The Frequency

As CEO of Software House, we made a significant shift in our work norms after losing two senior developers to burnout in the same quarter. That was my wake-up call that our hustle culture was actually destroying the team.

The biggest change was implementing mandatory “deep work” blocks where managers cannot schedule meetings, assign new tasks, or send Slack messages expecting immediate responses. Every developer gets three uninterrupted hours each morning. This sounds simple, but it required retraining our managers to batch their requests instead of constantly pinging the team throughout the day.

We also changed how we measure productivity. We stopped tracking hours logged and started measuring output quality and sprint completion rates. This removed the pressure to look busy and allowed people to work at sustainable paces. One of our best developers told me she was spending two hours a day just appearing active on Slack before we made this change.

For mental health specifically, we introduced a “no questions asked” mental health day policy. Team members get four additional days per year that don’t come from their PTO balance, and they don’t need to explain why they’re taking them. Usage went from zero in the first month to consistent use across the team, which told me people actually needed this but were afraid to ask.

The practice that made the most visible difference was requiring managers to model healthy boundaries themselves. I started leaving at 5 PM sharp and stopped sending emails after hours. Within weeks, the team followed. Our attrition rate dropped from 22% to under 10% in the following year.

I’ve seen burnout up close, lived it, and then studied it like a detective until I could climb out of that chronic fatigue hole. One thing that became obvious is that burnout is often less about hours and more about helplessness. Resentment builds when people feel they have no control, no say, and no way to stop the treadmill. At Strew, we use regular one to ones to catch that early. Not as performance theatre, but as a check on load, clarity, and what feels stuck. We try to name the real friction before it turns into quiet withdrawal.

The practice that made the most visible difference was giving people more autonomy and being very explicit about it. Clear outcomes, clear ownership, and freedom on how to get there. It is ironic, but when I managed less and led more, everything moved more easily. People started taking breaks without guilt because they were steering their own work. They used mental health support more naturally too, because it felt normal to look after themselves in a culture that did not treat rest as suspicious. Since we shifted toward autonomy, we have needed to talk far less about burnout, which is the best sign that it is working.

The reality is that you won’t reduce burnout by adding additional mental health benefits, you will reduce it by changing behaviors that caused burnout in the first place. I was able to make a drastic change for myself by implementing one key change. I made my practice visible with my own boundaries. I informed my coworkers when I was stopping work for the evening by setting an out-of-office autoresponder: “I answer emails during office hours.” I took mental health days publicly with my coworkers by telling them, “I’m off on Friday. No emergencies. I just need a rest. See you on Monday.” I stopped glorifying working 60+ hours per week. The critical part is that I had to go first. No amount of policies will matter if leadership models the opposite behavior.

First, I shifted how we talked about productivity. I stopped measuring success by working hours but instead focused on measurable outcomes. This sounds obvious, but it’s radical in most companies. Next, I normalized conversations where burnout and mental health were actively discussed in my one-on-one meetings. Rather than waiting for the breaking point before addressing their burnout, I asked them an alternative question: “What is one thing that is causing you to be drained? How can we solve it?” People responded to that question in a variety of different ways, such as “There are too many meetings,” or “This project has no clear priorities.” These responses are fixable by management and therefore not worth causing them to have a mental health issue at the same time. Finally, I significantly reduced the number of meetings that were not providing any results towards decision-making. I made attendance optional at informational meetings and created “no meeting blocks” where no one could plan a meeting, so that employees could work focused without getting distracted.

People often don’t view burnout as a mental health problem. They see it as a management failure. They feel burned out due to constantly having to switch their attention to different things, lack of clear expectations, being in meetings at the same time, thinking about the next one, and so on.

The biggest shift I made was going after the unspoken rule that struggling in silence meant you were strong. I started saying out loud, in team meetings, that I personally go to therapy and use supervision to take care of myself. Once leadership models that, it gives everyone else permission to do the same. I also worked with program directors to make sure supervision wasn’t just about cases and paperwork. We started actually asking staff how they were doing emotionally with the work in front of them. A lot of staff didn’t even know how to access their mental health benefits. So we brought HR in to walk people through it plainly, and we addressed confidentiality fears directly.

We reduced burnout by changing the expectation that being constantly available equals being committed. Managers were asked to plan more realistically, flag capacity issues earlier, and treat time off and mental health support as part of performance sustainability instead of exceptions. We also made mental health benefits more visible in manager check-ins and company communications so employees did not feel they had to “earn” the right to use them.

Adding regular workload conversations into manager one on ones also made a visible difference. Instead of only discussing output, we asked managers to review priorities, stress levels, and what could be delayed, delegated, or removed. That created earlier intervention, reduced silent overload, and made employees more comfortable using available support before burnout became a bigger issue.

We adjusted work norms and manager expectations by standardising how we use large language models to remove busywork while keeping humans responsible for judgment and final quality. Managers were asked to prioritize outcome and final review rather than time spent on admin, and we provided simple workflows so everyone knew when to rely on the tool and when to take over. That removed routine admin from people’s days so no one was stuck doing repetitive tasks. The single practice that made a visible difference was the easy, standard workflow where the tool handles initial research, cleans notes, and sets up drafts while humans perform the final checks. This change smoothed delivery, reduced late-night catch ups, and made it easier for team members to use available mental health resources.

We changed work norms by instituting a company-wide collaboration window of three to four hours and asking teams to treat the rest of the day as asynchronous. Managers were told to protect focused time, stop using presence as a performance signal, and set clear ownership and service-level expectations for requests. That structure reduced after-hours interruptions and made availability predictable, which helped employees take mental health time without stigma. The single practice that made the most visible difference for our team was the dedicated collaboration window, since it preserved deep work while creating a dependable period for alignment and problem solving.

