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A weekly workload check that catches burnout before it shows up in tickets

By Draft First, October 2026

By the time someone tells you they're drowning, they've usually been drowning for a month. Uneven load on a CS or support team is easy to miss because the totals look fine. One person quietly carries the hard accounts while another's queue looks busy but easy.

What to measure

• Open tickets per person, compared with the team median.
• Ticket age: how many are older than 7 days. Old tickets weigh more than new ones.
• High severity: open Sev1 and Sev2 per person.
• Accounts at risk or in escalation per owner.
• Meeting hours this week from the calendar, if your team shares them.

Pick a threshold and stick with it. I flag anyone 50% above the team median on two or more of these.

Why Wednesday

Monday is noisy with the weekend backlog. Friday is too late to do anything. Wednesday leaves two days to move work around.

A sample report

Workload check | Wed Oct 14 | Read: tickets, CRM, calendars
Team median: 15 open tickets, 2 older than 7 days, 0.5 Sev1/2

Over on 2 or more:
  Priya: 23 open (53% over), 4 older than 7 days, 2 accounts in escalation
Under on most:
  Sam: 9 open, 0 old, 0 escalations

Suggestion: move 3 of Priya's oldest P3 tickets to Sam.
Skipped: Jordan's calendar (not shared).

Using it well

• Talk to the person before you move their work. Some people hold tickets for good reasons.
• Look for the pattern across weeks. One heavy week is normal. Three in a row is a problem.
• Never use it as a performance ranking. The moment it feels like one, people start gaming the numbers.

The prompt

Every Wednesday at 9am, from [ticket system, CRM, shared calendars],
calculate for each person on [team]: open tickets, tickets older than
7 days, open Sev1/Sev2, accounts at risk or in escalation, meeting hours
this week. Show the team median for each. Flag anyone 50% or more above
the median on 2 or more measures, and anyone well below on most.
Suggest at most 3 specific moves. Facts only, no judgments about people.
Share with me only. End with a Skipped line.

This is the Team Workload Balance Check in The CS Agent Playbook. It pairs naturally with 1:1 prep, so heavy weeks come up in conversation, not in an exit interview.

Questions

How do you measure support team workload?

Open tickets, ticket age, high-severity tickets, accounts in escalation and meeting hours, compared with the team median.

How often should we check workload?

Weekly. Midweek leaves time to rebalance.

Should workload numbers be used for performance reviews?

No. Once people feel ranked, they start gaming the numbers.