By mid-August, most teams have thinned out. The work hasn’t. It’s just found somewhere else to go, usually towards whoever answers first, whoever’s still at their desk, or whoever’s too conscientious to say they’re already stretched.
Nobody sat down and decided it should work that way. It just did, the same way it does every year, and by the time anyone notices, one or two people are quietly carrying far more than everyone else. This is where fair workload distribution comes in. The extra work should go wherever it can be handled properly, not just to whoever’s most available or most agreeable.
Getting cover sorted is half the job. The other half is what happens to the extra work once someone’s covering it, and that’s the bit teams tend to skip. (If you haven’t sorted a cover plan yet, start with Cover Planning That Works, then come back to this.)
Why uneven workloads lead to burnout
An uneven workload doesn’t announce itself. The people picking up the extra rarely complain, because complaining feels like letting the team down when others are on leave. So it goes unnoticed, right up until it doesn’t: a mistake creeps in, someone’s quality drops, or the person who’s been quietly absorbing everything burns out and hands in their notice a few weeks later, and everyone’s surprised.
It also raises a fairness question that’s easy to miss in the rush of a busy month. If someone has a flexible working arrangement, caring responsibilities, or a health-related adjustment in place, that doesn’t pause because the team’s short-staffed. Fair doesn’t mean identical. Managing reduced capacity fairly means the redistribution is deliberate and takes people’s circumstances into account, rather than defaulting to whoever’s easiest to lean on.
What fair workload distribution looks like in practice
Redistribute the work on purpose, not by default. When something needs picking up, decide who’s best placed to take it rather than letting it land on whoever responds fastest. The fastest response usually comes from the same person every time, which is exactly how the imbalance builds.
Ask about capacity, not effort. Someone who looks busy isn’t necessarily overloaded, and someone who looks calm isn’t necessarily coasting. A two-minute conversation about what people have room for beats guessing from how stressed they seem.
Setting clear workload expectations
Be upfront about it. If priorities are shifting because the team’s stretched, tell people what’s being paused, what still matters, and who’s making that call. Teams can cope with a busy patch. What wears them down is not knowing whether the pressure has an end point, or what’s expected of them while it lasts.
Check in with the people who don’t ask for help. The loudest complaints rarely come from the most overloaded person. It’s usually the opposite: the person who never says anything is the one who needs checking on.
Spot the signs of an unfair workload
A few things worth watching for, especially once the team’s been stretched for a couple of weeks:
- One person’s diary is back-to-back, while someone else’s has noticeable gaps.
- The same name comes up every time something urgent needs picking up.
- A flexible working arrangement or reasonable adjustment has quietly stopped being honoured “just for now.”
- Nobody’s said out loud what’s been paused, so people are each guessing at their own priorities.
- Someone who used to flag when they were stretched has gone quiet about it.
Any one of these on its own isn’t a crisis. Two or three together, and it’s worth a proper conversation before September.
The takeaway
Fairness during a quiet, stretched period doesn’t mean everyone does less. It means someone decides, on purpose, who does what, and says so clearly, rather than letting the loudest silence in the room decide by default. Get that right and the team that covered August well is still a team in September, not one person short.
If this raised more questions than answers, our employee relations team can help you work through it properly. Get in touch.
Quick questions on managing workload fairly
What counts as a reasonable workload during a busy period?
There’s no fixed number. It depends on the role and the person. What matters is whether someone can do the work without cutting corners on quality, or without putting in hours nobody agreed to. If it only holds together because someone’s quietly doing unpaid extra hours, that’s not a reasonable workload. It’s an unreasonable one nobody’s noticed yet.
Do reasonable adjustments still apply when the team’s short-staffed?
Yes. A reduced-hours arrangement, a caring commitment, or a health-related adjustment doesn’t pause because things are busy. If it needs to flex for a short period, that’s a conversation to have with the person directly, not a decision made on their behalf.