UK workers are logging on during holidays and responding to work messages while off sick, blurring the boundaries between work and personal life, the research suggests, and 80% of employees say their work/life balance has not significantly improved in the past five years.
A similar proportion (75%) of junior management employees reported that their burnout levels have not improved after five years.
The survey, which measured the attitudes and happiness level of UK employees, highlighted that nearly half (48%) of employees are responding to work messages during annual leave, while 39% have responded to messages whilst off sick.
Senior leaders are the most likely to blur work and social boundaries, with 55% of CEOs checking emails daily outside of work hours.
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But this culture is also trickling down the workforce: 42% of junior managers regularly check work emails after hours.
To tackle burnout, HR leaders need to create environments where managers are supporting balance, not undermining it, said Ryan Tahmassebi, people science director at employee engagement platform Workbuzz.
He told HR magazine: “It's a dangerous myth that HR should own work/life balance in isolation; this is a cultural issue, not a standalone initiative.
“Managers must model healthy behaviour and create environments where people are trusted to get their work done, where expectations are clear, and where managers are actively supporting balance, not quietly undermining it.
“They do this by providing clarity of roles, reasonable expectations, and psychological safety, not doubling down on work, removing resources and launching another wellbeing app.”
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While 84% of HR decision-makers encourage employees to disconnect during their own time, only 45% have formal guidelines.
Tahmassebi argues that while guidelines are helpful, they are not the answer.
“You can have all the guidelines you want. If people don’t feel safe to speak up, or take the time they need, they’re meaningless. Balance is behavioural; it's about what gets encouraged, what gets rewarded, and what gets quietly tolerated.
“A good set of guidelines can provide guardrails and expectations, but without culture behind them, they won't shift the day-to-day reality of your employees,” he said.
Colin Ellis, international speaker, culture change facilitator and author, agreed, arguing that guidelines risk becoming corporate theatre.
He told HR magazine: “While formal guidelines around work/life balance might provide a framework, their impact is severely limited if they are not accompanied by corresponding behaviour change, leadership commitment or it doesn’t feel ‘safe’ for them to log off during evenings and weekends.
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“Without leadership commitment and cultural reinforcement, these guidelines become corporate theatre: it’s nice on paper and on the careers webpage, but utterly meaningless in practice.”
Robert Ordever, European MD of employee recognition solutions provider OC Tanner, added: “Even when HR leaders have formal work-life balance guidelines in place, seeing managers and colleagues model desired behaviours is far more powerful than written guidelines; but this can only happen when the culture has employee wellbeing, understanding, empathy and appreciation at its heart.”
Socialising with colleagues outside of work hours has also taken a hit, research findings show, with nearly half of employees (46%) saying they rarely or never socialise with colleagues after hours. One reason for this was put down to financial pressure, with 24% of women citing cost as the main reason for skipping post-work socialising, compared with 15% of men.
BHN commissioned two UK-wide surveys in April 2025: one involving 2,000 employees in companies with less than 500 staff across various industries, and another with 175 HR decision-makers from different sectors.
