Ebb & Flow

It’s Time to Change the Conversation Around Workplace Wellbeing

We’ve all seen it before. An employee who always delivers, goes the extra mile and never lets the team down—until one day, they’re suddenly out. Burned out. Exhausted. Done.

And what do we say? “They should have taken a mental health day.”

But here’s the problem: When we frame recovery as a response to crisis, we’re already too late.

High performers don’t just deserve recovery—they need it to sustain their best work. Like elite athletes, our best employees don’t break because they’re weak—they break because they’ve been running at full intensity without structured recovery.

What Elite Athletes Have Taught Me About High Performance

Throughout my career as an Exercise Professional, I’ve observed that elite athletes, regardless of gender, prioritise structured recovery without hesitation.

No one questions why the All Blacks take recovery days. We don’t call it “injury prevention leave” or assume they’re mentally struggling. We accept that structured recovery is what allows them to sustain peak performance.

Elite athletes train hard and recover hard. On the other hand, workplaces expect employees to push hard—but when they hit exhaustion, they’re sent home to “rest up” before jumping back in. That’s not recovery—it’s damage control.

So here’s the question: If a sports coach stacked full-intensity training sessions without recovery, they’d be fired. Why do we allow the same thing in our workplaces?