Who goes?
Would you? Be honest with yourself. If your manager called you right now and said there’s absolutely no one to cover this shift, would you raise your hand?
Right now we are sitting smack dab in the middle of flu season in Texas. I know probably 10 people in my close circle who are sick. As a leader, this is a terrifying time: you wake up and see 4, 5, or 6 texts from frontline staff who are sick.
Functioning in your own body works just like your company’s budget. Income lines and expense lines meet at a fine balance.
The electricity bill
Anyone who has led frontline staff knows some work can’t be skipped. The phones have to be answered. The doors have to open. The customer, the client, or the contract means it absolutely cannot be missed, and it has to be done no matter what.
That’s the electricity bill. You can’t say, “Nah, I don’t feel like paying it this month.” You pay it anyway.
Most of our jobs and our lives work like that. Some things are non-negotiable. When you put a line item in a budget, you can’t explain it away. It’s a line item. It’s something you have to pay.
But has anyone ever asked: what is it costing you?
Most of us already know the burnout talk
Most of us have sat through the burnout training. We know the warning signs and the self-care slides.
What we don’t get is the ability to say out loud what something is costing us. Not that we have to cut it or change it. Just that we can acknowledge what it’s costing us and what it’s costing our employees, and then look at the budget together.
When I was growing in my career, I perceived my relationship with one of the leaders more as mentor/mentee. I admitted I was having a hard time getting kids to do all their stuff and still committing to all the post-work activities she advised me to attend. 6 months later, I was told I couldn’t move up because, as a weekday single mom, I couldn’t put in the time and commitment to networking.
So a conversation about balancing my budget got me passed over just a few months later. That is the exact fear employees have, so they just keep pushing.
Naming the cost is not the same as refusing to pay it
I need everyone, but especially leaders, to hear me when I say this. Saying something costs you is not the same as saying you will not do it.
I would have covered the event. Most of the people reading this would have figured out a way to go and get it done. I know that because if you wouldn’t, you wouldn’t be reading a publication about burnout and stress. The problem is that no one ever wrote down what covering it cost.
It cost sleep. It cost the evening with your kids. It cost the body that was already running on fumes before flu season started. And because no one named it, the same person keeps paying it. Week after week. Shift after shift. Until the budget no longer balances, and everyone acts surprised when she breaks.
A leader who only asks who will cover the shift or the event is asking the wrong question. The question underneath it is who keeps paying for the shifts no one else will take.
Look at the budget together
If you lead people, do this before flu season takes another round out of your team. Pull the last month. Count who covered the uncovered shifts. Not in your head. On paper.
You will find a pattern. Almost always, one person raises her hand first. She is reliable. She is also tired in a way a day off will not fix, because the cost was never acknowledged in the first place.
Acknowledging it does not mean you close the doors. You still have to answer the phones. The client still has to be seen. What changes is that you stop pretending the coverage was free.
Tell the person that you understand what it cost her to say yes, and mean it. Then change one thing about how the next uncovered shift gets covered. Rotate it. Pay it differently. Call in backup before the reliable person breaks, not after.
And if you are the reliable person, I wish someone had told me before that mentor conversation. Naming the cost does not make you unpromotable. A workplace that punishes you for naming it told you exactly how it budgets people.
Your most joyful employee might be your biggest risk
You know her. She says yes to everything. She loves what she does. She’s an ambassador for the company, and customers rave about how amazing she is.
That’s great, and you reward her with whatever you reward people with, whether it’s a pizza party, an extra day off, or just an attaboy by email.
But we never know what other costs she’s carrying in her private life.
And honestly, it’s none of our business.
I see so many leaders who think, “Well, I should know what they’re carrying, so I should ask these personal questions.” No. That’s none of your business. What you can see is the pattern that ties it all together: always saying yes, never asking questions, never taking time off. A survey won’t catch that. You can survey the customer and ask, “Were they helpful? Did they solve the problem?” Yes, yes, yes. That tells you she’s doing her job well. It doesn’t tell you what else she’s carrying.
It isn’t always 50-50
I saw something on social media once about marriage. People always say a marriage is 50-50, and it’s not. Sometimes it’s 90-10. Sometimes it’s 40-60. You should be able to go to your husband and say, “Hey, I’m at a 30 right now,” and he says, “Great, I’ll pick up the 70.” Or you’re both at a 90, and you do it together. And sometimes you’re both at a 20, and that means it’s pizza night, the kids skip baths, and you just do what you have to do to survive.
Work is like that too. If you give 100% of 40, that’s your 100%. You can’t compare it to someone else’s 100% of 90. Those are two very different things, and you can’t expect two different people to both be at 90 all the time when they’re carrying very different loads.
But you have to be careful. You can’t look at someone and decide, “She’s struggling, she’s a single mom, so I won’t hold her accountable,” while the person at a 90 gets held to a higher standard.
The standard is the electricity bill. It gets paid. The number changes how you get there. Let’s normalize people working together by being honest about their number. The person at 40 won’t always be at 40, and the person at90 won’t always be at 90.
And they get to tell you their number. You don’t assign it, and you don’t judge by it.
Who goes?
So I will ask the opening question again, and I want a different answer this time.
A shift can’t go uncovered, and there’s no one available. Who goes?
Not always you. Not by default. Not because you are the only one who will say yes.
This week, name one non-negotiable in your life and say out loud what it is costing you. Not to complain. Not to quit. Just to put the line item on the table where everyone, most importantly you, can see it.
That is how a budget gets honest. And an honest budget is the only one that holds.
On November 10, 2026, at 8pm CST, we will go deeper on this as it applies to the Holiday chaos quickly descending upon us. Mark your calendar and make sure you are subscribed to get the notification.