“We’re Doing More With Less” Is Not a Strategy

“We’re doing more with less.”

It’s said like a badge of honour.
As if endurance is innovation.

But most of the time, it’s not strategy.

It’s surrender.

The Phrase That Normalises Burnout

This line shows up after cuts.

Headcount freezes.
Budget reductions.
Restructures that quietly remove support roles.

And instead of rethinking scope, leadership reframes the loss as resilience.

Do the same work.
With fewer people.
For the same pay.

Less Becomes the Baseline

At first, it’s temporary.

“Just for this quarter.”
“Until things stabilise.”

But once the work gets done, something important happens.

The reduced capacity becomes the new expectation.

No backfill.
No relief.
Just gratitude for “stepping up.”

Efficiency Theatre

You’ll hear a lot about optimisation.

Better processes.
Smarter ways of working.
New tools.

But the workload doesn’t shrink.

Efficiency becomes a story told upward, while pressure is pushed downward.

Who Pays the Price

Not the people who made the cuts.

The cost is absorbed by those closest to the work.

Longer hours.
Shallower focus.
Higher error rates.

Then, when things slip, the same people are asked to “be more careful.”

The Quiet Resentment

Over time, something shifts.

You stop feeling proud of coping.
You stop feeling loyal.
You start planning exits.

Not dramatically.

Quietly.

Because there’s no future in a system that only survives by consuming its own people.

The Reframe

Healthy organisations reduce scope when resources shrink.

Unhealthy ones rebrand overwork as efficiency.

So when you hear “we’re doing more with less,” listen closely.

Because if less never becomes more again…

That’s not resilience.

That’s erosion.