34 employee workload questions to ask your team, ready to score
A workload survey asks employees three things: is the load manageable, where does the pressure come from, and what would help? The core 12 handles all three in roughly four minutes. Five optional sets go deeper on hours, where the time goes, warning signs and room for more work.
- 34questions
- 12in the core set
- 4 minfor the core
- 5optional sets
By Michael Hodge, BSc Psychology Updated September 2026
All 34 workload survey questions
Twelve core questions are in your survey before you touch anything. Tick extra questions one by one or take a whole set; the note under each question explains what a low score means.
The core 1212 questions
One question on how heavy the load feels, eight statements on hours, deadlines, priorities, fairness, breaks, recovery, support and quality, then weekly hours, the main causes and one change. Complete on its own.
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How would you describe your workload right now?
Far too muchA bit too muchAbout rightA bit too littleFar too littleThe headline number. Add the two "too much" answers together, and watch the other end as well: idle time is a workload problem too.
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I can finish my work within my normal hours.
Strongly disagree12345Strongly agree1 = Strongly disagree, 5 = Strongly agreeThe plainest test of a manageable load. Low scores here usually line up with the long-hours bands in Q10.
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The deadlines I am given are realistic.
Strongly disagree12345Strongly agree1 = Strongly disagree, 5 = Strongly agreeTime pressure, asked about the deadlines themselves rather than about feeling rushed.
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I know what to do first when everything is urgent.
Strongly disagree12345Strongly agree1 = Strongly disagree, 5 = Strongly agreePriority clarity. When everything is urgent, people work on whatever is loudest; this shows whether priorities reach the team.
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Work is shared out fairly in my team.
Strongly disagree12345Strongly agree1 = Strongly disagree, 5 = Strongly agreeFair shares. A team can average fine while two people carry most of the load, so compare this one across teams.
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I can take the breaks I am entitled to.
Strongly disagree12345Strongly agree1 = Strongly disagree, 5 = Strongly agreeSkipped breaks are one of the first signs a workload has tipped over, and one of the easiest to fix once you can see them.
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I can switch off from work in my own time.
Strongly disagree12345Strongly agree1 = Strongly disagree, 5 = Strongly agreeRecovery. Messages and worries that follow people home are where a heavy load starts to cost health.
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My manager steps in when my load gets too much.
Strongly disagree12345Strongly agree1 = Strongly disagree, 5 = Strongly agreeSupport. Across 336 samples, heavier workloads went with less supervisor support; this checks whether help arrives when it is needed.5
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I have time to do my work well, not just fast.
Strongly disagree12345Strongly agree1 = Strongly disagree, 5 = Strongly agreeQuality under pressure. When this falls while hours hold steady, people are cutting corners to keep up.
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In a typical week, how many hours do you work in total?
Under 3535 to 4041 to 4849 to 5455 or moreCount hours worked at home too. The top band starts at 55, the level a WHO and ILO analysis ties to more heart disease and stroke.4
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What adds most to your workload right now?
Short staffingMeetingsInterruptionsUnclear prioritiesAdminDelaysTick all that applyTurns a feeling into causes you can act on. The option with the most ticks is the first fix to try.
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What one change would make your workload more manageable?
Open answerOne change keeps answers concrete. People often name a fix their manager can make the same week.
Hours and extra time5 questions
Add these when overtime, unpaid time or out-of-hours messages keep coming up in the open answers.
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In the last four weeks, how often did you work past your normal hours?
NeverOnce or twiceEvery weekMost daysRecent and countable, so answers do not drift toward how the worst week felt.
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On a typical workday, how much unpaid extra time do you work?
NoneUnder 30 min30 to 60 min1 to 2 hoursOver 2 hoursUnpaid time is the part of a workload that never shows up on a timesheet.
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How often do you answer work messages outside working hours?
NeverRarelySometimesOftenAlwaysOut-of-hours messages stretch the working day without anyone deciding that they should.
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I can take my leave without work piling up.
Strongly disagree12345Strongly agree1 = Strongly disagree, 5 = Strongly agreeIf leave means a backlog, people stop taking it. A low score points at cover arrangements, not at the person.
