Some workplace problems feel impossible to name out loud, let alone fix. A crushing, months-long workload is one of them, especially when raising it with your manager seems to go absolutely nowhere.

This question was answered by Katie Feder, psychotherapist and mental health expert, who brings both clinical insight and first-hand knowledge of the media industry to the conversation; Michael Tsapazi, industry leader, who reframes the issue through a practical business lens; and Andy Wright, host of Asking For A Friend on Never Not Creative, who draws the threads together with characteristic clarity.

What you can tolerate and what you should tolerate are not the same thing

Katie makes a distinction that is worth sitting with: just because you are managing does not mean the situation is acceptable. Her first invitation is to assess what you actually control, whether the pressure is temporary or indefinite, and whether the way you are working genuinely serves who you are. Resilience, she is clear, is not the same as tolerating something indefinitely. If a situation is repeatedly not serving you, the honest question is whether you are choosing it, or simply enduring it.

Change how you raise it, not just how often you raise it

Michael's contribution shifts the frame entirely. If conversations with management are going nowhere, it is worth asking not just whether you are speaking up, but how. Framing the issue around what it costs the business, quality of output, missed opportunities, work left undone, is far more likely to land than communicating it as personal exhaustion. That is not a dismissal of how you feel; it is a strategy for being heard.

Skillful communication is the thread running through everything

Katie picks up on this directly: there is a meaningful difference between an individual's plea and a well-informed, collective view of the impact of a sustained way of working. Coming into the conversation prepared, specific, and solution-focused shifts the dynamic from passive recipient to active participant in your own working life.

None of this is easy, but as this session makes clear, you have more agency in the room than you might think. Use it.