Editorial work demands sustained precision. Writers and editors make hundreds of judgment calls a day—on language, structure, accuracy, voice, style—and do so under deadline pressure, often across multiple projects simultaneously.
It’s exactly the kind of work that suffers first and most visibly when a team is burned out: Missed errors that should have been caught. Revision cycles that keep spiraling. Deadlines that slip not because of scope but because the people doing the work are running on empty.
If you lead an editorial or communications team, you may recognize some of these signs in your direct reports:
- Decreased motivation or productivity
- Increased procrastination
- Increased number of careless mistakes
- Withdrawal from responsibilities and team activities
- Complaints of exhaustion and difficulty concentrating
- Rampant cynicism and pessimism
If several of those sound familiar, your team may be dealing with workplace burnout.
Good managers care about the individuals on their team because people matter. But burnout in an editorial environment creates a specific, compounding problem: One person’s bad week doesn’t stay contained. It shows up downstream, in the work, in the reviews, in the relationships with freelancers and vendors who depend on clear direction and timely feedback.
Burnout is also becoming more common. According to a recent Gallup study, 28% of employees reported feeling burned out “very often or always,” up from 23% in 2018. Another 48% said they “sometimes” felt burned out, up from 44%. Employees in these two groups are 35% more likely to be looking for a new job than those who rarely or never feel burned out.
The aggregate cost of employee burnout in the United States has risen to $350 billion annually, mostly from employee turnover and lost productivity. Companies now lose an estimated $24 million per 10,000 workers in lost opportunities and disengagement. And 80% of medical costs billed to employer-sponsored insurance plans now stem from preventable, stress-related conditions.
The good news is that you don’t need a massive budget or a formal wellness program to make a difference. You just need to know where to start.
Model the Behavior You Want to See
Of all the factors that shape a team’s culture, leadership behavior carries the most weight. Your team is watching how you handle pressure, whether you actually take time off, and whether you treat your own well-being as a priority or an afterthought. When they see you modeling healthy habits, it gives them permission to do the same.
Start with your own behavior:
- Take vacations and leave your computer at your desk.
- Take sick time rather than coming into the office sick.
- Share some of your healthy habits with your team, such as exercise, nutrition, and meditation.
- Acknowledge when you’re struggling rather than pretending everything is okay.
Next, create an environment that is supportive of people prioritizing their well-being. A few foundational changes can make a big difference.
Give your team permission to step away. Editorial and writing work is cognitively taxing in ways that aren’t always visible. The person who looks like they’re just reading is making hundreds of small decisions. Encourage breaks throughout the day, especially a real lunch break away from the screen. Recognize when someone has had their head down for hours and nudge them to get up and stretch. Let them see you doing it, too.
Protect focus time. Meetings and constant notifications create obstacles to the sustained concentration that deep editorial work demands. Consider designating meeting-free blocks or days to give your team uninterrupted heads-down time. When you schedule meetings, ask whether you really need 60 minutes; could you cover everything in 30? As well, build in 10–15 minutes between meetings. Finally, avoid scheduling meetings late on Fridays; giving your team time to wrap up before the weekend signals that you respect the boundary between work and rest.
On the logistics side, offer flexibility for health appointments and actively discourage skipping them for work deadlines. If your team is in-house, offer hybrid work options when possible. And build project schedules that account for time off and the inevitable delays that come with deadline-driven work.
Set a clear standard around after-hours communications. Don’t send messages outside of working hours. If you must, schedule them to arrive during the workday.
If your organization has a quiet room or can create one, make it accessible to your team. Skip the conference room setup; bright lights and meeting tables send the wrong signal. Aim for something that actually invites someone to decompress: dim lighting, a comfortable chair, maybe some guidance on breathing or short meditations.
Most of these tactics will help with your team’s physical and mental well-being, which is where many well-being efforts stop. But there’s more opportunity for you to support your team and encourage a culture of well-being, particularly through career, social, and community well-being. For teams doing detailed, creative work—the kind where a single bad week can ripple into multiple rounds of revisions—this foundation matters a lot. We’ll explore those dimensions in part 2, “Avoiding Editorial Team Burnout: The Deeper Dimensions.”
This article is adapted from a piece originally published on the Lenovo Pro Community.
