Should You Tell Your Employees Not To Work on the Weekends?

8 May 2026 · 2 min

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In this talk, the speaker reflects on a common misconception that equates workload with burnout, explaining that passion and engagement are key differentiators. Citing data from a burnout‑prediction firm called Watercooler, he reveals three distinct employee profiles: (1) those who never work evenings or weekends are at high risk of burnout or flight due to boredom and low engagement; (2) those who consistently work nights and weekends are also at high risk because of over‑exertion; and (3) those who occasionally work after hours by choice are the most satisfied and engaged. The speaker describes how this insight reshaped his management approach: he now allows flexible after‑hours work, monitors its frequency, and regularly checks in with employees with the simple question, “Are you okay?” He concludes by sharing a leadership principle from retired Marine Corps General George Flynn, who defines true leadership as genuinely caring about an employee’s wellbeing.

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I think one of the mistakes that we've made is we've confused workload with burnout. Well, it's related to some degree, but you know, you can work with passion and work long hours, and you can work long hours with no passion and you're more likely to burn out. Because when you're working with passion, working those long hours is invigorating, right? And I got this wrong for many years. I was very strict in my company that I didn't want anybody to work after hours, and I didn't want anybody to work on weekends. Because, you know, I believed in balance and blah, blah, blah. And a company I did some work with called Watercooler, they gave me some data that showed— because what the company is, they predict burnout. That's what they do, right? And they showed me this data, which was amazing. And basically, people who never work on weekends and never work in the evenings, very, very high risk of burnout or flight risk because they're bored and not very engaged. It's a very high flight risk, right? People who work too many nights and too many weekends, very high rate of burnout or flight risk because they're overdoing it. But people who occasionally work nights and weekends are actually very, very happy, and they're choosing to work those nights and weekends because they care. Because they care. And I immediately got it wrong. So now I don't mind if people work nights and weekends. I monitor how often they're working nights and weekends. Weekends, that's number one. But also, I check in with people, and we have to do that. Are you okay? How are you feeling? And I think the rapport of being able to check in with each other, this, and it is as much as true in with young people in friendship as it is with work. Are you okay? How are you? Is a question we very, very rarely answer. And I'll leave with one final thought. A friend of mine, George Flynn, who is a, he retired as a 3-star general in the Marine Corps. He said that his test of leadership is if somebody asks you, "Are you okay?" and actually cares about the answer. That's a leader.