I recently read about an employee who stopped answering work texts after 6 PM. His company called him into an HR meeting to discuss his "lack of availability."

After 34 years working in healthcare and teaching stress management to professionals across industries, I can tell you exactly what that HR meeting just cost them: $75,000.

Not in a lawsuit. In something far more expensive: the biology of burnout.

The Real Cost of "Just One Quick Text"

When you text an employee after hours, you're not just interrupting their dinner or blurring work-life boundaries. You're doing something far more damaging from a biological standpoint: you're preventing their stress response cycle from completing.

Let me explain with a metaphor every business owner can understand.

The Shaken Bottle Problem

Imagine a bottle of soda. Every stressor during the workday—a difficult client call, a tense team meeting, an unexpected crisis, a tight deadline—shakes that bottle. The pressure builds throughout the day. By 5 PM, that bottle is under intense pressure.

Now here's the problem: When you text employees after hours—when you call them on weekends, when you expect them to "just quickly check" their email at 9 PM—you keep shaking the bottle.

There's no time for the pressure to release.

Eventually, one of three things happens:

     • They explode (emotional outbursts, conflicts with colleagues, decreased morale)

     • They implode (anxiety, depression, physical illness, reduced performance)

     • They quit (often your best performers who have other options)

This isn't just anecdotal. This is biology.

What Nature Teaches Us About Stress (That Businesses Forgot)

In my upcoming TEDx Princeton talk next week, I demonstrate this using a video of an antelope who just survived a leopard attack. After the threat passes, the antelope does something remarkable: it shakes. Literally trembles and releases the stress energy from its body.

This is called completing the stress response cycle. The stress gets activated (the threat), and then it gets released (the physical discharge). The cycle has a beginning, middle, and end.

Humans are the only species that skip the end.

We experience the stressor (the difficult meeting, the crisis call, the demanding client), but we never complete the cycle. We go straight from one stressor to the next. And when you text employees after hours, you ensure they never complete the cycle.

We carry what I call the "ghost leopard" home with us. And then back to work the next day. And the next.

The Biological Consequence

When the stress response cycle never completes, the body stays in a chronic state of activation. The nervous system thinks the threat is still present. 

This leads to:

     ➜  Chronic stress and burnout

     ➜  Sleep disruption (can't fall asleep, can't stay asleep)

 ➜  Anxiety and depression

 ➜  Physical illness (headaches, digestive issues, cardiovascular problems)

 ➜  Decreased cognitive function and decision-making

 ➜  Increased errors and safety issues

 ➜  Reduced creativity and problem-solving

 ➜  For any business, these consequences directly impact your bottom line.

The $75,000 Reality

Unmanaged workplace stress—particularly the kind caused by never allowing employees to decompress—costs employers an average of $75,000 per employee annually when you factor in:

Turnover & Replacement Costs: $15,000 - $30,000

Recruiting, interviewing, onboarding, training, and the productivity loss during the transition period

Healthcare Costs: $10,000 - $20,000

Increased insurance premiums, medical claims for stress-related illness, mental health services, disability claims

Lost Productivity: $20,000 - $30,000

Presenteeism (physically present but mentally disengaged), decreased efficiency, missed deadlines, reduced quality of work

Absenteeism: $5,000 - $10,000

Sick days, last-minute call-offs, unscheduled time off, disrupted workflow

Total: $75,000 per employee

For a business with 50 employees, that's $3.75 million walking out the door annually. For larger organizations, the numbers become staggering.

And it often starts with one seemingly harmless boundary violation: never letting people stop being shaken.

So What's the Solution?

It starts with understanding this fundamental truth: Stress isn't just managed by eliminating stressors. It's managed by completing the stress cycle.

You can't eliminate all the challenges of running a business (the difficult clients, the unexpected crises, the competitive pressures). That's the nature of business. But you CAN give employees the time and tools to complete the cycle.

That means:

1. Create Hard Boundaries Around Off-Duty Time

Unless it's a true emergency (and be honest about what qualifies), let employees decompress. When the workday ends, the shaking stops. The bottle gets to release pressure. This isn't about being "soft" on employees—it's about protecting your investment in human capital.

2. Teach Real-Time Stress Management

Employees need practical, evidence-based tools they can use during the workday to complete micro-cycles of stress. Not wellness programs they don't have time for. Not meditation apps they can't access during busy periods. I'm talking about 10-second tools that work in real-time.

This includes:

     •  RESET Breathing (a physiological sigh that turns off the stress signal in 5 seconds)

     •  Discharge techniques (brief physical movements that release trapped stress energy in 5 seconds)

I'll be demonstrating these techniques on the TEDx Princeton stage next week.

3. Model the Behavior from Leadership

If you're a business owner or manager who texts employees at 10 PM, you're signaling that this is expected behavior. Your team will feel pressured to be available 24/7, regardless of what your "official policy" says. Leaders must model healthy boundaries.

4. Measure What Matters

Stop measuring only "employee engagement" and start measuring stress resilience. Are your people completing the stress cycle? Are they able to truly disconnect after hours? Exit interviews often reveal that burnout—not compensation—is why top performers leave.

The Bottom Line

When that employee stopped answering texts after 6 PM, he wasn't being "difficult" or showing a "lack of commitment." He was trying to open the bottle. He was trying to complete the stress cycle.

And rather than penalizing him for protecting his biology, smart business leaders will realize: This is exactly the behavior we should be encouraging.

Because employees who complete the stress cycle:

     •  Don't burn out

     •  Don't quit

     •  Don't cost you $75,000 in turnover and lost productivity

     •  Stay engaged, creative, and high-performing

     •. Become your competitive advantage

The question every business leader should ask: What would happen if we stopped shaking the bottle after hours?

What's Next

I've spent 24 years teaching this framework to professionals across industries. Next week, on February 5th, I'll be presenting these insights on the TEDx Princeton stage, revealing the exact 2-step process anyone can use to complete the stress cycle in 10 seconds.

If you're a business owner dealing with turnover, a manager watching team members burn out, or a leader wondering why your best people keep leaving, this isn't just about "work-life balance."

It's about biology. And it's costing you more than you think.

The TED video will be released on YouTube in the coming months. In the meantime, consider this: That "quick text" you're about to send at 8 PM? It's a $75,000 decision.

Carol L. Rickard, LCSW, is a stress management expert with 34 years of experience in healthcare and organizational wellness. She is the founder of the Resilient Nurses Movement and author of "The Resilient Nurse." On February 5, 2025, she will present "The Complete Cycle" at TEDx Princeton. Connect with Carol on LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/carolrickard