Are We Facing a Resilience Crisis at Work (and How to Respond)

Workloads keep rising. Energy keeps dropping. And despite wellbeing programs popping up everywhere, burnout rates are still climbing. That’s what many HR leaders call the resilience crisis — and they might be right.

When I spoke at the Empowr event last year, I asked HR managers a simple question: what keeps your teams from performing at their best? The answers were strikingly similar: constant pressure, lack of focus, and people running on empty.

Here’s the truth: resilience is not about pushing harder. It’s about working smarter, creating rhythms that match how humans are wired. A few examples we explored:

• Flow beats force. Teams thrive when challenges match their skills. Too easy = boredom, too hard = stress.

• Breaks fuel creativity. The brain needs downtime to generate new ideas. Sometimes “doing nothing” is exactly what helps you move forward. We explored micro breaks and how a team can implement those.

• Adapt, don’t just endure. High performers don’t simply accept pressure — they learn to adjust how they work within it.

The resilience crisis won’t be solved by quick fixes or one-off wellbeing initiatives. It takes strategy. Without a clear wellbeing strategy, even great teams burn out.

If you’re leading a team, ask yourself: are we working in a way that’s truly sustainable? If not, that’s where the shift needs to start.

👉 Want to explore how to embed resilience in your team?