What Is Workplace Stress?

Work-related stress refers to the physical, emotional, and mental strain that comes from performing one’s job. A wide range of factors can contribute to the formation of workplace stress. These include long hours, demanding job roles or tasks, job insecurity, negative relationships with one’s supervisor or coworkers, low autonomy over one’s work, work–family conflict, and poor work–life balance.^1,2

Workplace stress is a common phenomenon that affects most, if not all, employees at some point. A large majority (83%) of U.S. working adults report currently feeling work-related stress.³ Additionally, a survey from 2019–21 found 65% of working adults describe their work as a “very significant” or “somewhat significant” source of stress in their lives.⁴

Signs that could indicate an employee is feeling overly stressed can include:⁵

• Being constantly worried
• Expressing feelings of being overwhelmed
• Having negative changes in mood, including irritability, anger, and sadness
• Continually being absent from work or arriving late
• Demonstrating a decrease in quality of work (e.g., increased number or frequency of mistakes)
• Becoming less cooperative or even hostile
• Appearing tense, uptight, anxious, restless, or nervous

How Workplace Stress Affects Employees and Employers

In limited amounts, stress can be beneficial and may even improve a person’s focus and enhance their performance—especially in challenging tasks like job interviews and public speaking.⁶ Chronic and/or excessive stress, though, is less beneficial and can be harmful in multiple and serious ways.

Physical Effects

Occupational stress can take a substantial toll on workers' physical health and functioning. Medical conditions and symptoms that have been linked to work-related stress include:^{7,8,9,10,11,12}

• An increased risk of heart disease, cancer, and infections
• Headaches
• Digestive problems
• Sleep disturbance, such as insomnia
• Musculoskeletal pain
• Central nervous system dysfunction, such as dizziness and fainting

Psychiatric and Functional Effects

Being stressed at work can be highly detrimental to a person’s mental health as well as their ability to function well. For instance, occupational stress has been associated with an increased risk of:^13,14,15

• Irritability
• Concentration difficulties
• Decision fatigue
• Anxiety
• Depression
• Burnout
• Substance use as a coping tool
• Social withdrawal or isolation

Research suggests that increased exposure to stressors at work can make employees more susceptible to suicidal thoughts, suicide attempts, and completed suicide. This is especially so for the stressors of low job control, low social support from supervisors and colleagues, and high job demand.¹⁶ For instance, job strain (defined as a combination of high job demand and low control) is associated with a 28% increased risk of death by suicide.¹⁷

The American Psychiatric Association offers additional information about suicide prevention and response in the workplace, including tips for employers.

Work-Related Effects

Many people find their jobs to be challenging and demanding. Meeting challenges can promote growth and increase resiliency for employees and organizations. However, demands and challenges may also result in high stress, which can be costly to companies.

Consider the following examples of how stress can negatively affect work-related outcomes:

• Presenteeism — Workers experiencing stress report spending more than 5 hours per week at work thinking about their stress.¹⁸
• Absenteeism — Approximately 1 million working adults are absent from work each day due to stress.¹⁹
• Lost productivity — An estimated 550 million workdays are lost each year due to occupational stress.²⁰
• Cost to employers — Work-related stress costs companies more than $300 billion annually in absenteeism, presenteeism, and healthcare spending.²¹

Tips for Employers: How You Can Help Employees with Workplace Stress

Given how much time Americans spend in the workplace, experiencing distress at work can be especially burdensome. Companies play a crucial role in mitigating occupational stress by developing policies, practices, and programs designed to reduce tension and improve coping. Further, many of the stress management skills employees learn and resources they access can be used help them better manage their mental health in other areas of life, outside of work.

Consider the following strategies that can help companies mitigate the negative effects of stress in the workplace:^22,23,24,25

• Spread the word: Companies should communicate clearly and often about the programs, policies, and resources available to address employee stress. Organizations can launch stress management and relief programs and remind employees about the services offered by Employee Assistance Programs. Outreach materials like emails, flyers, and brochures can ensure employees learn about the signs of excess stress, the importance of stress management, and how to access help.
• Give employees more control: Stress often arises when workers feel they have little or no control over their work lives. Managers and supervisors can help remedy this by considering ways to give employers more decision-making power and autonomy in their roles. For instance, delegating roles and tasks, distributing workloads, and adapting an employee’s workload to their individual skills and capabilities can all help reduce job strain.
• Get to the root cause: Managers should seek to better understand the causes of employee stress within their company and work with leadership to implement organizational change as needed. For instance, alterations may be needed in policies and procedures related to staffing, workload, and evaluation and reward processes. Relatedly, supervisors should be trained on how to spot the signs of stress and appropriate ways to intervene with affected employees.
• Offer onsite assistance: Organizations can implement in-house stress relief activities and offer ways for workers to decompress onsite. This can include dedicated quiet spaces for relaxing and stress management seminars and workshops that give employees hands-on experiencing in learning stress management skills, such as meditation, mindfulness, and relaxation techniques.
• Be a source of support: Creating a culture of support can go a long way in helping workers better manage their stress. If an employee seems to be experiencing distress, show empathy and support. While respecting their privacy, ask how they are doing and offer to connect them with resources, such as the EAP. If an employee verbalizes their struggles in the workplace, listen without arguing or being dismissive, validate their concerns, and work collaboratively to try to find a solution to their problem.

Resources

Employers can learn more about how to help employees with workplace stress through the resources below:

• The Occupational Safety and Health Administration offers tips to help employers reduce workplace stress. Their website also includes links to resources for front-line and senior managers to aid in intervening with employees who appear affected by stress and a sample workplace stress survey.

Resources for the general public can be found below.

• The Office of the Surgeon General provides a library of resources on workplace stress and well-being for employees, employers, and the public, including toolkits and websites.
• The U.S. Department of Labor has created a collection of resources to support mental health at work, including tools and tips for supporting mental health in the workplace.