How to set healthy boundaries so your team doesn’t burn out (+ free worksheet)
Burnout is now one of the leading causes of employee absence, turnover and the quiet quitting trend. As a leader, you play a pivotal role in ensuring your team’s mental well-being is prioritised, while you simultaneously drive performance.
Your company succeeds when your people do. Are you ready to supercharge your support and become the type of leader who inspires their team to stick around? Keep reading to discover our expert tips on
- how to spot burnout in your team and understand who’s more at risk
- the penalty of failing to set boundaries and the very real cost of this to your business
- frameworks and tools to add to your leadership toolbox
How to spot burnout in your team
Burnout is a state of mental, emotional and physical exhaustion that typically occurs after experiencing prolonged periods of chronic stress and pressure. Burnout can creep up on us, but the good news is, if we’re aware of what to look out for, we can spot the signs early and act.
Watch out for these signs
• Difficulty concentrating or making decisions
- Increased anxiety or worry
• Feeling overwhelmed or stressed
• Difficulty sleeping
• Irritability or mood swings
• Physical symptoms such as headaches or muscle tension
Who’s more at risk?
Neurodivergent employees – Half of neurodivergent employees report feeling burnt out from work, compared to 38% of neurotypical employees.¹ ² This is linked to extra cognitive load from masking behaviours, navigating open-plan offices and managing unexpected changes to routines.
Middle managers – Caught between senior leadership demands and team needs while managing their own workload and organisational stress, a staggering nine in ten middle managers have experienced burnout over the past year.³
High achievers and early career professionals – This group sets unrealistic standards and overworks itself, struggling to delegate or step back from work demands. High achievers often experience burnout during the first ten years of their career, typically between ages 20 and 30.⁴
Why weak boundaries lead to burnout
Overworking, fuelled by today’s always-on culture, is one of the biggest boundary issues in modern workplaces. While initially rewarding, consistently working beyond normal hours leads to exhaustion, strained relationships and a decline in work quality.
What poor boundaries and burnout really cost your business
Healthy boundaries are often thought of as a nice-to-have. Research, however, shows that organisations that ignore boundaries end up paying the price. This is due to the following reasons:
- Employee churn: A total of 61% of people who have recently left or are actively planning to leave their jobs cite mental health as a reason.⁵ And the cost of replacing valuable team members adds up – from recruitment costs to training and negotiating a new recruit’s salary, you can expect to pay around 20% of a worker’s salary to replace them if they’re in a mid-level position (that’s £6,981.20 per person, according to Glassdoor).⁶ ⁷
- Sick days: Burnout leads to increased absences.⁸ Chronic absenteeism normalises cultural disengagement*.⁹ Recent stats show UK absence rates are at a decade high of 4% (4.8 days per employee, per year), with mental health-related leave up 300% since 2017.¹⁰ The cost? It’s a domino effect; co-workers absorb extra workload and experience secondary burnout.¹¹ Then there’s the cost of hiring temporary support – we’ll let you do the maths on that one.
- Loss of team productivity: You can expect the productivity of your team to drop dramatically due to exhaustion and disassociation during burnout. Employees running on little sleep are physically and mentally unable to contribute, concentrate and communicate at full capacity. Deloitte labels this condition “presenteeism” and estimates it cost UK employers between £24 and £28 billion in 2021 alone.¹²
By establishing clear, healthy boundaries, your team can:
- protect their well-being and maintain work–life balance
- perform at a level that supports their career goals (as well as your organisation’s)
- significantly reduce their risk of burnout whilst ensuring their core needs for rest, fair treatment and respect are met
What do healthy boundaries at work look like?
Boundaries are precious. They effectively keep your team’s most prized possessions protected:
- time
- energy
- happiness
Without them, you risk your team being pulled in a million different directions and burning out pretty quickly.
Having clear, healthy boundaries doesn’t mean your team has to say “No” to work. Instead, boundaries help your team set aside time for both meaningful work time and rewarding downtime to recharge.
Some work boundaries are clear and tangible, while others are more abstract and flexible.
Here’s how to help your team identify their work boundaries and stick to them.
