I know it’s pretty crazy right now.  

After this past year, your team is at its breaking point.  

They’ve been overworked and overwhelmed for a very long time. 

You’ve been doing your best to try to tell them to keep putting forward the effort, keep pushing, keep getting stuff done.  

But at this point, your team is at a breaking point.  

They’re facing burnout.  

They will go into a crisis mode.  

They will start to act out.  

You don’t want that kind of behavior.  

So, the best thing you can do is try to reduce the workload of your team.  

You’re probably struggling with this because you know there are more demands on you and your team. 

Now, EVERYONE is overworked and overwhelmed. 

But know this; when everybody starts to hit their breaking point, you’re going to lose revenue. 

You’re going to lose productivity.  

It can create an unsafe work environment that could be very dangerous to everybody that you’re trying to serve.  

You’ve got to avoid this at all costs. 

The last thing you want is legal issues because you’re not doing your best to build a safe work environment and remove the overworked and overwhelmed feeling that your team is experiencing. 

Here are a few things you can do to reduce this feeling. 

1. Give your team a day off. 

Tell your team to take a day off. 

I know you’ve got PTO policies to follow and all those things, but if you’re a leader in your organization, find a way to give your team a free day. 

Tell them to do a day of research at home *wink wink*.  

Give them 24 hours to take care of themselves. 

Tell them not to do any work.  

Sleep until noon.  

Like you used to do in high school, sleeping in on Saturday mornings, but you haven’t been able to do the rest of your life. 

Sometimes, 24 hours might be all the difference to deescalate the tension and the overwhelming that people are feeling.  

But sometimes they’re thinking about the work that’s going to be facing them when they come back to work the next day.  

Now you have to step up.  

Ask them what three things they need to get done, and own them. 

Take a break from what you have to get done and focus on what your team member needs to get done. 

You can’t do this for everybody at the same time, so you’ll need to spread it out. 

But the bottom line is, everybody on your team needs to take a day.  

2. Bring back fun. 

Bring fun back into the work environment.  

Fundamentals are what make businesses strong. 

But the first word in fundamentals is fun.  

So, what are you doing to bring humor and laughter to your work environment? 

Maybe think of some good jokes.  

Maybe bring a game into the office and give people a chance to spend five minutes playing it. 

If you’re in a virtual work environment, this can be done by telling people to tell a funny story about something in their background. 

It may take 20 minutes of a meeting, but it may be the biggest difference in the world to reduce that overwhelming feeling your team is experiencing. 

3. Demand more resources. 

This may be the one you’re most afraid of doing. 

That is going to your boss and demanding more resources to support your team.  

Ask for more people, more money and more support to take care of your people.  

If you don’t fight for your team, nobody else will.  

If you don’t stand up for them, nobody else is going to stand up for them. 

You know the work that they’re doing. 

You know how much they’re putting in. 

You know how hard their jobs are.  

The only way that they’re going to feel good about you is if they know that you’re standing up for them.  

So, the question is: What are you going to do to stand up for your team? 

How are you going to ask for resources to reduce the overworked nature of your team?  

I know you’ve been told five times that there’s no budget, it’s not a good time right now.  

It’s never going to be a good time. 

But if your team believes you’re fighting for them and you have their back 100%, they’re always going to have your back 100%. 

They’ll still have a lot to do, but at least they know they have a leader who cares about them. 

They can trust that.  

Those are the three things that you need to do if your team is feeling overworked and overwhelmed. 

It will make a difference.