Howdy HR friends!👋

If it feels like everyone at work is exhausted and somehow still expected to do more, you’re not imagining it. “Fatigue” didn’t become Glassdoor’s word of the year for fun.

Teams are running on empty, productivity theater is still alive and well, and HR is stuck in the middle trying to make it all sustainable.

This edition looks at what’s actually driving workplace exhaustion, and what HR can realistically influence when the tank is already on E.

Today’s edition is presented by SelectSoftware Reviews

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👇️ Coming up

In today’s edition

😓 The Great Exhaustion: Why Your Team Can't Keep Running on Empty

🛋️ The Break Room: Is your organization actually addressing workplace fatigue, or just talking about it?

📚 Human Readsources: New research on efficient work hours, the problem with fake diversity interviews, and strategies for building resilience in uncertain times.

💭 Opening thoughts

😓 The Great Exhaustion: Why your team can't keep running on empty

Nearly 70% of workers report operating at less than full capacity, with Glassdoor data showing "fatigue" mentions surging 41% in 2025, following years of anxiety and burnout as defining workforce experiences.

This sustained energy crisis threatens not just immediate productivity but long-term innovation capacity, with fatigued teams demonstrating 27% less creative problem-solving ability and 3x higher turnover intention rates.

HR departments face a pivotal moment to move beyond superficial wellness initiatives toward addressing systemic causes of fatigue through workload recalibration, meaningful flexibility policies, and creating psychological safety.

For easy reading

🧠 Let’s unpick

Let's call it what it is: we're in the middle of a workplace fatigue epidemic. After 5 years of pandemic disruption, political chaos, economic uncertainty, and AI anxiety, your people are completely drained. This isn't your garden-variety burnout that a mental health webinar can fix. The 41% spike in "fatigue" mentions on Glassdoor reviews reveals something more systemic – a workforce that's emotionally and mentally exhausted beyond their capacity to recover between crises.

The consequences are already showing up in your metrics. According to Glassdoor's analysis, "job hugging" – staying in unsatisfying roles due to market fears – is up dramatically, creating a workforce that's present but disengaged.

Meanwhile, your executives are still pushing productivity initiatives that completely miss the point. When your team is running on fumes, squeezing more output isn't just ineffective – it's actively harmful to retention, innovation, and your employer brand.

As HR, we're caught in an impossible position: leadership wants more productivity while employees have less to give, and we're expected to somehow bridge that widening gap.

So what can HR actually do?

You can read more at...

🔗 Worker Fatigue Dominates 2024 As Glassdoor's Word of Year (Axios) 

🔗 Workplace Fatigue Crisis: Politics, Economy and AI Fuel Exhaustion (Forbes) 

🔗 2025's Workforce Crisis: Fatigue Dominates Amid Economic Uncertainty (CNBC)

🎬 Lights, camera, action!

Takeaway and try

1. 📊 Stop measuring hours and start measuring impact – shift your performance metrics to focus on outcomes and quality of work rather than time spent or volume of tasks completed.

2. 🗑️ Run a company-wide "process purge" where teams identify and eliminate unnecessary meetings, reports, and workflows that drain energy without adding value.

3. 🔋 Implement mandatory recovery periods with genuine disconnect policies (no email checking!) and make sure your leadership team visibly models these behaviors.

4. 🛡️ Give middle managers explicit permission and cover to prioritize team wellbeing over arbitrary productivity targets – they're your frontline defense against burnout.

5. 🔊 Bring real employee fatigue data to leadership meetings and frame it as a business risk, not just a HR concern – connect the dots between exhaustion and declining innovation, retention, and customer service."

👀Too long didn’t read

TLDR

😓 Your workforce is running on empty after years of crisis fatigue, and no amount of wellness initiatives will fix it – what they need is workload relief, genuine recovery time, and leaders who understand that sustainable performance beats burnout-inducing productivity pushes.

☕The break room

What’s your take?

📚 Additional reading

Human Readsources

1. ⏰ Top Performers Excel Without 80-Hour Workweeks (CNBC) - Star employees excel through efficiency, not excessive hours.

2. ⚖️ JPMorgan Sued Over Alleged ""Fake"" Diversity Interviews (HCamag) - JPMorgan Chase sued for fake interviews with Black candidates.

3. 🧹 Breakthrough Therapy Reverses Cognitive Decline in Seniors (HR Brew) - AI raises ethical concerns about privacy and decision-making autonomy.

That’s it for today.

Thanks for reading to the end and we hope today’s edition sparked some new ideas for your workplace! 🧠

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