1. Create a supportive environment
Help team members recognise their value and unique contributions. This awareness shapes how they communicate, what drives them and their confidence to speak up when boundaries are challenged. As a leader, you can create spaces where people feel valued enough to voice their needs.
2. Model clear communication
Team members often cushion boundary requests with apologies, saying things like: “I hate to be a pain, but …” Encourage them to communicate directly and professionally. When people express their needs clearly, it reduces misunderstandings and builds stronger working relationships.
3. Guide expectation management
Unclear expectations often lead to stress and boundary issues within teams. Empower your people to start discussing and negotiating expectations openly. This prevents the pressure that often leads to crossed boundaries and burnout. When in doubt, use the What, When and Why framework for setting briefs to ensure clear expectations every single time.
4. Identify their non-negotiables
Support your team in creating their own non-negotiable lists. This helps them weigh up workplace choices and communicate their priorities effectively. As a leader, you can help create a culture where expressing these priorities is welcomed.
5. Remote work requires boundary-setting skills too
Guide your team in having productive conversations about expectations and boundaries in the virtual workspace. Help them create structures that protect their time and energy while staying connected.
Tools to try
At work, boundaries are a way to assert our needs and rights. Add these tools to your leadership toolbox to help your team set healthy boundaries and quit the cycle of burnout – for good.
Master work–life boundaries with the TRAP model
T - Time: define your working hours
R - Role: clarify responsibilities
A - Attention: manage energy, not just time
P - Physical: create distinct workplace environments
Your team can partner with a coach to create:
- their bespoke toolkit for saying “No” respectfully, while they ensure they achieve the business’ goals
- a routine and habits that align with their career, performance and personal goals
- a plan for curating their optimum work environment where they can do their best work
Identify urgent areas of improvement with a boundaries audit
You can implement a simple tool for your team to try alone – or with a coach – to discover where your boundaries may need strengthening.
Your team can partner with a coach to:
- visualise where a lack of boundaries is negatively impacting work and performance
- identify areas that need immediate attention, then set goals for improving them
- track their progress over time with an unbiased and supportive accountability partner
Download More Happi’s free boundaries audit worksheet.
Say “No” respectfully with the CARE model
For saying ‘no’ respectfully:
C - Connect: "I appreciate you thinking of me for this..."
A - Acknowledge: "I understand this is important..."
R - Redirect: "Currently, I'm focused on [priority]..."
E - Establish: "I can look at this tomorrow at 4pm..."
Your team can partner with a coach to
- build confidence in communicating their capacity clearly
- practice difficult conversations in a safe space
- navigate complex team dynamics while maintaining healthy limits
Coaching is proven to be a powerful tool for helping teams thrive, set boundaries and avoid burnout in the workplace, as it
- creates a safe, confidential, non-judgemental space for team members to explore challenges before they become overwhelming
- helps people spot early warning signs of stress and develop personalised strategies to manage it
- supports teams in finding their own solutions rather than being told what to do
- builds confidence in saying “No” and setting clear boundaries
- develops practical tools for managing workload and protecting energy
- offers a neutral sounding board for working through difficult workplace situations
- helps identify what truly matters to each person, making it easier to prioritise
- provides accountability and support while new boundaries and habits take root
- turns boundary-setting from a source of guilt into a tool for better performance
- empowers people to take control of their well-being at work
What to do next
More Happi is delighted to partner with Charlie to bring truly bespoke learning and development to all through one-to-one coaching that’s affordable for businesses of every size – from startups or well-established enterprises. We believe in giving everyone an equal opportunity to learn, grow and thrive.
This means for a limited time only, your People person and three other members of the team can get access to free coaching for three months.
With More Happi as your coaching partner, your team can pour jet fuel on their careers, enabling them to:
- achieve their career goals twice as fast as with regular training
- develop confidence, resilience and invaluable skills – like communication, conflict resolution and time management – especially through periods of change
- build on their leadership skills and processes to run more effective teams
- overcome procrastination and be more productive
- have a better work–life balance, set healthy boundaries and quit the burnout cycle for good
- And so much more …
If you’re a Charlie customer, you can access exclusive discounts on More Happi’s coaching services, directly from our Marketplace, by simply clicking here.
