For a long time now, mental health and wellbeing in the workplace have been a fundamental part of fostering a positive organisational culture.
However, even with initiatives in place, stress and burnout persist in the UK’s workforce – and part of it is coming from employees struggling to switch off after work.
And while organisations may encourage switching off after contracted hours, the issue isn’t just about workload or individual habits. Instead, it’s about how work is designed, communicated, and reinforced day-to-day – and the subtle cues that shape when people feel they’re “allowed” to log off.
Why are employees struggling to switch off?
In many workplaces today, being “off” doesn’t really mean being unavailable. Even with wellbeing initiatives in place, the reality of how people work day to day often tells a different story about when you’re actually expected to be reachable.
According to data published by Blackhawk Network, 48% of UK employees respond to emails or messages whilst being on annual leave, while 39% say they’ve had to respond to work messages while off sick.
Meanwhile, a study published by People Management found that just one in five employees work their core hours. With the Government’s “right to switch off” initiative scrapped last year, this paints a worrying picture that the boundaries between work and personal time are rapidly blurring.
Fineas Tartar, leadership expert and co-founder at Viva Talent, says the issue lies less in individual willpower and more in the signals organisations send.
“[Employees] read who gets promoted, who gets praised, and who’s online at nine in the evening,” he explains. “When availability is quietly treated as commitment, switching off starts to feel like you’re missing out.”
Tartar also points out that even a manager sending a “no pressure to respond” message at 10:00 pm is still signalling that this is a working hour, and so high performers will calibrate to what their leaders consistently do. Additionally, most wellbeing programmes put the responsibility of switching off on employees, meaning the people most at risk of burnout are left to fix the problem on their own.
The real cost of burnout and not switching off
The inability to switch off after work can have significant consequences for both workers and employers.
Research by Mental Health UK’s Burnout Report 2026 reveals that 91% of employees reported “high” or “extreme” pressure or stress in the last year. While high workloads were cited as the top driver for stress for 42% of respondents, regularly working unpaid overtime and beyond contracted hours followed closely behind at 33%.
As a result, the UK hit five million mental health sick days in the first four months of 2026, with 4% due to stress and burnout. The UK workforce was also listed as the second saddest workforce in Europe last year, with 41% of employees reporting that they experienced stress daily.
Mental Health UK’s report also found that employees say there’s a gap between good intentions and actual effort. Specifically, 29% of workers say that while their employers raise awareness around mental health, managers don’t have the time, training, or resources to provide adequate support.
Fixing the system that keeps people “always on”
Ensuring employees switch off properly goes beyond simple wellbeing initiatives. Instead, businesses should treat it as a leadership and systems issue – not an individual responsibility bestowed upon employees.
First, they should look at the last 30 days of messages sent after a certain time by managers (such as 6:00 pm or 7:00 pm). If there’s a consistent pattern of messages being sent during late hours, it’s a clear sign that after-hours communication is being normalised rather than actively managed.
Moreover, businesses should also set clear “quiet hours” where non-urgent communication is discouraged or even technically restricted. Another good approach would be to ensure that managers schedule messages written after hours, so that they’re sent the next working day.
Workload design also matters just as much as policy. If people have to work late to keep up, no policy will fix that. That means setting realistic deadlines, treating after-hours activity as a sign of poor planning rather than dedication, and evaluating performance based on outcome, not on responsiveness.
“Most cultures don’t need another wellbeing initiative. They need fewer decisions landing on the same handful of people after 6pm.” Tartar adds.
“Fix the workflow and the behaviour follows. Leave the workflow broken and no amount of messaging about balance will change what people actually do.”
