Yashmeet Singh’s Post

🚀 The Real Root Cause of Burnout, Attrition and Layoffs (And HOW to Fix Work-Life Balance) "Drawing from my own experience, the Root Cause Analysis below outlines exactly how I've seen companies successfully manage and improve work-life balance." We often treat burnout, high attrition, and layoffs as separate issues. But they're deeply connected symptoms of poor work-life balance and the same root cause. Let's break down the Root Cause Analysis and, most importantly, the HOW to solve it. 🔍 The RCA Unpacked: • The Symptoms: Poor work-life balance, chronic burnout, skyrocketing attrition, and reactive layoffs. • Why? → Unsustainable workloads, constant pressure, and unnecessary team meetings destroy work-life balance. • Why? → A "Do More With Less" mentality with systematic understaffing. • Why? → Leadership rewarded for short-term output over team health and work-life balance. • Why? → This creates a vicious cycle: No time for training, no clear career paths, and no investment in long-term people strategy. • ROOT CAUSE: A culture that prioritizes immediate profits over human sustainability and work-life balance. The Critical Connection: This same root cause creates a double-sided crisis: ➡️ Right now, it drives ATTRITION: Your best people leave first, tired of poor work-life balance with no growth. ⬅️ Later, it forces LAYOFFS: The flawed "do more with less" strategy fails, leading to drastic cost-cutting. They are two sides of the same broken coin. 🛠 The HOW - Breaking the Cycle: ✅ HOW to fix work-life balance: → Conduct capacity audits. Match workload to team size with data-driven hiring plans. ✅ HOW to protect focus time: → Implement "Less or No-Meetings on Busy Day" and require clear agendas for all meetings. ✅ HOW to enable growth: → Implement "Development Sprints." Protect 20% of quarterly time for upskilling and career path work. ✅ HOW to change culture: → Revise success metrics. Tie 30% of leadership bonuses to team health indicators like retention, work-life balance, and well-being scores. Investing in work-life balance and sustainable culture isn't just an HR initiative—it's the most powerful strategy to prevent both a talent exodus and the need for reactive layoffs. What's one "HOW" you've seen successfully transform work culture and improve work-life balance? #WorkLifeBalance #CompanyCulture #EmployeeBurnout #Leadership #FutureOfWork #HR #EmployeeRetention #TalentManagement #WorkplaceWellness #Productivity #NoMeetingDays #TimeManagement #WorkplaceEfficiency #EmployeeExperience #CorporateCulture #SustainableWorkplace #BusinessStrategy #TeamManagemen

Let’s get real — People Ops isn’t for the faint of heart. We’re the first ones employees turn to when things fall apart, and the last ones anyone checks in on when we do. Between supporting teams through layoffs, navigating constant change, and being the unofficial therapist/coach/problem-solver — it’s no wonder burnout runs deep in this field. But here’s the truth we don’t talk about enough: Being accountable doesn’t mean being available 24/7. Caring deeply doesn’t mean carrying everything. Leading with empathy doesn’t mean losing your boundaries. People leaders can’t pour from an empty cup — and yet we keep trying. Because we care. Because we believe people deserve better. But sustainable leadership means modeling what we preach: ✅ Take your PTO without guilt. ✅ Say “no” without apology. ✅ Disconnect without explanation. ✅ Ask for help — you’re human too. Healthy cultures don’t start with handbooks — they start with leaders who set the tone by living their values out loud. So here’s my challenge to every People leader: What’s one small boundary you’ll honor for yourself this week? Let’s normalize this conversation. #PeopleOps #Leadership #HR #Culture #Boundaries #Burnout #AuthenticLeadership #EmployeeExperience #SelfCare #WorkplaceWellbeing

Time off isn’t a luxury—it’s a leadership responsibility. This visual reminds us that protecting rest is part of protecting performance: 🔹 Take real time off → Step away fully. Your example sets the tone. 🔹 Plan as a team → Map vacations early so no one feels guilty 🔹 Minimize backlog → Distribute work before someone leaves 🔹 Celebrate rest → Share your own recharge stories proudly 🔹 Handle client updates yourself → Leadership means shielding, not delegating stress 🔹 Encourage time off → If someone never steps away, step in 🔹 Make rest a priority → PTO isn’t a perk—it’s a must As a manager, I’ve learned that rest isn’t just recovery—it’s readiness. When we normalize unplugging, we build cultures that perform sustainably. Let’s keep leading with rest that restores. #LeadershipDevelopment #ManagerLife #OperationalExcellence #TrainingDesign #HospitalityLeadership #GrowthMindset #TeamWellness #ThursdayThoughts

