December arrives like an uninvited houseguest who brings along their entire extended family. And suddenly you want to run away and tell everyone to just leave you alone!
I wonder, are you feeling a little (or a lot) stressed right now?
Are your projects piling up, your emails multiplying faster than you can respond, and suddenly you’re working through lunch breaks and late into the evening just to get things done?
The problem is that most people don’t talk about it and suffer in silence, quietly burning out.
So many employees report concerns about blurred boundaries between their jobs and personal lives, and we’ve found that burnout is on the increase while mental health, engagement, and vacation days decrease.
This isn’t just happening to you. It’s a widespread pattern affecting professionals across all industries and you need a circuit breaker before you burn out.
Fortunately, you have more control over this than you may think.
To help you maintain your wellbeing during this hectic end of year rush, I’ll walk you through five proven strategies to help you stay calm and confident.
Look Inward Before You Look Outward: The Power of Self-Reflection
Before you can change anything, you need to understand what’s happening. This means pausing long enough to ask yourself some honest questions.
What to do to avoid Burnout – Start with the basics
The most widely validated tool for measuring burnout, the Maslach Burnout Inventory, identifies three core feelings: emotional exhaustion (when your emotional resources are depleted), cynicism (negative attitudes toward work), and reduced professional fulfilment
These feelings are telling you that you are struggling.
Take fifteen minutes this week – please, schedule it in your calendar – and check in with yourself.
Ask yourself:
- Am I emotionally drained when I wake up in the morning?
- Do I feel valued and recognised for my contributions?
- Am I working so many hours that my personal life has disappeared?
The crucial part: setting boundaries
Research shows that weak boundaries often contribute to burnout, and examples of effective boundaries include not checking work email on weekends, taking actual lunch breaks, telling your boss when you need more time, and leaving work on time.
The research behind it:
A Dutch study found that blurred work-life boundaries predict decreased happiness through emotional exhaustion.
Paradoxically, those who would benefit most from healthy lifestyle behaviours – the people experiencing boundary blur – are the least able to maintain them.
Breaking this cycle starts with you acknowledging it exists.
Think of boundaries like the banks of a river. Without them, water spreads everywhere, becoming shallow and ineffective. With clear banks, the river flows with purpose and power.
Speak Up: Why Communication Isn’t Optional
Here’s a scenario I see constantly: John works overtime every week, feels overwhelmed, but hasn’t mentioned it to anyone because he doesn’t want to seem incapable.
Meanwhile, his manager assumes everything’s fine because John keeps delivering. This silence helps no one.
What to do to stop the Overwhelm
Research across multiple sectors shows that both employees and supervisors consistently report needing better communication about work stress.
One study found that stigma creates a “web of silence” around mental health issues, but when researchers interviewed employees and supervisors independently, both groups wanted dialogue about work stress.
So why are people not talking?
The most effective management practices identified by researchers include:
Supportiveness
Being approachable
Showing appreciation.
These ranked highest in terms of perceived effectiveness for managing workplace stress.
Here’s how to start that conversation:
Be specific about what you need
Don’t just say “I’m stressed.” Say, “I’m managing 4 major projects simultaneously, and I need to prioritise two of them to ensure those most urgent get done first” or “I need access to the new software training to work more efficiently.”
Frame it as problem-solving, not complaining
Say: “I want to ensure I’m delivering quality work. To do that, I need [specific resource or support].”
Suggest solutions
Think about possible solutions first and when you speak with your manager, be prepared with ideas: “Could we redistribute some tasks across the team?” or “Would it be possible to extend this deadline by one week?“
The research behind it:
A study on remote work found that employees experiencing professional isolation had less stress when they received management communication.
This communication provided needed information about work policies and enhanced perception of control, reducing the harmful effects of stress on mental health symptoms.
According to Gallup’s workplace research, accurate, timely, and open communication enhances employee engagement and work happiness, yet only a small percentage of workers strongly agree that communication where they work meets these standards.