Burnout on a small team hits differently than it does at a large company. There’s no buffer. When one person is running on empty, everyone feels it immediately.

The burnout problem snuck up on us the same way both times. People weren’t complaining. They were just quietly doing too much for too long and I wasn’t seeing it until the signs were already obvious. That was the real issue. I had no visibility into how my team was actually feeling until it was already affecting their work.

The practice that changed everything was a simple weekly check-in question I added to our one-on-ones. Not “how’s the work going” but “what’s feeling unsustainable right now.” That one shift made it safe for people to flag problems before they became burned out.

Most teams don’t lack mental health resources. They lack permission to actually use them. Normalizing that conversation from the top changes everything.

Response speed was separated from the measurement of an individual staff member’s job performance as one of our organizational changes. In high-pressure environments in which software is being delivered, burnout generally does not occur due to workload, but due to how soon the employee will be able to recover from the work. To facilitate higher performance over time we also changed how we train our managers to talk with their employees. We retrained managers to utilize “asynchronous communication first” as the primary means of communicating just as we were training them to utilize scheduled delivery of non-urgent communications for all team members, assuring that the off-hours of the team were not violated. As noted by and backed by research conducted by UKG, manager communication patterns had a larger impact on the mental health of an employee than did a spouse; as such these patterns are a large contributor to the stress levels of their team.

The second most impactful change we made was to increase the visibility of Leaders taking breaks and finding ways to recharge through the shared calendars in the organization. When Leaders model together publicly that taking breaks to recharge is necessary for high performance, it helps to remove the stigma associated with doing so and thereby creates a safer working environment for team members to take advantage of the benefits available to them. This visible change, in the use of professional counseling and wellness resources, allowed for increased utilization of those resources by our staff members.

While scaling a global organization has been a marathon, what has become clear is that the most resilient teams are viewed as a work-discharge phase, where work is viewed as a way to develop the area or to assist others in developing as a result of working. We, as leaders, are responsible to ensure that the desire to create an innovative product does not exceed our desire to support the well-being of those that develop those products.

One of the most important shifts I made was changing the unspoken expectation that being constantly available meant being committed. Instead of encouraging people to “push through,” I worked with managers to normalize pausing, asking for support, and using available mental health resources without guilt or explanation. The practice that made the biggest visible difference was inviting teams to intentionally build short pauses into the workday and having managers model that behavior themselves. When leaders openly blocked time to reset, stepped away briefly, or acknowledged when they needed support, it sent a powerful message that well-being wasn’t just allowed—it was respected. As a result, people felt safer using mental health benefits and speaking up earlier, before burnout escalated. That shift reduced quiet exhaustion and improved focus, trust, and engagement. When people no longer felt they had to earn rest or hide stress, they showed up more present, productive, and resilient—without being pushed harder.

We adjusted work norms by actively encouraging managers to model healthy boundaries. One practice that made a visible difference was introducing “no-meeting recovery blocks” after high-pressure deadlines. Team members were encouraged to use that time for rest, planning, or mental health resources. When leaders respected those blocks, employees felt comfortable doing the same. Utilization of mental health support resources increased and team energy during the following weeks noticeably improved.

To reduce burnout, we shifted the focus from constant availability to outcome-based performance instead of hours worked. Managers were encouraged to be more flexible with deadlines and workloads, ensuring that employees didn’t feel pressured to be constantly “on.” We also promoted mental health days and encouraged employees to take time off without feeling guilty, which led to better engagement with mental health benefits.

One practice that had a significant impact was implementing a “Mental Health Week” every quarter, where we explicitly communicated to employees that it was okay to disconnect for a full week. This initiative not only reduced stress but also helped increase the use of mental health benefits, as employees felt supported in prioritizing their well-being.

I adjusted work norms by formalizing mental health days and treating them as a routine benefit rather than an exception. To change manager expectations, we implemented a reward points program that granted additional time off for advance notice and provided a bonus in the paycheck for unused hours at month end. Managers were instructed to apply the program rather than policing days off, which encouraged planning and respect for employees’ needs. The single practice that made the most visible difference was the reward points program tied to advance notice and unused hours.

We realized that reducing burnout starts with redefining what productivity looks like and giving managers the clarity and tools to support their teams. Instead of equating long hours with impact, we encouraged outcomes-based goals and built flexibility into schedules. This shift allowed team members to manage energy, not just time, which naturally reduced stress and normalized breaks without guilt.

One practice that made a visible difference was embedding regular check-ins focused on well-being into team routines. Managers were trained to ask about workload, mental health, and work-life balance just as they would about project status. By creating a safe space for these conversations, employees felt comfortable using mental health resources because it was framed as part of standard practice rather than an exception.

We also paired this with transparent communication about available benefits. Simply highlighting that mental health support was not only accessible but encouraged helped remove the stigma. Leaders shared personal experiences or examples of peers using resources effectively, which made the benefits feel relevant and approachable.

The combination of flexible norms, manager guidance, and normalized dialogue changed team behavior. The impact wasn’t just in metrics but in day-to-day interactions: people were more present, more engaged, and more willing to prioritize their well-being without fear of judgment.

The key takeaway is that cultural shifts start at the manager level and ripple outward. Policies alone are not enough; embedding well-being into the rhythm of work and leading with empathy ensures mental health benefits are actually used and burnout is meaningfully addressed.