21.08.2025

9 in 10 Workers Risk Burnout – Are You Spending Your Weekends Wrong?

With 9 in 10 people in the UK at risk of burnout, experts are weighing whether our time off should be spent recharging or enjoying life to the fullest.

Bank holidays, annual leave, and weekends offer precious pockets of free time, many professionals face a quiet dilemma: should we use these moments to catch up on rest and reset from work, or should we fill them with activity, socialising, and experiences we don’t have time for during the week?

Office experts Instant Offices explore how the answer isn’t as straightforward as choosing one over the other – it’s about balance, awareness, and understanding the impact of burnout.

So, 9 in 10 are at risk of burnout, but what is burnout?

Burnout is an occupational phenomenon marked by persistent fatigue, detachment, reduced productivity, and even physical ones like headaches or insomnia. Burnout often arises when chronic stress, excessive workloads and insufficient recovery accumulate over time, gradually overwhelming our mental and physical resilience. In a country like the UK, where the average employee works nearly 216 hours of overtime per year, making a conscious effort to rest and re-charge is highly important.

A 2025 study on the most burnout areas in the UK highlighted that Brits took an average of 21.1 days off for stress, depression, and anxiety last year. Intentional downtime gives both the mind and body the chance to reset. Without it, studies show higher blood pressure, worse sleep and increased stress levels.

But when we do have time off, the question remains: should we simply rest, or also use it to live our lives to the fullest? The balanceisn’t always easy.

Why Recharging Matters – More Than Just Doing Nothing

Weekends, bank holidays, and annual leave often present a dilemma: should we spend our free time socialising and enjoying life, or simply rest and do nothing to recover from the work week?

Life, however, is about more than just work and recovery. Using downtime purely to recharge can reduce life to a cycle of “work, collapse, repeat.”

Bank holidays, weekends, and annual leave can be opportunities to enrich your personal life:

Social connections – Spending quality time with loved ones is one of the strongest predictors of long-term wellbeing.
Hobbies and learning – Pursuing passions outside work boosts creativity and self-esteem.
Travel and experiences – Stepping outside of routine can refresh perspective and build resilience.

Demis Brill, Instant Offices comments: “When we talk about rest, we often imagine simply sitting back and having a ‘chilled weekend,’ but recharging goes beyond being idle or unproductive. It is about giving your mind and body the opportunity to recover and reset. Since we spend the majority of our week working, it is particularly important to dedicate free time to activities that bring you enjoyment.

While it may be tempting to do nothing after a demanding week, engaging in social or leisure activities, whether that’s meeting friends, walking the dog with family, or enjoying a movie night at home, can be vital for clearing your mind and supporting overall wellbeing. Adequate sleep and downtime remain essential, and while overloading your weekend can leave you feeling drained, balancing both restorative rest and meaningful activity is key to feeling fully recharged.”

Studies show social and physical activities can help renew energy and improve wellbeing. The key is intentional rest: deliberately stepping away from work obligations and allowing yourself to disconnect, whether that’s reading and watching tv or going out and being social with friends and family. This is what makes downtime truly restorative, rather than just “time off.”

In short, recharging isn’t doing nothing – it’s investing in yourself so you can perform better, think more clearly, and enjoy life more fully when you return to work.

Striking the Right Balance

The healthiest approach is not to choose between rest or activity, but to mix both intentionally:

Protect time for real rest. Ensure at least some of your holiday or weekend is unstructured and restorative.
Plan activities that energise you. Avoid filling every free hour with obligations. Instead, focus on experiences that genuinely bring joy or fulfilment.
Listen to your body. Some weekends you may need more sleep; others you may crave social connection or adventure.

Ultimately, the value of time off lies in how it supports your wellbeing. Using it only to recover from burnout reduces your life to managing exhaustion. Using it only to pack in experiences risks leaving you more drained. The sweet spot is somewhere in between, rest enough to protect your health but live enough to feel fulfilled.

For more work life tips, visit Instant Offices: https://www.instantoffices.com/en/gb

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