Think about the last time you finished a really busy day at work. You’d achieved a lot, made progress on something important and perhaps even felt quite satisfied, despite being exhausted.
Now think about a different kind of day. You spent hours in meetings where nothing was decided. You completed a report that nobody read. You raised an issue you’d raised several times before, only to be told it would be looked into. Again.
Which day left you feeling more drained?
We talk a lot about workload, stress and burnout. And rightly so. Excessive demands, unrealistic expectations and insufficient resources can have serious consequences for people’s wellbeing.
But perhaps there’s another source of exhaustion that deserves more attention. The feeling that, however hard you try, nothing is going to change.
When effort stops feeling worthwhile
Most people want to do a good job. They want their work to mean something, to contribute and to feel that their efforts make a difference.
But imagine working somewhere where you regularly encounter the same problems.
You know a process is unnecessarily complicated, but nobody has the authority to change it. You can see that a decision isn’t working, but challenging it would be politically difficult. You spend weeks developing something, only for priorities to change and the work to be abandoned.
Individually, these experiences might seem relatively minor. Collectively, they can create an environment where people begin to question whether putting in the effort is worthwhile.
And this isn’t necessarily about having too much to do. It’s about the relationship between effort and impact.
When people can see that their actions make a difference, even demanding work can feel worthwhile. But when that connection disappears, work can become deeply frustrating.
The exhaustion of feeling unheard
There’s some interesting research that helps us understand this.
A 2026 study published in Management Communication Quarterly examined something researchers call acquiescent silence. Essentially, this describes what happens when employees withhold ideas or concerns because they believe speaking up is futile.
Drawing on data from 241 UK-based employees, the researchers found that this form of silence was associated with greater emotional exhaustion, negative workplace gossip and intentions to leave. The study identifies important relationships, although it doesn’t establish that silence alone causes these outcomes.
It’s an interesting finding because it challenges how we sometimes interpret silence at work.
An employee who stops raising concerns might appear to have accepted the situation. A team that no longer challenges decisions might seem more aligned. A reduction in complaints might even be interpreted as evidence that things are improving.
But what if people have simply concluded that there’s no point?
Perhaps they’ve raised the issue before. Perhaps they’ve participated in surveys, workshops and listening sessions. Perhaps they’ve offered suggestions and watched nothing happen. Eventually, they stop trying. The problem hasn’t disappeared. The belief that they can do anything about it has.
When organisations unintentionally create futility
It’s easy to imagine that futility is created by leaders who deliberately ignore employees. But often, the reality is more complicated.
An organisation might genuinely want to listen, but lack the processes or accountability to turn insight into action. Managers might care deeply about their teams but have little influence over decisions made elsewhere. Leaders might invite feedback without being clear about which decisions are open to influence.
The result is an employee experience full of opportunities to contribute, but surprisingly few opportunities to make a difference.
Think about the annual engagement survey. Employees spend time sharing their experiences, results are presented, action plans are developed and everyone agrees that improvements are needed.
Twelve months later, many of the same issues appear again.
Or consider a team that has repeatedly explained why a particular process makes their work harder. Everyone agrees it’s frustrating, but changing it requires approval from several departments, so nothing happens.
These experiences teach people something about how the organisation works.
And if the lesson is that effort rarely leads to change, we shouldn’t be surprised when people begin to withdraw it.
We can’t solve futility with resilience
This is where the distinction becomes particularly important for employee experience.
If we interpret every sign of exhaustion as a problem of individual capacity, our response might be to offer wellbeing resources, resilience training or advice on managing stress. Those things may have a place. But they won’t fix an organisation where people repeatedly encounter problems they have no power to resolve.
You can’t teach someone to be resilient enough to make a pointless process meaningful.
You can’t improve someone’s wellbeing simply by encouraging them to speak up when their previous attempts have gone nowhere.
And you can’t expect people to remain engaged indefinitely when they have little influence over the things that shape their working lives.
Sometimes the most effective wellbeing intervention isn’t another resource or programme. It’s removing the organisational friction that makes work unnecessarily difficult.
Restoring people’s sense of influence
So what would it look like to take futility seriously as an employee experience issue?
It might mean paying closer attention to the problems employees have raised repeatedly, rather than continually asking them for new feedback. It could involve giving managers greater authority to resolve local issues or making decision-making processes more transparent.
It also means being honest about what can and cannot change.
Not every employee suggestion can be implemented. Organisations face competing priorities, limited resources and difficult trade-offs. But there is a significant difference between explaining why something cannot change and allowing feedback to disappear into a black hole.
For People, HR and Internal Communication teams, a useful starting point might be to ask:
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Where are employees repeatedly encountering the same frustrations?
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What have people stopped raising because they believe nothing will happen?
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Where are we asking for input without providing any meaningful influence?
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What could we change that would make people’s everyday work feel less frustrating and more worthwhile?
These questions shift the focus from encouraging people to cope with their experience towards improving the experience itself.
Perhaps the question isn’t how much we’re asking people to do
Work can be demanding and still be rewarding. People can work incredibly hard and feel energised by what they’ve achieved.
But there’s something particularly draining about investing time, energy and care into work that seems to make no difference.
Perhaps we need to pay more attention to the employee who has stopped suggesting improvements. The manager who has given up trying to challenge an inefficient process. The team that completes the engagement survey each year but no longer expects anything to change.
Not because these people lack resilience or commitment, but because their experience may have taught them that their efforts don’t matter.
If we want to create a more positive experience of work, we need to do more than help people manage the demands placed upon them.
We need to create environments where they can see that their efforts, ideas and contributions actually make a difference.
Because sometimes the most exhausting thing about work isn’t how much we’re doing.
It’s wondering whether any of it matters.
Want to turn employee frustration into meaningful change?
At People Lab, we help organisations get beneath the surface of employee feedback, understand what’s really shaping people’s experiences and turn insight into practical action. Whether you’re struggling with recurring engagement challenges or finding it difficult to translate employee voice into meaningful improvements, we can help.
Get in touch to explore how we can help you create a more positive experience of work.
