Personnel Today
  • OHW+
  • Resources
    • Clinical governance
    • Disability
    • Ergonomics
    • Health surveillance
    • OH employment law
    • OH service delivery
    • Research
    • Return to work and rehabilitation
    • Sickness absence management
    • Wellbeing and health promotion
  • Conditions
    • Mental health
    • Musculoskeletal disorders
    • Blood pressure
    • Cancer
    • Cardiac
    • Dementia
    • Diabetes
    • Respiratory
    • Stroke
  • CPD
  • Webinars
  • Jobs
  • Personnel Today

Register
Log in
Personnel Today
  • OHW+
  • Resources
    • Clinical governance
    • Disability
    • Ergonomics
    • Health surveillance
    • OH employment law
    • OH service delivery
    • Research
    • Return to work and rehabilitation
    • Sickness absence management
    • Wellbeing and health promotion
  • Conditions
    • Mental health
    • Musculoskeletal disorders
    • Blood pressure
    • Cancer
    • Cardiac
    • Dementia
    • Diabetes
    • Respiratory
    • Stroke
  • CPD
  • Webinars
  • Jobs
  • Personnel Today

StressMental health conditionsSleepOccupational HealthOHW+

Unspoken workplace expectations can heighten risk of burnout

by Nic Paton 27 Jan 2023
by Nic Paton 27 Jan 2023 Shutterstock
Shutterstock

Going above and beyond in a role or task may often help to get you noticed at work, but if there’s an unspoken rule that such behaviour is expected from workers, that in itself can cause stress, pressure and, potentially, burnout, research has suggested.

A study by Professor Ekaterina Netchaeva, assistant professor in management and human resources at French business school HEC Paris, has considered how certain unspoken or unwritten expectations from managers around employee behaviour can often put more pressure on staff than the actual tasks themselves.

So-called ‘Organizational Citizenship Behavior’ (OCB) is where individual actions go beyond assigned tasks. These can be discretionary actions by employees outside of their formal job description, so perhaps taking on an extra responsibility or working late.

Such OCBs will often be undertaken because an employee wants to excel in their role, because they feel it will benefit the wider organisation, or because they want to be seen to be going the extra mile to be noticed and, perhaps, promoted or rewarded down the line.

Workplace burnout

Cost of living and burnout combining to create mental health crisis

Burnout afflicts finance sector despite hybrid working

More than 10 million workers suffering from burnout

However, if there are unwritten or unspoken expectations from managers or within the working environment that OCB is expected, then that can put more pressure on workers than the actual tasks themselves.

Although, often, OCB can include positive behaviours – for example taking on charity projects, being more cooperative, or helping newcomers to settle in – pressuring employers to engage in these activities can cause them more emotional fatigue than the fatigue of actually engaging in these tasks. This can potentially cause burnout in the long run, the study, published in the Journal of Vocational Behavior, has cautioned.

Many times, these OCBs are implicitly encouraged by managers through general statements about how ‘good’ employees behave, and stories highlighting exemplary employee behaviour. Professor Netchaeva also found that good sleep can moderate the effect of this pressure on fatigue.

“According to our results, to avoid employee burnout, managers should temper their messages so that employees feel less pressure to engage in OCB activities,” said Professor Netchaeva.

Sign up to our weekly round-up of HR news and guidance

Receive the Personnel Today Direct e-newsletter every Wednesday

OptOut
This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

“Additionally, they should avoid overburdening employees with after-hours work to ensure that the latter get a good night’s rest. With better sleep, employees can better overcome the felt pressure, which will have a lesser spillover effect on fatigue,” she added.

As the research concluded: “Consistently, we found that the perceived citizenship pressure but not engaging in OCBs at work increased the reported levels of fatigue at the end of the workday. We further found the relationship between citizenship pressure and fatigue to be moderated by the quality of sleep the night before.”

Nic Paton

Nic Paton is consultant editor at Personnel Today. One of the country's foremost workplace health journalists, Nic has written for Personnel Today and Occupational Health & Wellbeing since 2001, and edited the magazine from 2018.

previous post
University unions reject latest pay offer
next post
Shift from reaction to health prevention needed to keep people in work, MPs told

You may also like

Employers ‘worryingly’ ignorant about stress risk assessments

20 May 2025

Stress for HR specialists greater at larger organisations

2 May 2025

Computer says no: IT woes giving employees sleepless...

15 Apr 2025

Nearly half did not take even one full...

14 Apr 2025

Quarter feel their employer is ineffective at managing...

11 Apr 2025

Hospitality and shift workers struggling with burnout

28 Mar 2025

Seven in 10 builders find it ‘too difficult’...

28 Mar 2025

Hybrid workers less sick and less stressed

28 Mar 2025

A third struggling with burnout just three months...

24 Mar 2025

Half of employees have cried because of work...

19 Mar 2025

  • 2025 Employee Communications Report PROMOTED | HR and leadership...Read more
  • The Majority of Employees Have Their Eyes on Their Next Move PROMOTED | A staggering 65%...Read more
  • Prioritising performance management: Strategies for success (webinar) WEBINAR | In today’s fast-paced...Read more
  • Self-Leadership: The Key to Successful Organisations PROMOTED | Eletive is helping businesses...Read more
  • Retaining Female Talent: Four Ways to Reduce Workplace Drop Out PROMOTED | International Women’s Day...Read more

PERSONNEL TODAY

About us
Contact us
Browse all HR topics
Email newsletters
Content feeds
Cookies policy
Privacy policy
Terms and conditions

JOBS

Personnel Today Jobs
Post a job
Why advertise with us?

EVENTS & PRODUCTS

The Personnel Today Awards
The RAD Awards
Employee Benefits
Forum for Expatriate Management
OHW+
Whatmedia

ADVERTISING & PR

Advertising opportunities
Features list 2025

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Linkedin


© 2011 - 2025 DVV Media International Ltd

Personnel Today
  • OHW+
  • Resources
    • Clinical governance
    • Disability
    • Ergonomics
    • Health surveillance
    • OH employment law
    • OH service delivery
    • Research
    • Return to work and rehabilitation
    • Sickness absence management
    • Wellbeing and health promotion
  • Conditions
    • Mental health
    • Musculoskeletal disorders
    • Blood pressure
    • Cancer
    • Cardiac
    • Dementia
    • Diabetes
    • Respiratory
    • Stroke
  • CPD
  • Webinars
  • Jobs
  • Personnel Today