The Four People Keeping Me Awake at Night: What Every NDIS Provider Needs to Know About Burnout and Workforce Risk
As NDIS providers grow, hidden workforce risks emerge. Discover why relying on a handful of high performers may threaten your organisation’s future.
I was having coffee with the owner of an NDIS provider recently when they said something I wasn’t expecting.
Given the ongoing workforce shortages across the sector, I assumed our conversation would focus on recruitment, retention or the challenge of finding experienced employees. We touched on those issues briefly, but they weren’t what was occupying this leader’s attention.
Like many in the NDIS sector, their organisation had grown significantly over recent years. Participant numbers were increasing, services were expanding and, by most measures, the business was performing well.
Yet something was bothering them and, as our conversation continued, I asked a question I often ask leaders when they’re trying to make sense of a challenge… ‘What’s keeping you awake at night?’
Their answer surprised me… ‘I think my best people are tired.’
They weren’t talking about widespread disengagement or a struggling team. They were talking about their strongest performers; the people others relied on, the people who consistently stepped forward when something needed to be done.
The more we explored the issue, the clearer the picture became. These weren’t employees who lacked capability, commitment or resilience. In many respects, they were the backbone of the organisation. The concern was that, sometimes for years, they had quietly been carrying far more than anyone had fully recognised.
An example was a senior support worker who seemed to be involved in everything. She carried a regular participant caseload, mentored new starters, helped supervisors navigate difficult participant situations and was often the person other support workers called when they were unsure how to handle something.
On top of that, she was regularly stepping in when rosters fell apart because everybody knew she would do her best to help.
You have probably worked with someone like this.
This is the person who knows participants exceptionally well, has built trusted relationships with families and quietly keeps things moving when everybody else is stretched.
It’s a delicate balancing act; supporting participants, managing rosters, responding to family concerns, meeting documentation requirements and helping colleagues navigate challenges… often within very tight funding constraints.
No-one was unwilling to do the work. The challenge was that every new obligation seemed to be layered on top of existing responsibilities rather than replacing something else.
What struck me was that nobody had deliberately overloaded this worker. Quite the opposite. Her contributions were valued and she was highly respected. The problem was that her competence had become almost invisible because, every time a challenge emerged, she was the obvious solution.
The organisation eventually raised the idea of taking some annual leave after beginning to notice signs of exhaustion. Her first response was resistance.
Like many high performers, she was focused on meeting commitments rather than recognising the impact sustained workload was having on her. The organisation responded proactively, helping her plan a period of leave, providing support to redistribute responsibilities and reinforcing that her wellbeing was every bit as important as her contribution.
As we explored the issue further, it became clear this worker was not an isolated example. Several highly capable employees had gradually become the organisation’s unofficial problem-solvers, mentors and trusted advisers.
Individually, the responsibilities they carried appeared reasonable. One employee regularly supported and guided less experienced team members. Another became involved whenever participant situations became particularly complex. A third was often sought out by managers looking for a second opinion before making a difficult decision.
None of these responsibilities seemed excessive when viewed in isolation. Collectively, however, they represented a significant concentration of knowledge, relationships and accountability within a very small group of people.
As I listened, I became increasingly aware the same four names were appearing throughout the conversation. Whether the discussion was about solving a difficult problem, managing a complex participant situation or supporting an important decision; those same employees kept resurfacing.
Initially, the observation was met with laughter. However, as the conversation continued, the significance of the pattern became clear. And, once recognised, it was impossible to ignore.
A considerable amount of the organisation’s knowledge, relationships and problem-solving capability had become concentrated in the hands of just four people. Not because anyone had intended it, but because they consistently delivered results and had earned the trust of participants, families, managers and colleagues alike.
Over time, they had become the organisation’s unofficial safety net – highly respected, highly capable and carrying responsibilities that extended well beyond the scope of their formal roles. None of them were complaining.
According to the organisation, if you asked these employees how they were going, they would almost certainly tell you they were fine. They were committed professionals who took pride in their work and continued to meet expectations.
Yet that was perhaps what concerned the organisation most.
There were no obvious warning signs. No performance issues or dramatic incidents. Instead, the organisation had started noticing subtle changes: more fatigue, more frustration and less of the enthusiasm and energy these employees had once displayed.
Individually, none of these signs appeared significant. Together, however, they suggested that years of carrying additional responsibilities may finally have been taking their toll.