The best leaders and the best teams that produce results don’t micromanage PTO. I never understood leaders who say, “You only get 6 days off a year, including sick days, doctor’s visits, etc.” Do you really think your team will perform better under those rules? No, they won’t. I’ve worked for leaders in the past who gave just one week off a year, and I remember being burnt out, exhausted, and feeling like I couldn’t live my life. That experience taught me something important: that’s not the kind of leader I would ever be. Now, if my team needs time off, they take it. I encourage them to take vacations, prioritize their health, and live their lives outside of work. And you know what? When you treat your team like adults, amazing things happen: 🤍 They are happier 🤍 They produce better results 🤍 They become loyal, engaged, and high-performing employees This isn’t just good for the team, it’s good for business. Companies that trust and care for their people attract top talent, retain the best performers, and grow faster. Burnout doesn’t create results. Respect, trust, and work-life balance do. #Leadership #EmployeeExperience #WorkCulture #PTO #TeamGrowth #WorkLifeBalance #ProfessionalDevelopment #TopTalent #EmployeeWellbeing #HRcommunity #Leaders #TalentAcquisitionManager

Your top performers aren’t leaving because of culture. They’re not leaving because of salary either. They’re leaving because every day starts and ends with a stressful, draining commute. And no, they probably won’t say it out loud. Because “it’s just traffic”, right? But here’s the truth: Bad commutes lead to quiet attrition. Tired minds don’t innovate. Delayed arrivals become missed opportunities. And slow burnouts lead to sudden exits. It’s time companies start looking beyond the office. Because solving retention might begin with solving the ride to work.

Your leadership test! Are you getting an "F". We talk about accountability, targets, hustle, and ownership. But one of the clearest windows into your leadership maturity is this: How do your people feel about taking time off? A recent study 2025 FlexJobs Work & PTO Pressure Report found nearly one in four American workers didn’t take any vacation last year and sales reps are among those most affected by the pressure to stay “always on. ”If your sales reps are afraid to disconnect, if taking a week off feels like falling behind, then what you’ve built isn’t a high-performance culture. It’s a high-pressure one. And as the leader, it's all your fault. I wonder how many leaders today actually own this issue or just view it as paying your dues. Salespeople already live by the clock: quotas, client calls, end-of-quarter pushes. And too often, their “time off” still includes Slack messages, late-night check-ins, or quiet guilt for not prospecting. That’s not dedication. It’s depletion. Great sales leaders coach their teams to plan PTO, delegate effectively, and fully disconnect because recovery fuels high performance. They design around it. They coach their teams how to hand off accounts, plan PTO into quarterly maps, and celebrate actual disconnection as a form of readiness. Because recovery is part of performance. When your team knows the pipeline won’t collapse without them that’s leadership. When they return creative, clear, and confident that’s sustainable success. How you treat rest tells your team what you truly value: output or growth. So, do you pass or fail? How would your team grade you? #SalesLeadership #VacationCulture #SalesPerformance #WorkLifeBalance #SalesCoaching #PTO #SalesTeam

🚨 The "Absence Test": How do you know when your team has autonomy? A couple of years ago, I had to take emergency leave for two weeks. My team was in the middle of a big project and I was worried about how things would go without me. To my surprise, most things went smoothly yet there were still a few hiccups that reminded me of wise advice I once received: "You know you're a good manager when you can go on vacation and your team doesn't even notice you're gone." 🔍 THE ABSENCE TEST The Absence Test is a thought experiment where you imagine completely stepping away from your team for an extended period. It's designed to reveal the gaps in your team's autonomy and help you build better processes. How to Apply It: 🏖️ Method 1: Take your regular holidays and, upon return, interview your team and stakeholders to identify which tasks were hampered during your absence. 👥 Method 2: Delegate your responsibilities to a PM counterpart or senior team member for a period. This also helps senior engineers grow by exposing them to management tasks. The key is resisting the urge to intervene when fires arise. That's where the real learning happens. 💡 WHAT YOU'LL DISCOVER After this exercise, you'll get a clear picture of what needs attention: ✅ The presence of the right processes: • Clear decision-making frameworks that don't require your input • Well-documented knowledge and procedures • Team rituals that function independently • Feedback loops and metrics that keep the team self-monitoring ❌ The absence of the wrong processes: • Bottlenecks that route through you • Hero culture and constant firefighting • Information hoarding • Unnecessary approval dependencies ⚠️ A WORD OF CAUTION This approach isn't about becoming lazy or disengaged. There's a balance to strike: • Avoid complacency: Don't let team efficiency become an excuse for reduced effort • Keep growing: Your reach might stay small if you optimize purely for team independence • Balance efficiency vs. career growth: You still need to grow your team, not just make it more efficient 🎯 THE BOTTOM LINE We should focus on building environments with the presence of the right processes and the absence of the wrong ones. The Absence Test reveals which is which. Have you ever tried stepping back to test your team's autonomy? What did you discover? I'm considering writing a more detailed guide on this topic and would love to hear your thoughts and experiences in the comments. #EngineeringManagement #Leadership #TeamAutonomy #Management #TechLeadership

