Avoiding Burnout on Tight Deadlines | Peter Hughes
Deadlines are not new. What is new is how often people are expected to run at sprint pace without recovery. Burnout is not a lack of resilience. It is a systems problem. Too much demand, too little control, too little recovery, for too long. What works in real teams - Cut scope early. Late scope cuts cost more, and they damage trust. - Make work visible. If you cannot see the workload, you cannot manage it. - Protect deep work blocks. Meetings expand under stress. That makes delivery harder, which creates more stress. - Rotate pressure roles. If one person is always on the hook, you are burning a single point of failure. - Celebrate progress. Not to be fluffy. Progress markers help people sustain effort. My test If a plan requires heroics every week, the plan is broken. Fix the plan, not the people.
peter.hughes.team