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Compared with a year ago, my workload has:
Gone up a lotGone up a littleStayed the sameGone downDirection of travel. A load that is heavy but steady needs a different fix from one that keeps growing.
Where the time goes5 questions
For teams whose tick list points at meetings, interruptions or admin. This is where workload meets productivity.
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About how many hours a week do you spend in meetings?
Under 22 to 56 to 1011 to 15Over 15Meetings are the easiest hours to hand back. Compare roles before you cancel anything.
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On a typical day, how long can you work without interruption?
Under 30 min30 to 60 min1 to 2 hoursOver 2 hoursFocus time. Short stretches mean a full day can pass with the important task untouched.
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Most of my time goes on the work my role is for.
Strongly disagree12345Strongly agree1 = Strongly disagree, 5 = Strongly agreeRole creep. When this is low, the problem is the extra tasks bolted onto the job, not the job itself.
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Which of these could stop, shrink or move to someone else?
Status reportsRecurring meetingsData entryApprovalsCopied-in emailNoneTick all that applyStaff know which tasks add little. The totals give a manager permission to drop them.
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Which task takes more of your time than it should?
Open answerNames the one process to fix first, often a form, a tool or a sign-off that can be simplified.
Pressure and warning signs5 questions
Add these for early warning of burnout, not just a read on volume. Report them only as team totals.
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How often do you finish the workday with nothing left for the evening?
NeverRarelySometimesOftenAlwaysAn early sign that the job is taking more than the working day. Read it next to the hours answers.
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In the last month, has your workload affected any of these?
SleepHealthFamily timeQuality of workMoodNone of theseTick all that applyShows where the cost lands. Report the totals, never who ticked what.
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I could keep up this pace for the next six months.
Strongly disagree12345Strongly agree1 = Strongly disagree, 5 = Strongly agreeSustainability. Any team can cope with a peak; this shows whether the peak has become normal.
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I feel able to say when I have too much on.
Strongly disagree12345Strongly agree1 = Strongly disagree, 5 = Strongly agreeWhether people speak up early. Low scores mean overload surfaces late, as sick days or resignations.
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In the last six months, has your workload made you think about leaving?
NoOnce or twiceOftenLinks workload to retention. In a meta-analysis, heavier workloads went with stronger plans to quit.5
Capacity and room for more4 questions
For planning: who has room for more, who is past full, and how work moves when someone is away.
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How many projects, clients or cases are you handling right now?
1 to 23 to 56 to 1011 to 20Over 20A count you can compare across similar roles. Big gaps inside one role point at how work is handed out.
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Could you take on more work in the next month?
Yes, easilyYes, a littleOnly if something stopsNoSpare capacity is as useful to find as overload. The third answer is where most planning talks start.
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Work arrives at a steady pace, not in sudden peaks.
Strongly disagree12345Strongly agree1 = Strongly disagree, 5 = Strongly agreePeaks strain people more than the same work spread out. Low scores point at planning further up the line.
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When a colleague is away, what usually happens to their work?
A plan covers itIt is shared fairlyMost lands on meIt waits for themCover. The third answer is where hidden overload builds up in teams that look balanced on paper.
About you (optional)3 questions
Only for comparing groups. Drop any question that would let someone work out who answered.
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Which best describes your role?
Team memberTeam leadManagerPrefer not to sayManagers often carry their own work plus the overflow from their team. This shows whether they do here.
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Where do you do most of your work?
On siteHybridRemotePrefer not to sayRemote and on-site staff often describe very different workloads in the same role.
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What hours are you contracted for?
Full timePart timeShifts or rotaPrefer not to sayPart-time staff sometimes carry a full-time load in fewer hours. This is the split that shows it.
