Dear Ellie,

I am limping across the finish line. This year broke me. Between layoffs in Q2 and restructuring in Q3, I have nothing left in the tank, but January starts a whole new race. I keep reading about “HR burnout,” but I don’t have time to burn out. How do I actually reset my own emotional battery over the break so I don’t walk into January already resenting my job? Does the marathon ever end?

Signed,

Running a never-ending marathon

I want you to close your door, or minimize your window, and take a breath.

It sounds like you have several heavy things going on, and I want to name them so we are clear on the terrain we are fighting on.

Limping across the finish line isn’t a failure. It is a testament to the fact that you survived. But it is also an indicator that you have been carrying A LOT. What you are describing is “compassion fatigue.” You have spent the last 12 months acting as the emotional shock absorber for an entire organization. You carried the secrets of the layoffs before they happened, you absorbed the anger while they happened, and you managed the anxiety after they happened.

How have you taken care of yourself through that?

On top of a year of hard changes, your leadership has initiatives they want to kick off at the start of the year. Maybe this stems from their anxiety to prevent another rough year, or maybe it is their coping mechanism to leave the old and start anew.

Regardless of their “why,” what have they done to set you up for success?

You now have a smaller budget and smaller headcount, but somehow a larger list of goals and projects. Even a fully staffed and expertly trained HR department would need time, resources, stakeholder buy-in, data, and solid infrastructure to tackle what they have placed on your shoulders.

How have they committed to partnering with you?

This is just a hunch, but I am guessing the answers to these questions are some version of “nothing, nada, zilch.”

Here is the reframe. You are not the “Department of No.” You are the Department of Physics.

Time and headcount are finite resources. If you try to do all four initiatives with zero budget and zero support, you will fail at all four, and leadership will blame execution rather than strategy. We need to stop acting like an order-taker at a drive-thru (“Would you like fries with that comp study?”) and start acting like a project manager. We are not refusing the work. We are sequencing reality.

The Playbook

We are going to force them to do the math. Do not complain about the workload. Present the data, and then stay quiet while they calculate in their own heads how they are setting you up for failure.

The “Buddy System” Audit

Create a simple spreadsheet. List every initiative they asked for. Next to it, estimate how many internal stakeholders you will need to get it across the finish line.

• Example (Performance Review): Needs six department leads for testing and piloting, one executive for oversight, and all managers for training.
• External Needs: Identify where external partners are needed, such as contractors or consultants, and estimate the cost.

The “Price Tag” Exercise (Man-Hours)

In the next column, estimate the man-hours required to do it well.

• Revamp LMS: 120 hours (selection, implementation, training).
• Performance Review Overhaul: 90 hours, plus 10 hours for training twice a year.
• Total Hours Available: Look at your team size. Subtract 80% for “keeping the lights on” work like payroll, employee relations, and admin. The remainder is your strategic capacity.

The “Good, Fast, Cheap” Meeting

Schedule a meeting with the leadership team. Show them the math.

• Script: “I love these goals. To execute them at the quality we need, it requires X hours. Our current capacity is Y hours. We can do two of these fully in Q1, or we can do all of them poorly over the whole year. Which two are the priority for Q1?”

The “Pilot” Compromise

If they refuse to cut the list, shrink the scope.

• Instead of: “Revamp the LMS for the whole company.”
• Counter-offer: “Launch a pilot LMS for just the Sales team in Q1 to test the ROI.”

I admire your ability to run the never-ending marathon that is Human Resources and still have the will to keep going. But I am here to hold up the mirror for you. You think if you just work harder, stay later, and care more, you can make the math work. You can’t. At least not without taking damage along the way. Math always wins.

You are already heading into the year limping and exhausted. So I want to challenge you to do a little more math and carve out time for active recovery. Do something that actually fills your cup, like playing with your dog, reading a book, painting, or actually running for real. Scrolling TikTok, listening to HR podcasts, or grabbing a free drink at a networking event does not count.

Stay Resilient,

Ellie

Elizabeth “Ellie” Tancreti is a seasoned HR consultant (and former Senior Recruiter, Onboarding/People and Culture Specialist) who’s faced the same challenges—and helps professionals like you get unstuck.

Bring your questions—on burnout, alignment, career pivots, leadership challenges, building culture, or any thorny questions keeping you up at night. Ask your question and get Ellie’s advice.

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