Mental overload: symptoms and risks for employees and the company

What is mental overload?

Are you a manager facing behavioural problems in your team? It may be a matter of mental workload at work. Every job involves a mental load: keeping several subjects in mind, anticipating, deciding, switching from one task to another. Mental overload begins when this load lasts too long or exceeds what the person can absorb with the time and resources available.

The problem has many consequences. It triggers a flood of emotions in the employee, often resulting in strong irritability. To limit its effects, it must be detected, treated and, above all, prevented.

The symptoms to watch for

When a colleague in a team or department becomes easily irritable or has trouble sleeping, this may be a warning sign. The symptoms generally fall into four families:

• Behaviour: irritability, aggressiveness towards colleagues, managers or customers, outbursts in meetings, withdrawal, conflicts that did not exist before.
• Concentration: repeated mistakes, forgetfulness, difficulty prioritising, tasks started and not finished.
• Physical signs: insomnia, fatigue that does not go away after rest, headaches, frequent minor illnesses.
• Relationship to work: work taken home, constant thoughts about work in spare time, dissatisfaction even when results are good, or on the contrary a loss of interest.

A change in mood can be temporary and due to family or health issues. Do not jump to conclusions, but do not let doubts linger either: if the signs persist or grow stronger, act quickly. Crises in meetings, conflicts with colleagues, an employee who no longer responds to requests or whose anxiety spills over onto others: these are signs that the problem is taking hold.

Multiplying mistakes or showing irritability is not a sign of rebellion. It is an alert. If an employee performs well and gives you satisfaction but seems dissatisfied with their work, offer an interview. It is an opportunity to ease their worries or to resolve situations that seem inextricable.

Possible causes of your employees' mood swings

Whatever the situation, the manager must play the prevention card so as not to amplify the consequences. The possible causes are many. Here are the main ones:

• multiple objectives to achieve within the same position;
• productivity demands that are not in line with the financial or human resources available;
• deadlines that are too short to complete a task;
• repetitive tasks that lead to fatigue;
• requirements that are too high or in contradiction with the job description;
• organisational problems that make it impossible to carry out assignments;
• a lack of team cohesion;
• too much autonomy in the position, without support;
• prolonged stress;
• assignments that change too quickly;
• a poor distribution of tasks within the team;
• an over-qualified employee who is not given assignments matching their skills.

Most of these causes relate to the organisation of work, not to the person. This is good news: the organisation of work is something a manager can act on.

What are the risks for a mentally exhausted employee?

An employee affected by mental overload faces several risks, which is why effective and lasting solutions must be found quickly:

• Exhaustion and burnout. The World Health Organization describes burnout in its International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11) as an occupational phenomenon resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed.
• Anxiety and sleep disorders, which feed fatigue and make the situation worse.
• Depression and lasting health problems in the most serious cases, which can become disabling.
• A spiral of self-imposed demands. Perfectly aware of their assignments, the employee raises the bar for themselves, works at home and thinks about work in their spare time, which increases anxiety and leads to reactions that are out of character.

The people around them suffer too. Family and close colleagues hear their complaints and worry about their health. Colleagues sometimes offer to take over certain tasks temporarily, which can spread the overload to the rest of the team.

What are the risks for the company?

• More errors and lower quality, because concentration is the first thing to suffer.
• Absences and prolonged sick leave, which put additional pressure on the rest of the team.
• Departures of employees who see no other way out, with the loss of skills that goes with them.
• A deteriorating team climate: tensions, conflicts, loss of trust in management.
• Damage to customer relations when irritability or mistakes reach customers.

The situation can become a real obstacle for the company, especially when several people in the same team are affected. Measuring the phenomenon helps to see it clearly: our article on how to measure mental health at work presents the main questionnaires.

How to react as a manager

1. Talk. Offer a one-to-one interview, in a calm setting, to listen rather than to judge.
2. Review the workload. List current assignments together, identify what can be postponed, delegated or dropped, and review the job description if needed.
3. Question your own management. Without meaning to, a manager can put too much pressure on the team. Management training can help identify what to improve.
4. Involve the right people. Occupational health services and HR can help, especially when health is at stake.
5. Follow up. Agree on a date to take stock and check that the measures have been implemented.

Preventing mental overload over time

The best treatment remains prevention. Several measures help:

• distribute tasks fairly and adjust them to each person's skills and availability;
• set clear priorities, so that everything is not urgent at the same time (our 9 tips to manage your priorities better can help);
• respect time to disconnect, outside working hours and during holidays;
• limit unnecessary meetings and emails;
• offer spaces and times for recovery, such as a quiet room;
• discuss workload regularly in team meetings, not only when a crisis occurs.

For more management tools, see our resources for effective managers.