Change Fatigue: The Crisis Hiding in Plain Sight

Here's something that might sound familiar — you're sitting in yet another project kick-off meeting, listening to leadership outline the latest "transformation initiative." Your heart sinks a little because you know the organisation is still processing the last three changes you helped roll out. The presenter is enthusiastic, talking about "exciting opportunities" and "strategic pivots", whilst you're mentally calculating how many more emails your people can handle before they simply stop reading them altogether.

If that scenario rings true, you're not alone. For the first time in Gallagher's State of the Sector 2025 annual survey of over 2,000 internal communications and HR leaders, change fatigue has shot to number two on the list of biggest challenges facing our profession. Not budget constraints. Not resource issues. But change fatigue.

Let that sink in for a moment….

The numbers paint a stark picture of our post-COVID reality. Since 2020, 85% of executives report an increase in change initiatives, with over half seeing more than a 25% uptick compared to pre-pandemic levels (source: Harvard Business Review, 2023). Meanwhile, employees are experiencing what researchers call "layered, concurrent transformations" — changes that arrive stacked on top of each other without any breathing room.

This means that the global workforce can now cope with only about 50% of the changes being thrown at it (source: Gartner, 2020: How to Reduce the Risk of Employee Change Fatigue). That's a dramatic drop from pre-pandemic capacity. Change is coming twice as fast as people can actually absorb it.

For us in the communications world, this creates a perfect storm. We're expected to be change champions, crafting compelling narratives for endless transformations, whilst simultaneously experiencing that same change overload ourselves. It's like being asked to be the life and soul of the party when you're utterly exhausted.

What change fatigue actually looks like

Change fatigue isn't just people being “a bit fed up.” It's a measurable phenomenon with real symptoms that we need to recognise:

On the individual level, you'll spot the warning signs:

• Physical and mental exhaustion (those dark circles under colleagues' eyes aren't just from late nights)

• Apathy towards new initiatives ("Here we go again...")

• Increased cynicism ("Why bother? It'll just change again next month")

• More resistance to even minor adjustments

• Higher absenteeism and ultimately, people leaving

Organisationally, the impact is just as severe:

• Employee engagement has fallen to a 10-year low (source: Gallup research 2021-2024: The Post-Pandemic Workplace)

• Employees feel less connected to their company's mission

• Change initiative success rates have plummeted to around 34% (source: Gartner 2022: This New Strategy Could Be Your Ticket To Change Management Success)

• Trust in leadership's ability to manage change has collapsed from 74% in 2016 to roughly 38-43% today (source: Oak Engage Change Report 2023)

Perhaps most tellingly, we're seeing employees develop what I call "change immunity" — they've heard so many announcements about transformations that didn't stick or made things worse that they simply tune out new communications altogether.

The burden on communicators

Here's what makes this particularly challenging for us — we're both the messengers and the message recipients. We're simultaneously trying to help others navigate change whilst drowning in it ourselves.

The Gallagher research revealed that one-third of communicators saw their well-being decline in 2024, citing "ongoing change and uncertainty" as a major factor. We're the lightning rods for employee frustration during upheaval, absorbing stress from all sides whilst being expected to maintain our professional composure and craft upbeat communications.

I've heard from colleagues who describe feeling like "exhausted messengers", caught between leadership demanding quick, positive communications and employees pushing back with legitimate concerns and fatigue.

When communication effectiveness breaks down

One of the cruel ironies of change fatigue is that just when more communication is needed, our ability to communicate effectively can deteriorate. When we're operating in permanent reactive mode, corners get cut:

• Strategic planning gets skipped – nearly half of communicators didn't review a change communication plan last year (source: IoIC report 2024/25)

• Audience analysis suffers — we default to one-size-fits-all messages because there's no time for segmentation

• Feedback loops shrink — employees stop engaging, and we stop having the bandwidth to truly listen

• Message quality declines — we recycle templates and jargon because there's no time to craft something fresh

The result is that communications don't land as intended, employees don't genuinely buy in, and we enter a vicious cycle where poor communication fuels more resistance.

The trust question

Perhaps the most concerning trend is the erosion of trust. Constant change has a way of breaking faith — employees may not trust leadership's vision after seeing multiple shifts, and they may distrust communications if it feels like spin.

Yet here's what the research consistently shows: authentic, trust-building communication is more important than ever in a fatigue context. Employees can sense when communications are formulaic or when the messenger themselves seems cynical. They need to feel emotionally connected to understand not just what's changing, but why it matters.

This means we need to find ways to rebuild credibility through transparency, honesty about challenges, and genuine empathy. Sometimes that means admitting when we don't have all the answers or acknowledging that change is difficult.

What actually works

Despite the bleak picture, there are strategies that make a real difference:

Get employees involved early. Organisations that involve people in co-creating change see better support. This isn't about token consultation — it's about genuine dialogue where feedback actually influences decisions.

Be ruthlessly honest. Stop sugarcoating everything. Acknowledge difficulties whilst explaining the purpose behind the changes. Multiple sources stress that explaining the "why" and not being overly perky actually builds more trust than glossing over challenges.

Focus on leadership visibility. When leaders are genuinely present, transparent, and listening, employees handle change with more resilience. But this means real transparency — town halls where they admit what they don't have all of the answers.

Pace what you can. Whilst external pressures often force continuous change, some organisations are instituting "change governance" — reviewing all proposed changes to assess timing and impact. Even small adjustments to pacing can help.

Invest in support systems. Forward-thinking companies are extending more mental health resources and training to help both employees and communications teams handle change. This isn't just about resilience training — it's about acknowledging the human toll.

Your 5-step change capacity audit

Before you tackle the communications on that next change project, try this exercise:

Step 1: Map your current change landscape: List every active change initiative your people are experiencing right now. Include everything — new systems, policy updates, restructures, even smaller process changes.

Step 2: Assess the human impact: For each change, note:

• How many people it affects

• Whether it's been clearly communicated

• If the previous change in that area was successful

• What the feedback has been like

Step 3: Identify the pressure points: Circle the audiences who are experiencing multiple concurrent changes. These are your highest-risk groups for fatigue.

Step 4: Plan your approach: For your next communication:

• Can anything be delayed or bundled with related changes?

• How will you acknowledge existing fatigue?

• What support or resources can you offer alongside the message?

• How will you measure genuine understanding vs. surface compliance?

Step 5: Present the findings: Share this analysis with leadership. Frame it as protecting the success of all initiatives, not as resistance to change.

Finally, what does all of this actually mean?

The reality is that change fatigue isn't going away anytime soon. External pressures will continue to drive change in our organisations. But by recognising it, measuring it, and adapting our approach accordingly, we can move from being overwhelmed messengers to strategic advocates for sustainable change.

After all, our role isn't just to communicate change — it's to help our organisations change successfully. And that means protecting the very people who make change possible in the first place.