How to measure employee workload: three sources
A survey tells you how the load feels. Two other sources show where the hours go and whether the numbers agree. Use all three when you can.
| Source | What it shows | Use it to |
|---|---|---|
| Staff survey (this page) | Pace, deadlines, fair shares, support and the causes staff name | Find which teams and causes to tackle first |
| Time log for one or two weeks | Hours by task: meetings, admin, interruptions, core work | Test a cause the survey names, such as meetings |
| Records you already keep | Overtime, leave not taken, sickness absence, turnover, backlog per person | Pick teams to survey first, then check a fix worked |
HSE advises checking staff survey results against sickness absence records and staff turnover figures, then talking the findings through with staff before acting.10 When all three sources point the same way, you have found the problem. When they disagree, the gap is worth a conversation: a team can log normal hours and still score low on deadlines when work lands in sudden peaks, which is what Q30 in the capacity set picks up.
Workload is one part of the picture. For engagement, pay or recognition, the employee survey question sets cover those jobs.
Turn the eight statements into a team workload report
Key in how the team answered the eight core statements, one count per answer choice. Since agreement always signals a manageable load, the lowest bars mark the first places to act.
- 1The panel works out, per statement, what share of people agreed or strongly agreed.
- 2Read the first four statements together (hours, deadlines, priorities, fair shares): they show whether the amount of work fits the time.
- 3Read the last four together (breaks, switching off, manager help, doing work well): they show what the load is costing people.
- 4Set the two lowest bars against the cause tick list in Q11, then pick one fix, name who owns it and set a finish date.
Workload survey results
Frank answers first, then one change within a month
Four habits that make staff answer frankly and make the results worth acting on.
Work-related stress by main cause, rate per 100,000 workers
Ask about support and clarity, not only volume
Workload is the biggest single cause of work-related stress that workers in Great Britain report: 620 cases per 100,000 workers, three times the rate for lack of support.1 The causes travel together, though. A meta-analysis of 336 samples found that heavier workloads went with more role conflict (rho = .44) and less supervisor support (rho = -.20).5 So the core puts priorities (Q4) and manager help (Q8) right beside the questions on hours and deadlines.
Tie every question to a fixed period
Memory drifts toward the worst week. Anchor each question to a span people can check: a typical week for hours, the last four weeks for late finishes, the last month for sleep and health. The hours bands top out at 55 or more because that is the point where WHO and ILO found a 35% higher risk of stroke than a 35 to 40 hour week.3
Report by team, never by person
Staff describe their real load when no answer can be traced back to them. HSE calls a formal statement of anonymity at the start of the survey the best way to get frank answers, and says questions on site, grade or age must never be enough to identify anyone.10 Keep the About you set short, and publish a team result only when enough people in it answered.
Change one thing within a month
The pay-off comes when answers turn into a lighter load. In a Gallup study of nearly 7,500 full-time employees, people who often or always had enough time for all their work were 70% less likely to report high burnout, and those who felt strongly supported by their manager were about 70% less likely to feel burned out regularly.2 Pick one fix per team, such as a dropped meeting series, clearer priorities or cover for leave, then run the core again to watch the scores move.
Planning next week with the team? Put the first core question on screen and run it as a quick workload poll before you hand out tasks. The 40 meeting poll questions give you more for the same slot, and our poll how-to walks through sharing one in a call or a chat.
Every two or three weeks: a short workload check
Between full surveys, send these five every two or three weeks. They catch a load that is creeping up early enough to move work around.
- 01How would you describe your workload right now?
- 02I can finish my work within my normal hours.
- 03I know what to do first when everything is urgent.
- 04My manager steps in when my load gets too much.
- 05What one change would make your workload more manageable?
Scoring the workload questionnaire on a Likert scale
Every five-point statement here is worded so that agreeing means the load is manageable. That keeps the maths simple: no reverse-coded items, one direction for every number.
Three numbers worth reporting
- Percent agree for each statement: the 4s and 5s divided by everyone who answered it.
- A workload score for each person: the average of their eight core statements (Q2 to Q9), from 1 to 5.
- The share of people whose workload score falls below 3, the disagree side of the scale.
A worked example
Twenty people on a customer support team answer the core. Three of the statements come out like this.
| Statement | Average (1 to 5) | Percent agree |
|---|---|---|
| Q2 Finish within normal hours | 2.6 | 30 (6 of 20) |
| Q5 Work shared out fairly | 2.9 | 40 (8 of 20) |
| Q8 Manager helps when heavy | 3.8 | 70 (14 of 20) |
This manager responds when asked, but the hours do not fit the work and the work is not spread evenly. If short staffing tops the cause list in Q11, the fix is cover and a shared queue, and the next round shows whether Q2 and Q5 climb.
