Burnout Part 3: Your Team is Watching and Their Nervous Systems Are Taking Notes

When did you last take a proper lunch break? Not a desk sandwich while scrolling emails — an actual break, away from your screen, that had nothing to do with work. If you had to think about it, this article is for you.

Research from Massey University's wellbeing@work project (Professor Jarrod Haar) found that by April 2024, 57% of New Zealand workers  (more than half) were sitting in the high burnout risk category, exceeding even the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic. That's not a personal resilience problem. That's a systemic one. And leaders are one of the most powerful parts of the system.

Your Behaviour Shapes Your Team's DOSE

From Part 1, you'll remember that burnout depletes your team's DOSE chemistry — dopamine, oxytocin, serotonin, and endorphins. What leaders often don't realise is that their own behaviour is one of the most powerful inputs into whether that chemistry flows or falters in the people around them.

Your nervous system has an unconscious alarm, neuroception, constantly scanning for safety. So does every person on your team. And one of the biggest signals that alarm reads is the behaviour of whoever's in charge. When you work through lunch, send emails at 10pm, or never visibly switch off, your team's neuroception doesn't register "dedicated leader." It registers: "this place isn't safe to slow down in." Oxytocin drops. Serotonin depletes. Everyone moves down the ladder.

On the flip side, when you visibly take a break, leave on time, or say "I'm heading out for a walk," those signals land too. They tell your team that recovery is allowed here — that rest doesn't have to be earned. Your behaviour IS the policy, whether you intend it to be or not.

Wellbeing policies only work if the leader models them. A workplace can have the most beautifully worded flexible working policy in the world, but if the manager is always the last to leave, the policy is effectively invisible.

 

The Six Psychosocial Factors or Where Burnout Lives

Research consistently identifies six psychosocial factors that either protect teams from burnout or accelerate it. Under New Zealand's Health and Safety at Work Act 2015, employers have a legal duty to manage these hazards with the same rigour as physical risks. As a leader, this responsibility sits with you.

01 — Workload & Capacity

Chronic overload is the most direct route to burnout and it's rarely self-reported. High performers absorb more than is sustainable without naming it, because naming it feels like failure. When workload exceeds capacity for long enough, dopamine and serotonin deplete and the body moves into survival mode.

Ask your team:

●      “What's on your plate right now that feels unmanageable?”

●      “Is there anything you're doing that you don't think should be your responsibility?”

●      “If you could drop one thing from your workload this month, what would it be?”

Action: Review workload distribution at least quarterly. Make "that's too much" normal by saying it yourself first.

02 — Autonomy & Control

People burn out faster when they have no say in how, when, or what they do. Micromanagement, rigid processes, and constant reprioritisation all erode the sense of agency that sustains effort. Loss of autonomy is a direct threat signal, it keeps the nervous system in fight-or-flight and depletes serotonin.

Ask your team:

●      “Do you feel like you have enough control over how you get your work done?”

●      “Are there processes or decisions where you'd like more input?”

●      “Is there anything that gets in the way of you doing your best work?”

Action: Involve your team in setting norms, planning, and problem-solving. Where you can't offer control, offer transparency about why.

03 — Recognition & Reward

A lack of acknowledgement erodes motivation quietly and steadily. Dopamine depends on feeling that effort leads to meaningful reward. When that loop is broken — when people work hard and hear nothing — the motivation system starts to shut down.

Ask your team:

●      “Do you feel like your work is recognised and valued here?”

●      “Is there anything you've done recently that you felt went unacknowledged?”

●      “What does meaningful recognition look like for you — public, private, written, verbal?”

Action: Build specific, timely recognition into your weekly rhythm. Ask people how they prefer to be acknowledged, it differs more than you'd expect.

04 — Community & Belonging

Isolation is a potent oxytocin depriver. People don't need to be close friends with colleagues, but they do need to feel they belong, that they can speak up, make mistakes, and be themselves without fear. This psychological safety doesn't build itself; it follows the leader.

Ask your team:

●      “Do you feel like you belong on this team?”

●      “Is there anything that makes it hard to speak up or share ideas here?”

●      “Do you feel comfortable raising concerns with me directly?”

