because they have the expertise, or absorb tasks following a restructure. If nothing else is subsequently removed from their workload, those temporary responsibilities can quietly become permanent.
Over time, employees can find themselves working longer hours, skipping breaks or constantly feeling behind, even though they are performing well.
That has implications for productivity as well as workplace mental health. Sustained overload can affect concentration, decision-making, motivation and the ability to recover properly between periods of intense work.
For organisations, autumn is therefore a useful opportunity to look beyond job descriptions and ask whether people’s actual workloads still reflect what is realistically achievable within their working hours.
When high performance is followed by exhaustion
Another concept highlighted in the Robert Walters research is the “competence hangover”: the period following sustained high performance when someone may experience brain fog, reduced energy or feel emotionally flat.
In the research, 42% of professionals said they experienced this frequently, with a further 35% saying it happened intermittently.
This can be particularly difficult for employers to recognise because it may occur immediately after someone has performed very well.
An employee may have completed a major project, worked intensively towards an important deadline or supported an understaffed team. From the organisation’s perspective, the outcome is positive. However, the employee may have been operating at an unsustainable level for several weeks or months.
If one intense period of work is immediately followed by another, there may be very little opportunity to recover, increasing the risk of workplace stress or burnout.
A temporary drop in energy or concentration should therefore not automatically be interpreted as a loss of motivation or commitment. Sometimes it is a sign that an employee has been operating at high intensity for too long.
Work is only one part of the September adjustment
The pressures of autumn are not limited to the workplace.
For many employees, September also brings changes at home. Children may be starting school or creche, childcare arrangements may need to change, and school collections, homework and extracurricular activities return to family schedules.
Employees can therefore experience increased demands at work and at home at the same time.
Where a role allows it, a degree of flexibility during this transition can make a significant difference. That might involve some flexibility around starting times, appointments or remote working while new routines become established.
This does not necessarily mean reducing expectations. It means recognising that employees’ circumstances change and that a little flexibility at particularly demanding times can make it easier for people to continue working effectively.
Why November deserves another check-in
September is not the only point in autumn when workplace wellbeing deserves attention.
By November, the novelty of the autumn reset has passed. Evenings are darker, Christmas is approaching and multiple deadlines may begin to converge as organisations try to complete projects before the end of the year.
This makes mid-November a sensible time for managers to revisit workload and priorities.
Rather than waiting until employees are visibly overwhelmed, managers can look for signs that workloads are becoming difficult to sustain. Regular overtime, repeatedly postponed work, reduced concentration or a sense that everything has become urgent can all indicate that priorities need to be reconsidered.
The earlier this happens, the more options an organisation has. A deadline can often be moved, work redistributed or expectations adjusted before someone reaches the point of burnout.
Workplace wellbeing in autumn is not simply about resilience
Employees are often encouraged to manage stress by exercising, taking breaks, sleeping well and maintaining boundaries. All of those things can be valuable.
However, workplace wellbeing cannot be reduced to how successfully an individual employee manages pressure.
If people consistently need to work beyond their contracted hours to complete normal workloads, if responsibilities continually increase without anything being removed, or if employees feel unable to say that they are struggling, the underlying problem is unlikely to be solved by encouraging greater personal resilience.
Workplace stress often develops through the accumulation of smaller pressures rather than one dramatic event. Longer hours, an expanding role, family responsibilities, reduced downtime and approaching deadlines can collectively begin to affect sleep, concentration, mood and motivation.
A mentally healthy workplace is therefore one in which employees can talk honestly about capacity and workload without feeling that they are admitting failure.
Managers do not need to diagnose mental health difficulties. They do, however, have an important role in creating an environment where someone can say that the demands of their role are becoming difficult to manage.
A chance to reassess before the end-of-year rush
Autumn does not have to become a three-month race towards Christmas.
For employers, it offers an opportunity to look again at workload, responsibilities and expectations, including the additional work that may have accumulated almost unnoticed over the course of the year.
For employees, it can be a chance to re-establish routines gradually rather than expecting to return from summer immediately operating at maximum capacity.
Supporting workplace wellbeing in autumn does not always require a new programme or initiative. Sometimes it begins with looking carefully at how people are actually working and whether what is being asked of them remains sustainable.
If your organisation is reviewing its approach to workplace mental health or Employee Assistance Programme support, contact us to find out how BetterCare can support your employees with access to qualified mental health professionals and ongoing workplace wellbeing support.
