If you dread going back to work, maybe your job is the problem

Late August routinely brings with it the familiar post-holiday slump: the Sunday scaries, overflowing inboxes, and a grim realisation that you’re now likely working flat out until Christmas. For many, the anxiety begins even before the holiday ends.

Research by Reed found that 85% of workers are “burnt out and exhausted”, placing the blame on the effects of reduced workforces and increased deadline pressures.

The consequences of burnout are far-reaching, though in recent years it’s been increasingly associated with “quiet quitting” - a phenomenon whereby employees reject extra tasks or unpaid overtime. Instead, they choose to do only the basic duties listed in their job contract.

If a week away feels like a necessary lifeline, and returning to the 9-to-5 feels immediately exhausting, it’s an indication that modern workplaces are out of step with their workforce and not doing enough to look after their people. So instead of wondering what’s wrong with workers, employers should first ask what’s wrong with work.

First off, when it comes to burnout, it isn’t just based on workload, it’s also very much about management.

I think it’s all too easy for business leaders and managers to forget that workers are routinely carrying fears and concerns about career progression, lack of support and job stability with them into the office. Too often, when productivity drops, the first question is what employees are doing wrong, not what support they might be missing. For businesses, failing to get a proper grip on this issue can create a negative cycle of low productivity, low morale, and high staff turnover. So, really, it’s in everyone’s interest for employers to begin looking at how their offices operate.

Kahoot! research has previously identified a loneliness crisis at the heart of Britain’s working culture, with one in three UK employees saying they have no close friends at work and two in five admitting to feeling lonely despite being surrounded by colleagues. To me, that’s a clear indication that we have rebuilt offices without necessarily rebuilding the sense of connection that makes people want to be there.

All of this is compounded by the growing fear that AI will make skills and certain roles redundant, as reflected in a recent survey at Kahoot! confirming that over half of workers worry about their job security due to AI. While AI obviously has its benefits when it comes to increasing efficiency and freeing employees from mundane admin tasks, those benefits of AI are not being communicated to and taught to workers well enough.

Employers should be asking: what’s driving that fear - and what can they do to reduce it? Employers should actively upskill employees to use AI to their advantage, rather than seeing it as their enemy.

Again, the common thread running through all of this is management.

We expect managers to fight fires across all fronts: reassuring employees worried about AI, helping people develop new skills, rebuilding team culture after years of remote and hybrid working, and making the office somewhere people actually want to be. Yet remarkably, many businesses are asking them to do all of that without ever teaching them how to manage.

A previous Kahoot! survey has revealed that two in five managers experience imposter syndrome and the same proportion have never received formal management training.

This phenomenon has given way to the term “the accidental manager”. It’s leading to unconfident, insecure, and unqualified managers who don’t know how to properly motivate their staff and build them into actual teams.

And that management gap seeps into almost every problem businesses are trying to solve. If your manager isn't capable of teaching you new skills or checking in on your development, you won't feel like you're progressing. If they can't educate you on AI, you’ll always see it as a threat rather than an opportunity. And if they can't create a genuine sense of team, mandating a return to the office will only make people feel further apart.

I don’t mean to say employers can eliminate the Sunday scaries altogether. Work is work, and few of us will ever celebrate the end of a holiday. But there is a difference between wishing you had another day on the beach and genuinely dreading the workplace you're returning to.

Employers can’t control every anxiety their employees bring through the office door. But they can create a welcoming environment by raising the quality of the management training senior team members receive once they're there. So if employers truly want their staff to feel like they are progressing and connected to their work, training managers is one of the most practical places to start.

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Jon Neale is the Growth Director UK & Ireland, Kahoot

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