Action: Model vulnerability first. Name your own uncertainty and mistakes. Psychological safety won't exist in your team if it doesn't exist in the room when you're in it.

05 — Fairness & Equity

Perceived unfairness, in workload, promotions, or decision-making triggers a direct threat response in the nervous system. It's not about every outcome going their way; it's about trusting the process is consistent and transparent.

Ask your team:

●      “Do you feel workload is distributed fairly across our team?”

●      “Is there anything about how decisions get made here that doesn't feel fair?”

●      “Do you feel you have equal access to development and visibility?”

Action: Be transparent about how decisions are made, especially the difficult ones. Trust is built in the repair, not just the intention.

06 — Values Alignment

Being repeatedly asked to act against one's values is one of the most depleting experiences at work and one of the least discussed. It hollows people out quietly. From a Te Ao Māori lens, this is a mauri drain: the life force leaks when work feels disconnected from what matters.

Ask your team:

●      “Does the work you're doing feel meaningful to you?”

●      “Is there anything you're being asked to do that doesn't sit right with you?”

●      “What would make your work feel more purposeful?”

Action: Connect work to purpose wherever you can. When systemic misalignment exists, name it honestly. People tolerate imperfect conditions far better when they feel heard.

Asking Well Is a Leadership Skill

The questions above only work if you ask them genuinely, not as a checklist exercise, but as a real signal that you want to hear the answer, even if it's uncomfortable. That means creating the conditions where honesty is safe: one-to-ones with enough time and privacy, a track record of following through, and your own willingness to say "I don't know" or "I got that wrong."

Frequency matters too. A once-yearly engagement survey tells you almost nothing useful. Brief, regular check-ins, where you ask one or two real questions and then actually listen — are far more revealing and far more protective.

Don't overlook your strongest people

High performers are not immune to burnout — they are often most at risk. Ambition and conscientiousness can mask early warning signs until the point of crisis. Check in with your best contributors just as attentively as those who are visibly struggling.

And if you recognise burnout in yourself, take it seriously. A depleted leader's DOSE chemistry is genuinely contagious, your team's nervous systems are wired to co-regulate with yours. In te ao Māori, when you tend to your taha hinengaro (mental health), taha tinana (physical health), and taha whānau (relationships), you're not being self-indulgent. You're protecting the people around you. That's what sustainable leadership actually looks like.

Model It, Don't Just Manage It

Conversations are essential — but what you do alongside what you ask sends the louder signal. Here are small, consistent habits that cost nothing:

Block breaks visibly

Put lunch and recovery time in your calendar — and keep it. When it appears in a leader's schedule, it gives everyone else permission to protect theirs.

Add a caveat to late messages

"No need to respond until tomorrow." Without it, a message at 8pm sends nervous systems into threat mode — even with no urgency intended.

Narrate what you're doing

"Heading out for a walk — back in 20." That small act makes recovery visible and gives your team a script to use themselves.

Say the expectation out loud

Don't assume your team knows after-hours responses aren't expected. Tell them explicitly. Clarity is one of the kindest things a leader can offer.

Have real workload conversations

Not "how are you?" in the corridor — a genuine check-in: what's unmanageable, and what would help.

Advocate upward

If workloads are chronically unsustainable, name it in rooms your team isn't in. Being their voice is part of the role.

Start This Week

Pick one thing from each area:

Visibility

Block one break or recovery activity in your calendar and keep it.

Communication

Add a caveat to your next out-of-hours message, or tell your team explicitly what you do and don't expect after hours.

Connection

Have one genuine check-in with a team member about their actual workload.

Your hauora

Go back to Getting Your Energy Back and pick one thing you've been quietly putting off for yourself.

Burnout is not a badge of dedication. It is a workplace hazard. The conditions that prevent burnout are just as contagious as those that cause it. And prevention starts with a question, asked with genuine curiosity and a willingness to hear the answer.

Leadership is one of the most demanding roles there is. The fact that you've read this far suggests you actually care about the people you lead and that's the most important ingredient of all.

At 3 Big Things we work with leaders and organisations to build sustainable, psychologically healthy workplaces. Want to explore what that looks like for your team: contact@3bigthings.co.nz