Expectation that employees should take on more without additional resources can lead to stress, burn
By Stacy Thomas
Jan 15, 2025
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Saying no to extra work is no longer taboo — especially among younger employees, according to a recent survey.
Two-thirds (65%) of employees feel empowered to refuse additional tasks, finds Resume Now.
Younger employees (25 and under) are the most empowered to say no, with 77% feeling comfortable refusing additional work compared to workers aged 26-40 (56%) and workers aged 41+ (66%).
However, declining work does not mean the tasks disappear—it means managers and HR professionals must rethink delegation and workload management. If employees are regularly turning down tasks or accepting extra work at the expense of their own mental health or time, it signals an imbalance in resources and expectations.
"If a manager is faced with a situation where employees are regularly saying ‘no’ to tasks, that's sort of a sign that something is out of balance,” says Jane O’Reilly, associate professor of organizational behaviour at the University of Ottawa.
“It's understandable that we can't always kind of increase our resources, but there's only so much time in a week. There's only so much stuff employees can get done over the course of a workday, and so if they're continually having to turn down tasks, that means that there really isn't enough resources to support what's happening in the team."
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