{
  "id": 17002904,
  "title": "4 steps against overload: Flood of tasks: How to avoid burnout at the end of the year",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/29/4-schritte-gegen-uberlastung-aufgabenflut-so-entgehen-sie-dem-burnout",
  "topic": "business",
  "section": "Business",
  "published": "2026-10-29T03:46:04.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Handelsblatt",
    "slug": "handelsblatt",
    "url": "https://www.handelsblatt.com/politik/deutschland/4-schritte-gegen-ueberlastung-aufgabenflut-so-entgehen-sie-dem-burnout-zum-jahresende/100265770.html"
  },
  "original_language": "de",
  "account": "As the year comes to a close, many companies and teams face a surge in work, with deadlines looming and employees taking time off. Career advisor Katharina Engelhardt notes that reliable employees often take on extra tasks, leading to burnout. To combat this, Engelhardt recommends four steps: recognizing stress and questioning its causes, assessing which tasks are truly necessary, discussing workload with the team, and managing expectations early on. By following these steps, employees can better manage their workload and avoid taking on too much. Engelhardt suggests that employees should reflect on their motivations and priorities, and communicate with their team to distribute tasks more evenly.",
  "summary": "At the end of the year, projects, deadlines and additional tasks pile up - often for the reliable ones in the team. How employees can counteract before the pressure becomes too great.",
  "key_points": [
    "Recognize stress and identify warning signs like poor sleep or irritability",
    "Assess necessity of tasks and question drivers of taking on additional work",
    "Discuss workload openly with team, propose task distribution based on strengths"
  ],
  "editors_take": "Prioritizing task delegation and clear communication helps reliable employees avoid burnout by breaking the cycle of automatically accepting additional workloads during the high-pressure year-end period.",
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}