It's a really simple idea, but one many companies and leaders still struggle with: When a team member is on leave or on holiday, they should be OFF. 🌴📵 It is often praised or even expected, the "hustle" and the employee who "can't disconnect," but that mindset is actively harming your team and your bottom line. The Real Cost of "Checking In" When you let the culture of "you should still check your email" or "just hop on for a quick call" fester, you're doing a disservice to everyone: 1. Diminished Returns: The quality of work drops when people are burned out. Employees or Team Members actually are more creative, efficient and less error-prone employee. 2. Eroded Trust: If a team member feels obligated to log in while on leave, it signals that the team can't function without them, or worse, that their time off isn't truly valued. 3. Burnout and Turnover: This is the biggest cost. A lack of true downtime is a fast track to burnout. People will eventually leave for a company that respects their boundaries. The Better Way: Setting Boundaries and Building Resilient Leaders, this starts with you. • Model the Behavior: When you're on leave, genuinely disconnect. Your actions speak louder than any "unplug" policy. • Encourage Hand-offs: Ensure projects have clear backups and documentation before someone leaves. A successful hand-off is a sign of a high-performing team. • Respect the OOO: Don't send emails to them "just in case." If it's a true emergency, call their backup. If it can wait, it can sit in their inbox until they return. Letting your team members truly rest isn't a perk of the job; it's a fundamental necessity for a sustainable, high-performing team. Invest in their rest and they will invest their best work back into your company. I am sure you are reading this thinking that all makes total sense…..so why not choose this week to make sure it’s happening! What's one thing your company does (or should do) to enforce a genuine "out of office" experience? Share your thoughts below! 👇 #Leadership #WorkLifeBalance #Culture #EmployeeWellbeing #Management #TheCorporateCultureCoach

If you spot 3 or more of the signs below in a company you should probably run. 1-When no one can clearly explain your role or goals, that’s not “flexibility,” that’s confusion. 2-When high turnover is brushed off with “we’re a fast-paced team.” People don’t leave healthy environments. 3-When they call it a “family.” That usually means boundaries don’t exist. 4-When leadership avoids direct answers, something’s being hidden. 5-When the company looks perfect online but feels off inside. 6-When meetings happen constantly, but nothing ever changes. 7-When employees seem nervous to speak, that’s not professionalism, that’s fear. 8-When everything is “urgent.” That’s not drive, it’s chaos. 9-When HR feels like the company’s lawyer, not your advocate. 10-When promotions go to the loyal, not the capable. 11-When there’s no investment in tools or training, but big talk about “excellence.” 12-When feedback makes people defensive instead of curious. Know your worth, if the environment is toxic do not tolerate it. Your mental health is the most valuable asset that you have. If the thought of going to the office is burdening and draining then that is your biggest sign to leave. Leave. send your resignation letter right now, even if you don't have a backup plan. فَإِنَّ مَعَ الْعُسْرِ يُسْرًا

Yesterday, one of my team members asked for leave. Their allocated days were already exhausted. I said yes. But I didn't just say yes and move on. --- Here's what I'm learning about building a team: The hustle matters. But so does the human. I believe in the grind, especially in the early stages of building something meaningful. The team I'm building will carry the weight of this organization. They'll help create things far greater than what exists today. So yes, I expect output. I expect dedication. I expect excellence. But I also expect them to be people, not machines. --- When I approved that leave, I explained why. Not because I need to justify my decisions, but because I want my team to understand the culture we're building together: → Trust is a two-way street → Breaks aren't weakness, they're necessary for sustained excellence → I give flexibility, but I expect responsibility → We hustle for something we care about, not just because it's expected --- Here's the truth most leaders won't admit: The best people will push themselves harder than you ever could. They don't need micromanagement, they need trust, clarity, and the space to breathe when work becomes overwhelming. Your job isn't to squeeze output from exhausted people. Your job is to create an environment where people want to give their best, and feel safe enough to say when they need to recharge. --- I'm not building a team of burnt-out overachievers. I'm building a team that: - Loves the process of creating value - Learns constantly - Hustles with purpose - Takes breaks without guilt - Understands that excellence and wellbeing aren't opposites --- The people I choose have the caliber to handle everything I put them through. And I'm incredibly proud of what we're building together. Leadership isn't about saying yes or no. It's about building a culture where people understand why, and feel trusted enough to grow within it. What's one thing you've changed about your leadership approach that transformed your team culture? Drop your thoughts below. 👇