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The only constant is change, as the saying goes, and workers are wearing thin because of it.
Organizational change isn’t new, but many companies have undergone great upheaval since the Covid-19 pandemic: navigating hybrid work and return-to-office mandates, mass layoffs, restructurings and the consequent reshuffling of responsibilities, and AI adoption.
“Everybody is feeling change fatigue,” Lorraine “Lo” Stomski, Walmart’s chief talent officer, told CNBC Make It at Forbes’ Future of Work Summit in New York City on Oct. 6. “The environment is changing so rapidly.”
Managers and employers should be thinking about “really helping their employees to navigate through that,” she adds.
What is change fatigue?
Change fatigue is a state of exhaustion workers may experience after going through many changes at their employer. It can show up as resistance, apathy, or resignation to changes, and research indicates it can predict increased strain and burnout, as well as lower employee commitment and performance.
Many employees are hit with curveball after curveball with little time to adjust. Roughly 73% of employees said their organization had experienced some level of disruptive change within the past year in a Gallup survey of over 22,000 U.S. workers published in December 2024. “The more disruption that employees have experienced, the more likely they are to feel burned out today,” the report says.
“Change is stressful, particularly if it’s not managed well,” says Peter Cappelli, management professor and director of the Center for Human Resources at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School. “Every transition creates stress and requires energy from people, and they just get worn out from doing it.”
What people and organizations can do
Employers can take some steps to make changes feel more manageable, including “giving workers agency” and “equipping them with tools,” said Stomski.
That could mean getting their input on a restructuring ahead of time. Letting them apply for other jobs internally if their current role will be eliminated also helps, Cappelli adds: “You should certainly tell people what you’re trying to do, and then say we want to involve you in the process.”
Communicating clearly through the change, including specifying why it’s happening and how it will affect employees, can mitigate anxiety around it. When it comes to introducing new technologies, like AI, training can help things go over more smoothly.
“A lot of resistance comes from people who feel they’re going to fail in the new context,” Cappelli says. If you can demonstrate what it looks like and practice what they should do with it, that can help smooth the transition.
As for employees, while they likely won’t have much sway in the matter, they should focus on what they can control. They can also ask their direct managers for more answers and clarity that can ease the transition, Cappelli says. But organizations should expect some workers may also resort to looking for work elsewhere.
“Employees who are confronted with this kind of change, without a story about where it’s going, without any sense that they’re going to be involved in the process, without any control over it — I wouldn’t be surprised to find that they’re all going to be looking for another job,” Cappelli says.