So what you’re feeling isn’t just YOU. It’s important to every team member.
Your manager isn’t a mind reader. Neither are your colleagues.
When you communicate clearly, you’re not being difficult. You’re actually helping them to understand you. You are being professional, and honest.
Break It Down: The Science of Making Big Tasks Manageable
Is that massive year-end report looming over you?
Is there something making your stomach clench every time you think about it? There’s a reason it feels so daunting, and there’s a scientifically proven way to tackle it.
What to do:
The Pomodoro Technique is very effective. This method, developed in the late 1980s, breaks work into 25-minute focused intervals separated by 5-minute breaks.
After four “pomodoros,” you take a longer 15-minute break. I’ve used this myself frequently to get stuff done and it works!
Why does this work? Research in cognitive psychology shows that the average attention span of a human adult ranges from 15 to 25 minutes.
The Pomodoro Technique aligns with these natural attention limits, maximising focus without exceeding concentration capacities.
Here’s your action plan:
List everything on the big project
Break it into the smallest possible tasks. Instead of “Write report,” you might break them into easy steps:
- research section 1
- draft introduction
- create graphs
- write conclusion.
Schedule strategically
Schedule a few extra pomodoros in case tasks take longer than expected. This helps to prevent stress about meeting deadlines. If you don’t use them, spend them on self-learning or optional tasks.
The research behind it:
A study comparing different break strategies found that students taking systematic, predetermined breaks (like the Pomodoro Technique) reported higher levels of concentration and motivation, and lower levels of fatigue and distractedness compared to those taking self-regulated breaks.
Researchers also found efficiency benefits. They discovered similar task completion in shorter times.
Research in the journal Cognition indicates that taking brief pauses maintains consistent focus, and these breaks allow the mind to continue processing information in the background, often resulting in creative insights and novel approaches to challenges.
Think of your workday like running a marathon. You wouldn’t sprint the entire distance without water breaks. The Pomodoro Technique builds in those essential recovery moments.
Step Away: The Non-Negotiable Need for Actual Breaks
I know you are thinking this: “I don’t have time for breaks!“
Let me tell you something that might surprise you: you don’t have time NOT to take them.
What to do:
Research shows that opportunities for stress recovery which include quiet rooms for rest, vacation days, work-free weekends, and real lunch breaks, are associated with positive mood, less fatigue, and decreased employee burnout.
If taking full days off feels impossible right now, start smaller:
The micro-break
Every hour, stand up and walk for 2 minutes. Look out a window. Stretch your shoulders.
Microsoft’s research on brain wave activity demonstrates that breaks, even short ones, help your brain work differently. They don’t just alleviate chronic stress, they improve performance.
The lunch break that really is a break
Step away from your desk. Eat somewhere else. Don’t check emails.
Even minor issues can escalate when communication becomes ineffective during stressful periods, and taking breaks helps prevent the accumulation of stress that clouds judgment.
The end-of-year leave
If possible, book time off – even one or two days off. Your brain needs the reset.
Employees report that taking fewer vacation and sick days increases the feeling of burnout.
That is a dangerous pattern that continues with too many of you, because you are an employee with high integrity who just wants to do a good job. You will do a better job if you’re relaxed.
The research behind it:
A systematic review of workplace interventions for healthcare workers found that wellness strategies, both individually and organisationally focused, increased well-being, engagement and resilience while reducing burnout.
The review noted that many interventions don’t greatly disrupt daily productivity. Things like mindfulness practices during scheduled breaks are more easily sustained if supported by leaders.
This is important to remember. Burnout doesn’t announce itself with fireworks and a neon banner. It creeps up quietly until one day you can’t remember the last time you felt energised about your work.
Breaks aren’t luxuries – they’re important maintenance. Just like taking your car for its regular checks so it doesn’t break down when you least expect (and certainly don’t need) it to.
Reach Out: The Surprising Power of Asking for Help
You know, for many years, as I am a bit of a ‘perfectionist’, I struggled to ask for help. I thought it made me look incompetent. Or weak. Now I know I couldn’t have been more wrong.
