Sales & Business Development

Balancing Business Growth with Employee Burnout

Ismail Lee · 4 Aug 2026

Colleagues across my team are struggling to keep up with the increased workload since we landed that big contract with a major UK retailer last month, we have been working non-stop to meet the tight deadlines. As someone who is involved in business development, I do not want to compromise on the quality of our service, but at the same time, I am worried about the burnout rates and high turnover we are experiencing. We have tried to hire more staff, but it is taking time to find the right people, so in the meantime, I am trying to find ways to manage the workload and support my team, which is why I am asking, how can we balance our business growth ambitions with the need to protect our employees' wellbeing and prevent burnout?

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5 replies

Ruby Wright · 4 Aug 2026

I made a similar mistake at my old company where we prioritized meeting client demands over staff wellbeing, and it ended up costing us some of our best people, now I'm trying to learn from that experience in my new role. We're actually looking into implementing a tool like 15Five to help monitor workloads and prevent burnout.

Dominic Miller · 4 Aug 2026

Having changed jobs recently, I tried introducing a 4-day workweek at my old company to reduce burnout, but it didn't quite work out as staff ended up putting in longer hours on those 4 days to meet deadlines.

Josephine Chavez · 4 Aug 2026

I've found that prioritizing tasks and focusing on the 20% that drives 80% of the results helps to manage workload. We use Trello to track progress and identify bottlenecks, which has been a big help in managing our workload since we started working with that major retailer.

Martin Boyd · 4 Aug 2026

We're seeing similar issues at our firm, where I've found that introducing flexible working hours has helped reduce the pressure on staff, particularly with our team using Trello to manage workload and prioritize tasks.

Christian Watkins · 4 Aug 2026

Given our reliance on a few key clients, I'm worried that if we can't get on top of this burnout issue we risk not just losing staff, but also damaging our reputation with those clients, like that major UK retailer. We've seen it happen to companies like Wonga, where reputational damage can be hard to recover from.