Over half of NZ employees are now in the high-burnout-risk category. Job insecurity has doubled in four months. AI-driven role change, always-on hybrid working and performance pressure are compounding into measurable distress. The drivers are structural. So is the response.
The evidence
57%
of NZ employees were in the high-burnout-risk category by April 2024. More than double the rate six months earlier.
Massey University Wellbeing@Work (Prof. Jarrod Haar), 2024
$4.17B
direct economic cost of absence to the NZ economy in 2024. Nearly 13 million working days lost.
Southern Cross / BusinessNZ Workplace Wellness Report, 2025
Net 49.7%
of NZ businesses reported an increase in employee stress. Workload and long hours are the leading work-related stressor.
Southern Cross / BusinessNZ Workplace Wellness Report, 2023
What it looks like
In the corporate sector, burnout rarely arrives loudly. It arrives as a gradual flattening: high performers going quiet on Slack, presenteeism replacing engagement, sick leave climbing in pockets, and people declining the stretch assignments that used to be career-defining. By the time the engagement survey picks it up, they have already started looking elsewhere.
The Massey 2024 data shows the inflection point: job insecurity rose from 22% in December 2023 to 48.4% by April 2024, and burnout risk doubled with it, with fully remote workers carrying the highest risk. For Chief People Officers, HR directors and Chief Operating Officers, the signal is in turnover, replacement cost and sick leave, and resilience training or another wellbeing month can't reverse it. The drivers are structural, and they sit in the work design.
The drivers
Hybrid and remote working have eroded the boundary between work and life. Massey's data shows fully remote workers have the highest burnout risk, not because of where they work but because of when. Digital availability has become the new performance signal, and the cost is being paid in sleep, recovery and family time.
Utilisation pressure in professional services, sales targets in financial services, and AI-driven role uncertainty across the corporate sector are compounding into anxiety about the future of work itself. CA ANZ data shows poor work/life balance and insufficient self-care are the top-cited drivers among members reporting decreased mental health.
Job insecurity is now the single biggest national driver of burnout, per Massey's 2024 data. NZ corporates have not been immune to the restructure pattern visible across the public sector. The cumulative effect is a workforce running scared, not engaged.
How we help
3 Big Things works with corporate and professional services organisations across Aotearoa: banks, insurers, accounting and consulting firms, technology companies, and large private sector employers. We understand the commercial discipline of corporate decision-making: the need to defend a wellbeing investment against the bottom line, the cost of attrition, and the difference between a programme that ticks a box and one that moves the needle.
Identify the structural drivers in your workforce Psychosocial hazard assessment aligned to ISO 45003 and WorkSafe NZ guidance. Designed for the realities of a corporate workforce: hybrid working patterns, performance management cycles, sales pressure, and the conditions that engagement surveys typically miss.
Equip your leaders to lead through change Executive coaching and people leader development designed for the realities of contemporary corporate leadership in Aotearoa: AI transition, restructure activity, hybrid teams, and the conversations leaders need to be able to have but often haven't been trained for.
Provide registered-psychologist support that is more than EAP Confidential, professional clinical support delivered by registered psychologists, with proactive coaching pathways for high performers under sustained pressure. Complementary to existing EAP, designed to add the depth EAP typically can't.
We understand the commercial reality of operating a business in Aotearoa. We design our work around it.
Talk to us