“When you work for an employer, does that mean you have to give them your life? I don’t think so.”
10 July 2026
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“When you work for an employer, does that mean you have to give them your life? I don’t think so.”
These are the words of FSU member Lisa Neatherway, who unfortunately knows all too well the damage an unmanageable workload and burnout can have on your mental health.
“As a people leader and a frontline worker in financial services, there’s often an expectation that we continue to work until the job is done,” said Lisa.
“We don’t always get paid for it – in fact, I don’t think I’ve ever been paid for those extra hours I’ve put in.
“It’s an expectation, it’s driven into you that if you don’t do that then you’re not doing your job, and I don’t think that’s fair.”
It’s certainly not fair – and it also creates an environment that is psychologically unsafe.
But the reality is, employers have an obligation to provide us with a safe workplace – both in terms of our physical and psychological safety.
While physical safety is equally important, people (particularly managers) often overlook psychological hazards, which is anything that can harm our mental health.
That might be excessive workloads, additional hours of work, poor organisational change and justice, poor support, low job control, and lack of role clarity, just to name a few.
Every day the FSU assists members with psychological injuries relating to burnout, bullying, unreasonable work demands and more. In fact, it’s the number one reason FSU members contact our Member Rights Centre.
According to FSU National Secretary Julia Angrisano, finance workers have unfortunately come to accept long hours and unreasonable work demands as normal.
“While some of these issues can be addressed through industrial changes, we have to get better at also framing them as work health and safety issues, because that’s what they are,” said Julia.
“Excessive work leads to burnout, and that’s a psychosocial hazard – and the fact is, employers have a legal duty to manage these hazards.”
And it’s in employers’ best interests to manage these risks. According to Safe Work Australia, work-related psychological injuries have, on average, longer recovery times, higher costs, and require more time away from work.
In fact, serious claims for mental health conditions resulted in 584,029 working weeks of time lost from work in 2021-22.
Another FSU member, who had to go on stress leave because her workload was taking too much of a mental toll, described it as like “running a marathon, but the expectation is that you sprint the whole time”.
“I had no energy for anything after work – no energy for my family. I’ve been trying to be better at managing it now but a lot of times I’m so mentally exhausted that my partner and my little girl are not really getting the best of me.
“The amount of pressure and unrealistic expectations has an actual physical toll on people. I have a lot of tension headaches and muscle tension. I’ll have problems sleeping sometimes. And of course it affects my mental health, depression and anxiety.”
While October was Safe Work Month – a reminder that all workers have a right to a safe workplace and our employers have a legal obligation to provide that safety – the FSU encourages members to think about and prioritise their mental health every day of the year.
Remember: safety is everyone’s business. We should never be afraid to prioritise our physical and psychological safety and raise our concerns with management.
The FSU is always here to support members and to help you exercise your rights. Give us a call on 1300 366 378 for assistance.
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