Comparing rounds
Keep the eight statements word for word between rounds, and compare each team with its own last result before you compare teams with each other.
For shift briefings: the questionnaire on paper
Frontline and shift teams often answer best on paper. Hand copies out at a shift briefing, collect them in a closed box, and combine the paper counts with the online answers before you score.
Employee workload questionnaire
Pencil tick boxes for the core set sit on the first sheet, with the extra sets after it.
Download PDF
Workload results tally sheet
Count the paper forms, work out percent agree per statement, total the causes people ticked, and note the two changes to make first.
Download PDFPublished workload scales for a research study
Writing a thesis or a paper you want to compare with earlier studies? Pair this survey with a published scale, used exactly as its authors wrote it.
| Scale | What it measures | How people answer |
|---|---|---|
| Quantitative Workload Inventory (Spector and Jex) | The amount of work: pace, effort and too much to do | 5 items from never to several times a day, summed to a score of 5 to 256 |
| NASA-TLX (Hart and Staveland)8 | Load during one task: mental, physical and time demand, performance, effort, frustration | Six ratings, given during the task or straight after it9 |
| HSE Management Standards Indicator Tool | Demands, control, support and three other working conditions | 35 statements, with each area scored from 1 (poor) to 5 (desirable)10 |
Across 15 samples and 3,728 people, the QWI averaged 16.5 out of 25.7 NASA-TLX is built for one task at a time.9 The QWI and the HSE tool describe the job as a whole, and so does this survey.
Managers ask these before measuring the load
What managers and HR teams ask before the first round goes out.
How do you measure the workload of employees?
Combine three sources: a short survey on how manageable the load feels, a one or two week time log for the teams the survey flags, and records you already hold, such as overtime, leave not taken and sickness absence. The survey tells you where to look; the log and the records show how big the problem is.
What questions should I ask employees about their workload?
Ask how heavy the load feels, whether work fits the hours, whether deadlines are realistic, whether priorities are clear and work is shared fairly, whether people get breaks and can switch off, and whether their manager helps. Add weekly hours, a tick list of causes and one open question. That is the core 12 above.
Should a workload survey be anonymous?
Yes, in most workplaces. People understate their load when their name is attached. Say at the start that answers are anonymous, keep the About you questions few, and share a team result only when it has enough replies to hide any single answer.
What response rate should a workload survey aim for?
HSE's manual for its stress survey treats over 60% as desirable, over 70% as good and more than 80% as very good.10 Give people time in working hours to answer, and hand paper copies to staff who rarely sit at a computer.
How often should we run it?
For the full survey, once or twice a year is plenty. In busy periods, send the five-question check-in every two or three weeks. Repeat the core about six weeks after any change to workloads, so you can see whether it helped.
Workload questions that mislead, and better wording
Small wording choices decide whether an answer points at a fix. Our guide to picking survey questions has more on open versus closed questions and on unbiased wording.
Is your workload too high?
How would you describe your workload right now? Far too much
A bit too much
About right
A bit too little
Far too little
Yes or no answers hide the people with too little to do, and cannot show how far past the limit everyone else is. Five answers show both.
Do you have enough time and resources to do your job?
I can finish my work within my normal hours.
What adds most to your workload right now? (tick list)
Two problems in one question. Asking about time first, then letting people tick the causes, shows whether the gap is hours, tools or people.
How stressed are you by your workload?
In the last month, has your workload affected any of these? Sleep, health, family time, quality of work, mood
People read "stressed" differently, and some will not admit to it. Asking what the load has touched gives concrete answers you can count.
Don't you think the team could handle a bit more?
Could you take on more work in the next month?
A leading question collects agreement, not information. The neutral version lets people say no, or say exactly how much room they have.
See which team is carrying too much
Send the core 12 to one team this week, or print the questionnaire for staff who work away from a screen. Their answers show which change to make first.
