Expectation that employees should take on more without additional resources can lead to stress, burn
Saying no to extra work is no longer taboo — especially among younger employees, according to a recent survey.
Two-thirds (65%) of employees feel empowered to refuse additional tasks, finds Resume Now.
Younger employees (25 and under) are the most empowered to say no, with 77% feeling comfortable refusing additional work compared to workers aged 26-40 (56%) and workers aged 41+ (66%).
However, declining work does not mean the tasks disappear—it means managers and HR professionals must rethink delegation and workload management. If employees are regularly turning down tasks or accepting extra work at the expense of their own mental health or time, it signals an imbalance in resources and expectations.
"If a manager is faced with a situation where employees are regularly saying ‘no’ to tasks, that's sort of a sign that something is out of balance,” says Jane O’Reilly, associate professor of organizational behaviour at the University of Ottawa.
“It's understandable that we can't always kind of increase our resources, but there's only so much time in a week. There's only so much stuff employees can get done over the course of a workday, and so if they're continually having to turn down tasks, that means that there really isn't enough resources to support what's happening in the team."
Understanding why employees say no
Resume Now’s survey also finds that 69% of men feel comfortable setting boundaries, compared to 62% of women.
However, the reasons behind these refusals vary; O'Reilly emphasizes that understanding why an employee says no is the first step to addressing the issue.
"To a large extent, the reason why people are saying ‘no’ is because they're overwhelmed and they don't feel like they have the resources to get that task done,” she says.
“In that case, a manager can gently peel the layers a little bit to learn more about, ‘Okay, what is the employee's interest in the situation? What are the underlying reasons why they're saying no to this task?’"
Source: Resume Now
Not every employee explicitly refuses work. Some may accept tasks but fail to meet deadlines, which O’Reilly explains is another indicator that employees are at their limit. This indicator might be harder to spot than an outright refusal of work, but there are signs to look out for, she says.
“If this is an employee who typically embraces going above and beyond, taking on additional tasks, likes the challenges of new tasks … that's usually a big sign for a manager to maybe figure out what's happening here, reassess how much work is on their plate, and see if there's ways of re-strategizing work across the entire work group."
Legal considerations: when does extra work become a legal issue?
The expectation that employees should take on more without additional resources leads to stress, burnout, and potential legal consequences. But as Ioana Pantis, partner at McMillan in Toronto, explains, the line between reasonable expectations and grounds for litigation is not a hard and fast rule.
"In terms of the legalities of giving extra work to employees, and when it crosses over into constructive dismissal territory, it really depends on the circumstances, including what the employee’s role is, how much responsibility they're expected to have, what job duties and expectations have been communicated to them, how much extra work they're being asked to do, and for how long and how much their hours of work are increasing beyond their regular hours,” Pantis explains.
“It's the whole picture that needs to be accounted for."
Pantis advises that clearly defined job descriptions and contracts are crucial for setting workload expectations and avoiding litigation or constructive dismissal claims.
"If there is not a written job description, which is not uncommon, then there may be more ambiguity and disagreement about what work an employee is really expected to do,” she says.
“The answer will likely depend on past practice. So, if suddenly an employer is requiring an employee to do much more work, or different work than they did for many months or years prior, that could be very unreasonable and a constructive dismissal."
Additional work can sometimes trigger human rights concerns, she stresses.
"For example, if a single mother with childcare responsibilities is regularly asked to do extra work, and that impacts her ability to pick up her children from daycare or to take care of them in the evenings, that could be the basis of a constructive dismissal claim and also a human rights claim."
How HR can prevent overload before it starts
HR professionals play a key role in preventing workplace burnout, says O’Reilly; for example, proactive strategies such as stress audits can help identify when workloads are becoming unmanageable.
"It sort of depends on the organization, but ideally organizations, HR departments, should be keeping a pulse on their employees in terms of conducting stress audits and understanding to what extent do employees as a whole feel like they have enough time and resources to complete their work tasks," she says.
These audits help HR professionals assess whether workloads are fair, whether additional hires are needed, or if resources should be reallocated. Resume Now’s report reinforces this, noting that 42% of workers experience difficulty managing workload expectations, despite efforts to set boundaries.
Source: Resume Now
“When organizations are running under this mantra of doing more with less, they're putting a lot more pressure on their employees that remain in their organization,” O’Reilly says, adding that “daily hassles”, like computer issues or excessive meetings, can add up.
“In combination with everything else that's going on in employees’ lives, they become really impactful.”
Performance reviews key for preventing employee burnout and work refusal
Preventing inadvertent overloading of employees and the resultant burnout starts with annual performance reviews, says O’Reilly, outlining that when an employee’s performance is tracked thoroughly, pain points can be identified early.
This points to the organization’s ability to define job roles and tasks, she says.
“When organizations are able to really define both for themselves and for their employees what good performance looks like, what sort of milestones should employees be meeting, what sort of deadlines they should be meeting, and what sort of tasks are associated with their job,” O’Reilly says.
“In these organizations where employee’s job descriptions are very covertly expanding as they don't replace previous employees who have left, that's where we start to see the bigger issues.”
Why saying ‘no’ is good for business
Not only is encouraging employees to set boundaries a matter of well-being—it’s about sustaining long-term productivity, O’Reilly adds.
"What's good for employees is also good for organizations,” she says.
“When people can work at that level of productivity where they're productive, but they're also maintaining their levels of low stress or reducing the risk of burnout, that's also good for organizations in the long run.”
Pantis also underscores the importance of handling additional work fairly, particularly when there have been recent layoffs, or a team member quits or goes on leave – a time period which can see remaining employees taking on heavier loads, often without a plan for relief.
It’s this lack of planning that can lead to uncertainty as well as burnout and constructive dismissal claims, she says.
"For example, if another employee resigned or is on a leave, requiring a different employee to do both their own job and that of the other employee for several weeks or months, [this] could be very unreasonable and could lead to a valid constructive dismissal claim,” says Pantis.
“But ultimately, there should be a plan for how workloads will be spread out across employees, reasonably and based on what their qualifications are and based on the business needs."
