Our Practical Guide to Preventing Burnout in Local Government Teams

If you lead a local government team, you’ve probably felt this: the work itself is meaningful, but the pace can get unsustainable fast. It’s not just the volume of tasks. It’s the constant switching between priorities, people, systems, and “quick questions” that are never actually quick.

Gallup found 76% of employees experience burnout, and 28% say they feel burned out “very often” or “always.” In government specifically, a 2024 Eagle Hill Consulting survey reported 41% of government employees experience burnout.

So how do you reduce burnout without pretending you can simply “do less”?

Here are practical, team-lead-friendly ways to spot overload early and delegate better with a focus on making daily work smoother.

5 Workflow Improvements That Help Reduce Staff Burnout & Overload

1) Look for early (& subtle) warning signs

Burnout rarely starts with missed deadlines. It starts with patterns changing:

• One or two “go-to” staff become the unofficial help desk for everything
• Work slows down because people are constantly clarifying, tracking, and re-tracking details
• Rework increases, not because people aren’t capable, but because they’re interrupted mid-thought
• Documentation and handoffs get skipped because everyone is running at capacity

Here’s why this matters: interruptions don’t just “steal a minute.” Microsoft Research found it can take around 23 minutes to resume an interrupted task. When a day is built on constant context-switching, it’s no wonder people feel exhausted, even if they never stop moving.

2) Check in with staff to get an idea of their workflow challenges

Delegation gets way easier when you’re working from reality instead of vibes.

Ask each person to send you three things:

1. Their top 5 recurring tasks
2. Their top 3 interruptions (what derails their day most often)
3. One thing they do that feels like “only I can do this”

When you compare responses, you’ll usually uncover one of these root problems:

• unclear ownership (everyone thinks someone else has it)
• the same resident/vendor questions being answered over and over
• expertise trapped in one person’s inbox or memory
• work that could be standardized but isn’t yet

That’s your roadmap. Not for “more effort,” but for better design.

3) Standardize repeat work for staff & resident peace of mind

When teams are stretched thin, it feels like there’s no time to standardize. In reality, that’s exactly when you need it—because repeat work multiplies quietly.

A stat that tends to land with leaders: Microsoft’s Work Trend Index reported that the average employee spends 57% of their time communicating (meetings, email, chat) and 62% say they struggle with too much time spent searching for information.

In local government terms, that “searching” often looks like:

• digging for the correct link or form
• rewriting explanations because old language isn’t vetted
• hunting down what another department told someone last week
• answering the same question in slightly different ways across staff

If you standardize just a handful of your most common responses and handoffs, you’ll feel the difference quickly.

4) Protect staff focus time for a better mindset

Focus time isn’t a perk. It’s how complex, high-responsibility work gets done correctly.

If you want a small but powerful shift:

• Create two “quiet blocks” per week
• Set a team rule for interruptions (example: “If it’s not urgent, it goes in one place and we handle it in order.”)

The goal isn’t slower service. The goal is fewer mistakes, less rework, and fewer midnight catch-up sessions.

And if your team feels like the workday never ends, you’re not imagining it. Microsoft’s 2025 reporting on the “infinite workday” describes a modern reality of frequent disruptions, down to receiving app alerts every couple minutes in some work patterns.

5) Delegate the system, instead of specific tasks

Instead of delegating like: “Can you handle this one request?”
Delegate like: “Can you own this workflow?”

Examples:

• “Own our short-term rental inquiry responses for 30 days. Goal: fewer follow-ups.”
• “Own the permit status update process. Goal: clearer next steps and fewer check-ins.”
• “Own inspection scheduling handoffs. Goal: fewer missed updates across teams.”

This is how you reduce burnout and reduce dependence on a single person. It also gives staff clarity because “helping” is endless, but “owning” has boundaries.

Where Acta Can Help

Burnout is often a communication systems problem: when work lives in inboxes and in people’s heads, the same questions get answered over and over, and the load keeps landing on the same staff.

Acta helps reduce that friction by:

• Keeping pre-approved templates ready to send for high-volume questions
• Making policies, SOPs, and “how we do this here” guidance easy to find in the Acta Operations Manual
• Supporting consistent responses across the team, even when someone’s out or new
• Working directly in Outlook, so staff don’t have to change platforms to change outcomes

If you're curious to learn more about our products from our Smart Response System, an Outlook add-in that allows staff to send consistent information, to Ask Acta AI, a browser-embed software that conducts accurate parcel research instantly - feel free to respond to this email or visit our website to schedule quick demo!

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