What to do:
If you’re struggling, here are your lifelines:
Talk to your manager
Use the communication strategies we discussed earlier. The most desired workplace mental health resources are an open and accepting culture, clearer information about where to go for support, and training.
Access your Employee Assistance Program (EAP)
Based on usage data, in a company with 1,000 employees, about 45 people receive clinical services of assessment and brief counselling per year.
EAPs also provide management consultations, educational training on stress management, and crisis event responses. EAP should be available to you in a caring, responsible company.
If you don’t know if your company has an EAP, ask HR. Many employees are reluctant to use EAPs due to stigma, but these are confidential programs designed to assist with stress management, fatigue, and any issue impacting mental wellness.
There is no stigma to recognising you need help to be the best version of your Self.
Connect with colleagues
Research shows that 70-90% of help given in workplaces happens in response to requests. If you don’t ask, all the answers and resources people may willingly share will be wasted.
When we seek help, we’re better at learning and problem-solving, more creative, more satisfied, more efficient, and less stressed and burned out.
The research behind it:
Research suggests that if you make a thoughtful request, people will think you are more competent, not less.
The social threats involved in asking for help such as uncertainty, risk of rejection, potential for diminished status, activate the same brain regions that physical pain does, yet the research shows our fears are largely unfounded.
It’s a bit like the ‘monster under the bed’ when you were a small child. When you shine a torch on the issue, often it disappears!
Studies on EAP effectiveness found that providing treatment to individuals with mental health challenges yields meaningful return on investment, and EAP individual sessions significantly improve psychological health and wellbeing.
Your Next Steps
Workplace ‘busy-ness’ and the end of year rush don’t have to break you. Neither does any other overwhelming season in your career.
Start with one strategy this week. Just one.
Maybe it’s setting a boundary around checking emails after 7pm.
Maybe it’s having that honest conversation with your manager.
Maybe it’s trying the Pomodoro Technique on that project you’ve been avoiding.
Small actions compound. One boundary leads to another. One honest conversation makes the next one easier. One managed task builds confidence for the next.
The professionals I work with who thrive aren’t the ones who power through burnout, they are the ones who recognise the warning signs early and take action.
They understand that protecting their wellbeing isn’t selfish; it’s ESSENTIAL to doing their best work and building the career they deserve.
Many years ago, I ran the Manchester Marathon and New York Marathon in the same year. It took dedicated and consistent training interspersed with rest days and stretching, good nutrition and ensuring I drank enough water regularly.
This was important so that I didn’t injure myself.
As a result, I beat my desired finish time of 4 hours 30 minutes – I had so much adrenaline when I ran my first marathon that I completed it in 3 hours 39 minutes!
The lesson here is that your career is like a marathon, not a sprint.
Your career requires targeted training, strategic rest, proper support, and knowing when to adjust your pace.
I’d love to know, if you are feeling the pressure right now, what is ONE thing you’ll commit to doing for yourself this week?
If need help, visit www.janejacksoncoach.com and click “Book an Exploratory Chat”
References
- Maslach, C. & Leiter, M. P. (2016). Understanding the burnout experience: Recent research and its implications for psychiatry. World Psychiatry, 15(2), 103–111.
- Workvivo (n.d.). The Impact of Work-Related Stress on Internal Comms. https://www.workvivo.com/blog/work-related-stress-impact-internal-comms/
- BetterUp (2025). The Pomodoro Technique: How breaks improve productivity and well-being. https://www.betterup.com/blog/pomodoro-technique
- Workplace Mental Health (n.d.). Employee Assistance Programs. https://workplacementalhealth.org/mental-health-topics/employee-assistance-programs
- Baker, W. (n.d.). How to overcome your reluctance to ask for help at work. Greater Good Magazine, UC Berkeley. https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/how_to_overcome_your_reluctance_to_ask_for_help_at_work