Room to Breathe, Room to Grow: Leading Healthy Teams to Do Great Work
People do their best work when the job leaves room for the rest of their lives. I treat wellbeing as part of the plan, not something to address after burnout shows up.
PlayStation · Team operations
FY25 to FY26
UX Manager
7 to 9 designers across 3 to 4 product areas
The situation
The team supported several product areas on a monthly mobile cadence with a steady headcount. New requests arrived constantly, sometimes days before a deadline. Much of a designer's day also went to work that never appears on a roadmap: answering Slack questions, making quick fixes, reviewing a teammate's file. When a plan assumes 100 percent, that work comes out of evenings, focus time, and learning.
What I decided
Plan for the in-between work. I planned each designer at 85 to 90 percent and capped them at two product areas. The margin covers the work between tasks: Slack questions, quick fixes, ad hoc reviews, bug triage, stakeholder check-ins, and helping a teammate get unblocked. [confirm examples]
Protect time to grow. Learning and development went on the plan as intentional time, not leftover hours, so growth was part of the workload rather than extra to it.
Make the load visible. I prototyped an interactive roadmap so everyone could see capacity and point to it when new requests came in.
Set realistic timelines together. Before a teen accounts strategy workshop, a new scenario arrived while two designers were fully booked. My manager and I worked with product to scope it so the workshop could proceed.
Reframe "late." I coached designers to ask about deadlines up front, and shared a reframe that stuck: work isn't late unless there's a deadline; it's in progress.
What I keep in view
Studies show the biggest drivers of burnout are unfair treatment, an unmanageable workload, unclear
communication from managers, little manager support, and unreasonable time pressure (Gallup).
Other research finds that workers are interrupted roughly every two minutes during core hours, and one in three checks email after 10 p.m. (Microsoft Work Trend Index, via UNLEASH). That shaped how I led day to day:
Wellbeing first in 1:1s. I opened one-on-ones with how people were doing and checked in on stress directly, rather than waiting for it to surface.
A steady cadence. I moved to weekly one-hour 1:1s, because most people won't volunteer that they're struggling.
Real accommodations. When someone was stretched, I adjusted start times and meeting load.
Balance check-ins. Work-life balance was a regular topic, alongside capacity planning and retros.
Coverage for time away. For extended leave, I planned coverage and formal handoff documents so the person could step away fully.
A safe space to learn. I started a biweekly Friday-morning AI coffee chat so people could explore new tools without pressure.
Beyond those practices, these are the areas I keep in view for my direct reports:
Workload: manageable by design, never dependent on heroics
Clarity: clear priorities and honest communication about what's changing
Support: regular 1:1s and a manager who removes blockers
Fairness and recognition: credit given visibly and work shared evenly
Time pressure: realistic deadlines, negotiated early
Focus: protected time away from constant pings and ad hoc meetings
Boundaries: no expectation of replies after hours
Mental health: psychological safety and room to say "I'm at capacity"
Growth: learning time on the plan, tied to each person's goals
85 to 90%
Planned capacity
2 max
Product areas per designer
6
Initiatives re-sequenced in about four hours
How the team carried it
Designers grew comfortable asking about timing and pointing to the roadmap when new requests came in. Documentation gates kept scope in check, and the team declined an unplanned side project that didn't fit. I also advocated for managers to own resourcing so design leads had room to design.
What changed
The team gained a shared, visible picture of its capacity and a healthier way to handle new requests. When priorities shifted, I re-sequenced six initiatives in about four hours.
Stack
Figma · Jira · Wrike · Smartsheet [verify]
Grant Young
Design Program Manager at PlayStation
What it taught me
Protecting a team isn't about saying no, and wellbeing isn't a perk added on top of the work. Both are built into how the work is planned, so the right yes is easy to see and people still have room to grow.