Workplace Burnout in New Zealand: Why Wellness Alone Isn’t Enough

Wellness has an important place in the workplace but it can't fix unrealistic hours, unsupported leaders or cultures that quietly reward overwork

Conversations about wellbeing at work are everywhere and yet, I keep meeting professionals who are running on empty. They’re putting in 60 hours a week just to stay afloat. Their managers have either left or they’ve been replaced by people promoted without support and expected to somehow carry entire teams. In other cases, there’s such a lack of trust and transparency between management and staff that the “support system” doesn’t really exist at all.

There are some incredible wellness organisations and initiatives stepping in to support people - from coaching and lifestyle programmes to practical wellbeing solutions that genuinely make a difference. These efforts matter and they’re helping many individuals manage the pressures of modern work. But they can’t do it all. No amount of external support can fully counter workloads that are unsustainable, leadership that isn’t equipped, or cultures where overwork is quietly rewarded. It’s not surprising that people feel worn down. When the reality of work doesn’t line up with the talk of balance, wellbeing becomes a surface layer, it looks good but it doesn’t reach the root causes.

The data tells the same story. Workplace burnout in New Zealand is rising, with 61% of employees reporting burnout and 57% now considered high risk. 

Exhaustion has become the baseline for too many professionals in New Zealand.

Heres the thing: burnout isn’t the same as being stressed or having a bad week. Stress can ease with rest or time off. Burnout lingers. It’s the emotional and physical depletion that comes when people are pushed past their limits for too long, with no relief in sight. Unlike stress, burnout doesn’t just impact how people feel it reshapes how they work, how they lead and whether they stay. It hollows out organisations, slowing innovation, draining engagement, driving high performers away and taking with them the institutional knowledge that can’t easily be replaced.”

We keep talking about a talent shortage in New Zealand but how much of that shortage is created by workplaces burning through the people they already have?

One professional I worked with put it simply: “I don’t mind working hard. But I can’t work 60 hours a week and then be told to just meditate my way through it.” That tension between rhetoric and reality is the lived experience for too many.

Leaders Aren’t Immune to Workplace Burnout in New Zealand

It’s easy to assume leaders are protected, but they’re often carrying the heaviest weight. Many are juggling restructures, squeezed budgets, constant reporting and the responsibility of holding others together. When leaders themselves are unsupported, the cracks spread quickly down through an organisation and when trust disappears, no number of wellbeing slogans can fill the gap.

The Bigger Picture: A National Risk

This isn’t only a workplace issue, it’s a national one. More than 71,000 New Zealanders left the country last year, many of them mid-career professionals. Some left for higher pay overseas, but others left because the grind here no longer felt sustainable.

If we can’t create work cultures where people can thrive, we risk fuelling our own brain drain and that’s something New Zealand businesses can’t afford - not in a world where talent is already scarce.

Tackling Workplace Burnout in New Zealand: What Needs to Change?

The question isn’t whether we value wellness it’s whether our systems actually allow people to thrive.

• Are the hours realistic, or quietly demanding 50–60 a week?

• Are leaders properly equipped and supported to lead, not just manage?

• Is trust something employees can rely on day to day or just a word in a strategy document?

Until organisations start answering these questions honestly, burnout will keep rising and that cost to people, to organisations and to our country is one we can’t afford to ignore.

Wellness has a role to play, but it can’t do the heavy lifting on its own. Real change starts from within.

Real change means creating workloads that are sustainable, equipping and trusting leaders to actually lead and building cultures where people’s energy is valued as much as their output.

So here’s the question I’ll leave you with: If wellness is everywhere, why are so many of us still burning out and what would it take to finally close that gap?

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Thanks for reading. My hope with each edition is to create space to pause, reflect and rethink how we work. If this sparked something for you, I’d love if you shared it with someone who might need to hear it. You can always connect with me at sonja@pickapath.co.nz or find more at pickapath.co.nz.