Are you suffering from ‘hamster wheel syndrome’?

I discovered 'Hamster Wheel Syndrome' about 10 years ago when working in corporate life, but what is it?  It's when you're busy, busy, working so hard and you can't stop or slow down.  You're working to keep up rather than being in control of what you do.  

You see I had a hamster at the time and there were occasions when she'd get a bit carried away in her wheel, the momentum would get so much it would take over, she ended up running to keep up and would flip out and land with very little finesse in the sawdust.  Being curious or sad, I used to watch to work out what caused it to happen.  I realised that having put the work in to get the wheel going, it took at lot less effort to keep it going, but on the occasions it took over then it consumed a lot more effort and concentration to stay in the wheel. 

Even more curious or sad is that I noticed at work that some people seemed to be like hamsters in a wheel; and that things had tipped and they were now peddling to keep in the wheel because if they didn't they thought the consequence would be a less than elegant moment.  "I have to do this… I have to complete that…and if I don't do this then the boss will be cross…and I still have 3 days emails to read…and…and…"

And how in control to you feel?  Or are you responding to the system to stay in the system?

Now when my hamster's stamina or concentration would fade, she'd flip out of the wheel.  In a work context you see people burn out, get stressed out, but prior to that you see their motivation and their productivity drop.  Basically you see their energy and concentration levels fall.  So as a leader how good are you at helping your staff manage their energy and concentration levels?