Wellness perks won’t fix burnout if the workday stays broken, expert says

A new International Labour Organisation report has put workplace stress into a sharper health and safety frame, estimating that psychosocial risks at work are linked to more than 840,000 deaths annually, nearly 45 million disability-adjusted life years lost each year, and 1.37% of global GDP lost annually.

For this month’s In Focus, we’re exploring business development in the workplace, looking at how leadership, workplace culture and strategic growth are shaping the future of firms across the sector.

In response, Fineas Tatar, leadership expert and co-founder of Viva Talent, says employers may be trying to solve burnout from the wrong end of the problem.

“Burnout is often treated as an individual resilience issue, but the structure of work itself is usually part of the problem,” says Tatar. “If leaders are overloaded, unclear and constantly reactive, that pressure cascades through the organisation. Wellness perks cannot compensate for poor work design.”

Tatar says many companies respond to burnout with benefits that sit outside the working day, while leaving the working day itself untouched: meeting overload, unclear priorities, weak delegation, reactive leadership and unsupported managers.

He says employers should stop asking, “How do we help people recover from work?” and start asking, “Why is work designed in a way that people need to recover from?”

Fineas recommends leaders pressure-test the system by looking at:

• Invisible overtime: after-hours replies, pre-meeting preparation, rework from unclear briefs, and emotional labour spent managing ambiguity.
• Decision drag: delays caused by approvals, unclear ownership, or leaders becoming bottlenecks.
• The meeting after the meeting: when teams leave meetings still unclear on owners, next steps or priorities, they create follow-up meetings, side chats and duplicated work. That is a design flaw, not a collaboration problem.

“You cannot yoga-class your way out of a broken operating system,” Tatar adds. “If the work is poorly structured, the calendar is chaotic and the executive team is constantly reacting, burnout will keep returning. The real prevention work is better delegation, clearer priorities, stronger operational support, and leadership capacity that is protected rather than consumed by noise.”