Hard work is not the problem. Hard work without a good, positive working atmosphere is. Employees who feel supported, heard and appreciated can handle a lot and keep it up for a long time. Where that atmosphere is missing, energy runs out and sick leave is lying in wait. If you want lasting success, you have to look after your people.
Two concerns that belong together
In many boardrooms, two concerns play a role. The first: how do we stay successful as an organisation? The second: how do we prevent employees from dropping out with burnout? Not every top management team sees the link between the two.
Yet that link is there. You need employees who want to keep adding value, who see new opportunities and contribute to the company's mission with plenty of energy. Whether the company succeeds depends on them. And it is precisely that energy that is under pressure. The Netherlands Working Conditions Survey 2025 by TNO and Statistics Netherlands shows that 21% of employees have burnout symptoms, compared with 13% ten years ago. Of the employees who call in sick, more than 22% say their absence is wholly or partly caused by work, with high workload as the most frequently mentioned cause. Arboportaal
Engagement is falling worldwide too. According to Gallup, only 20% of employees were truly engaged in their work in 2025, the lowest level since 2020. That decline is mainly because managers are less engaged: from 31% in 2022 to 22% in 2025. And it is precisely managers who have a big influence on the atmosphere in a team. Gallup
Six causes of burnout
Burnout arises from a chronic mismatch between employee and working environment. Researchers Michael Leiter and Christina Maslach distinguish six areas in which that mismatch can arise. The bigger the mismatch, the greater the risk. PubMed
- Workload: a heavy workload, unclear roles or a lack of experience or capabilities.
- Control: employees don't have enough resources, information or decision-making authority to do their work well.
- Reward: too little reward, the feeling that hard work goes unseen, or not being able to be proud of the work yourself.
- Community: positive contact with colleagues is lost. Most damaging is a chronic conflict or a poor relationship with a direct colleague.
- Fairness: there is inequality between employees, for example in pay or workload.
- Values: what the organisation finds important clashes with what the employee finds important.
In practice, a hard time in someone's private life is often added to this, such as a divorce, money worries, a bereavement or a move. As an employer, you have no influence on that. But you can work on an environment that makes people resilient. Read more about the signals in burnout vs work engagement.
Why the atmosphere weighs so heavily
The Job Demands-Resources model by Wilmar Schaufeli and colleagues shows why a positive atmosphere is so important. Every job has job demands that cost energy and job resources that give energy, such as support from colleagues, room to manoeuvre, feedback, role clarity and a good team atmosphere. Reducing job demands helps against burnout, but doesn't make people engaged. More job resources do both: they prevent burnout and they strengthen work engagement. Two birds with one stone. Schaufeli
A good working atmosphere also means that people feel safe to speak up. Amy Edmondson calls this psychological safety: the shared feeling in a team that you can take risks, name mistakes and ask for help. Teams where that is possible learn more and perform better. Edmondson Read more in more effective teams through psychological safety.
Spotting it in time
It is important to discover in time who is having an especially hard time. Think of employees with a busy home situation, people who live alone and have little contact, or colleagues who more and more often keep working in the evenings. What can you do?
- Have managers or HR regularly ask how people are really doing.
- Encourage teams to keep an eye on each other, for example with a buddy system.
- Make clear where people can turn when they can't cope any more, such as HR, the occupational health doctor or a confidential adviser.
A healthy organisational culture is a condition for healthy employees
You can also increase employees' sources of energy. Offer enough autonomy and build a culture in which people feel heard and appreciated. Encourage employees to plan enough time for their private lives.
Clear priorities may well be the most important key. When people know where to focus their energy, they are less likely to end up in a demotivating situation, a freeze or, on the contrary, a dangerous overdrive. Together, they decide whether you keep running or stop now and then.
Work engagement as the result
Work engagement is the extent to which employees are absorbed in their work. Engaged employees are full of energy, feel dedicated and are absorbed in what they do. They learn quickly and are creative. And that engagement doesn't happen by itself: it grows in a working environment with a good, positive atmosphere. That is where you can keep up hard work.
About this article: this piece is based on a blog by Guido Heezen of Effectory, from his series on the conditions for work engagement.
