In India, a survey among knowledge workers has painted a landscape of over-commitments, shifting work priorities, and lack of organizational support

Based on a survey of 1,000 respondents from India* on the challenges faced by knowledge workers on their end-of-year workload challenges (if any), an IT firm has published some observations from the data.

First, 76% of respondents (knowledge workers in India) cited having unfinished projects as they approach the end of the calendar year.

Second, 36% cited expecting unforeseen hurdles as the leading cause for projects going unfinished at year-end.

Other observations

Third, other reasons cited for the challenges of completing their work on time by year’s end included:

  • 32% having overcommitted their team bandwidth by taking-on more work than they could realistically manage
  • 31% having had work priorities shifted: changing goals and priorities of various origins had been cited as a significant factor in project setbacks

Fourth, while 36% citing having practiced a “new year, same priorities” approach, 25% had cited “good intentions but poor follow-through”. Some 28% indicated having selectively circled back on their work promises, and 10% had indicated that “some projects simply get forgotten”.

Finally, in terms of generational trends, respondents were grouped as Gen Z (14%) and Millennials (11%): those deemed more likely to let projects slip, while those classified as Gen Xs had shown greater focus on wrapping things up: 40% were aiming to complete tasks by year-end, compared to 29% of Gen Z, and 31% of Millennials.

According to Dr Molly Sands, Head, Teamwork Lab, Atlassian, the firm that released its survey findings:  said: “Many companies lack the right tools and norms to support their employees during stressful periods. As a result, their teams automatically resort to meetings and synchronous ways of working.”

Sands offered four tips for teams lagging behind in their 2024 work tasks to pick up right where they left off in 2025 by: reassessing their work planning to focus on getting the most important work soonest; dropping low-impact projects and prioritizing quality and outcomes for the high-impact projects; avoiding deferring to meetings when pressure mounts; and moving towards asynchronous work ethics that mandate the clear documentation of progress, decisions, and next steps — in accessible formats to keep work moving across holiday schedules.


*within a broader multi-region survey of 6,000 workers across the US, the UK, France, Germany, Australia and India