Change fatigue: What it is and how to manage it
It isn’t surprising that people find change hard to deal with. From increasingly fast advancements in technology to political unrest across the world or climate change affecting global food prices, our lives are impacted every day by change – and that’s just from an external, big picture perspective. Combining those factors with the challenges many of us face every day in our personal or professional lives can make life hard; it can be overwhelming.
According to Deloitte’s 2026 Global Human Capital Trends study, a third of workers said they’ve gone through more than 15 major changes in the last year alone. This rate of change is having a negative impact on our happiness at work; research commissioned by Investors in People revealed that one in four UK employees have considered leaving their job due to the pace of workplace change. For those organisations navigating complex (and often multiple) change programmes, this is why understanding, recognising and dealing with change fatigue is critical to business success, in terms of productivity, employee wellbeing and engagement.
Change fatigue explained
Firstly, let’s explore what change fatigue is. It’s the state of exhaustion that sets in when individuals or organisations face continuous, fast or overwhelming organisational transitions, without enough time to recover. It’s not caused by a single, large transformation, but instead by a continual, overlapping influx of ‘smaller’ changes, such as software rollouts, new strategy launches or restructures; it’s the volume of these small changes that lead to change fatigue, as some people can get to a point when they simply can’t cope. Even if the changes are well explained and everyone can understand the purpose, sometimes people start to switch off when there is too much taking place at once or in a constant loop.
Change fatigue often takes place because organisations are constantly looking to evolve, adapt and become more efficient, in order to stay ahead of their competitors. The fear of being left behind can lead organisations to introduce lots of new initiatives, particularly due to the continuous and fast-moving evolution of technology.
However, it can be hard to recognise change fatigue, as the symptoms are very similar to those shown by people who are just generally resistant to change. Symptoms of change resistance include disagreeing with a proposed change, being apathetic towards it and being unclear or confused about how it impacts them (i.e. ‘what’s in it for me?’), which results in those people openly pushing back. Change resistance can be quite active and have different levels, from quietly disengaging through to being antagonistic, depending on how strongly people feel about the change.
Similarly, symptoms of change fatigue include people being cynical to begin with, taking a ‘here we go again’ attitude, but there may also be evidence of an increase in sickness leave, a decline in performance or lack of engagement.
Being able to spot the difference is key.
Why? It’s important for organisations to establish whether they’re experiencing change fatigue or resistance in their workplace, as the approach to tackling the change will be different. This is when it’s important for line managers to talk to teams or individuals to understand if it’s a completely separate performance issue or something specifically linked to the change impact, so they can decide whether they need to address what’s affecting lower performance or better communicate the change benefits.
Top five tips to tackle change fatigue
When people understand what a change means to them, from the impact to the benefits, they’ll begin to embrace it. However, when people are overwhelmed, it can be difficult to see the bigger picture clearly and cope with the volume of transformation.
Here are five ways to overcome workplace change fatigue:
Stop trying to fix everything at once. To illustrate, let’s think about ‘change fatigue’ in a physical exercise context; fatigue is simply exhaustion, feeling overwhelmed and experiencing low energy. So, in this example, an athlete who was feeling fatigued would need to stop running, rest, lie down or see a physio. Similarly, organisations can stop the change temporarily and also put things in place to help their teams get back to full fitness, so they can then deal with the next big change that’s coming along. Therefore, it can be incredibly helpful to create a central roadmap to see and evaluate all the planned ‘change’ across an organisation. It also enables leaders to see when each one is scheduled to land, rather like a simplified version of air traffic control, and explore the safest way to deliver each transformation to get the best out of their people. Stopping and reprioritising can help to reduce colleague overwhelm.
Introduce change freezes. Blocking out specific weeks or quarters where no new initiatives are launched gives colleagues specific and predictable time periods to focus on their day jobs, with no additional workloads that come out from new initiatives.
Focus on ‘what’s in it for me?’ When people understand how a change will impact or benefit them, they’ll start to buy into it. This is why moving from a high-level strategic approach towards tailored, practical communications can be particularly helpful, as it can add relevant detail into how the change can directly support individuals within specific teams, solve a problem or reduce any frustrations.
Celebrate the change chapters. It’s very easy to move from one change initiative straight into another, without any acknowledgement of what’s just happened. Rather than letting changes blend into one, it’s important to celebrate and show appreciation to colleagues for their support throughout each transition. This shows the organisation from a top-level understands what people have gone through and thanks them for their role in making it a success.
Support your Change Champions. According to Gartner, less than half of employees trust their senior leaders, which means having a network of employee advocates or ‘Change Champions’ during transition periods is a key channel to build engagement. They’re the secret shopper who’s bought into the change and can help to build more positivity among their peers. Make sure to give them sufficient information and resources to share the right messages, as they’re a more trustworthy source.
There’s no one-size-fits-all approach to dealing with change fatigue. Ultimately, the best way to help prevent it is to stop rolling out so many transformation initiatives. However, taking a more planned, considered and strategic approach will help to ensure the most important changes take place at the right time, add the most value for employees and reduce fatigue.