Photo: © 2010 AAP/JULIAN SMITH

Since taking office in late 2007, Kevin Rudd has churned through 28 staff, a turnover rate of about 60 per cent.

In any other environment, that might be considered a toxic workplace, but the Labor leader says burnout is to be expected in such a high-pressure job.

"Look, it's a tough environment," he told Fairfax Radio today.

"In politics - this probably goes for whichever side of politics you are on - the staff working year is probably like a dog year.

"It's probably worth seven years in normal life.

"So folks stay with me for three or four years, that's probably 28 or 30 years or more in actual time."

But the situation is worse in Kate Ellis's office, with the Sports and Youth Minister clocking up a turnover rate of 130 per cent.

Recruitment specialist Brian Russell has told the Herald Sun turnover in the private sector is around 10 per cent.

"If you've got autocratic management, lack of direction - basic fundamentals - especially in a small group, people will leave," he says.

"And every time you lose someone it costs the taxpayer money, huge money."

And Opposition leader Tony Abbott has also offered his advice for a healthier workplace.

"You have got to be able to work with people, because if you can't work with people, what you propose doesn't actually work out for the best," he told the ABC.