As I drove home after the meeting, I found myself reflecting on how often I see this pattern… and not just within the NDIS sector.
Across many organisations, the people who become indispensable are often the people most at risk of becoming overloaded.
Capability attracts responsibility. When someone consistently delivers quality work, exercises sound judgement and can be relied upon in challenging situations, more work naturally finds its way to them. They become the person others turn to when something needs to be done well.
This is rarely the result of poor leadership or a lack of care. It happens because people are human. When someone is trustworthy, competent and willing to help, it is natural for colleagues and leaders to rely on them.
The challenge is that reliance can develop so gradually that nobody notices when it crosses a line. What begins as confidence in a valued employee can eventually become dependency. By the time the risk becomes visible, the organisation may have concentrated an extraordinary amount of knowledge, responsibility and problem-solving capability in the hands of a small number of people.
That is where I think many conversations about burnout miss the point.
We are often encouraged to think about burnout as an individual issue. We talk about resilience, self-care and wellbeing strategies, and there is no doubt these factors play an important role.
However, when I reflect on many of the workforce challenges described to me, I find myself questioning whether burnout is sometimes an organisational issue disguised as a personal one.
The people most at risk are rarely those contributing the least. More often, they are the people contributing the most. They are the employees others rely on when work becomes difficult, priorities collide or important problems need to be solved.
They hold key relationships together, carry critical organisational knowledge and provide stability when challenges arise.
The risk is organisations may view the resulting fatigue as a personal wellbeing issue when, in reality, it may be a symptom of how responsibility, capability and expectations have become concentrated within the workforce.
Often, the issue only becomes visible when those highly capable employees step back, run out of capacity or decide to leave.
What I found most interesting was that the word burnout was never used during our conversation… not once!
Yet by the end of our discussion, burnout was exactly what we were talking about; just not in the way it is typically discussed.
We weren’t talking about resilience, wellbeing programs or individual coping strategies. We were talking about workforce stability, organisational capability and long-term sustainability. The concern was more about what that fatigue revealed about the organisation itself rather than simply whether a small group of highly capable employees were becoming fatigued.
If so much knowledge, so many trusted relationships and such a significant amount of responsibility sat with just four people, what would happen if one left? What would happen if two left? What would happen if all four eventually decided they had given everything they could?
Those questions remained unanswered. But they highlighted something many organisations overlook.
Sometimes what appears to be:
- a wellbeing issue is really a workforce design issue; and
- burnout is really the consequence of years of concentrating responsibility, expertise and problem-solving capability in the hands of a few exceptional people.
Perhaps that is why the conversation has stayed with me… not because this organisation was facing a crisis, but because they had recognised a risk many organisations fail to see until the consequences are already being felt.
The employees an organisation relies on most are often the very people it needs to protect most carefully. For leaders, that means looking beyond individual wellbeing and examining the systems that shape the employee experience.
It means:
- asking whether critical knowledge, key relationships and decision-making responsibilities are being shared broadly enough across the organisation;
- building capability, succession pathways and leadership depth before those capabilities become concentrated in a small number of individuals.
In our work, we frequently find that what initially appears to be an employee wellbeing concern is actually a symptom of something larger…— workforce dependency, leadership capability gaps or organisational systems that have not evolved at the same pace as growth.
Because when an organisation becomes heavily dependent on a handful of exceptional people, the greatest risk may not be burnout itself… it’s the organisational vulnerability that burnout exposes.
And by the time that vulnerability becomes visible, the people holding everything together may already be deciding whether they can continue carrying the load.
Burnout Isn’t Always a Wellbeing Problem.
Sometimes It’s an Organisational Problem.
At AKYRA, we call this workforce stability.
When organisations create a stable workforce, the benefits extend well beyond retention.
Workforce stability is built through strong employee relations, sound human resource management and effective industrial relations practices that reduce risk, strengthen capability and support organisational performance.
That’s where AKYRA supports NDIS providers so they can build sustainable organisations with the people frameworks and leadership capability required for long-term success.
HR for small NDIS providers (5-30 employees)
HR for mid-tier NDIS providers (30–250 employees)
AKYRA Strategy & Development
The HR Department When You Don’t Have One
Disclaimer – Reliance on Content
The material distributed is general information only. The information supplied is not intended to be legal or other professional advice, nor should it be relied upon as such. You should seek legal or professional advice concerning your specific situation.
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