When does stress at work become a problem?

While we all may feel anxious about an important meeting or project at work from time to time, persistent work stress can impact your health and wellbeing and can lead to burn out, depression and other serious issues if ignored. In this informative guide to work stress, highly respected senior consultant psychiatrist Dr Tim Ojo shares his expert insight on when work stress becomes a problem, how to balance available resources with the demands of work and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and cost of living crisis on people’s stress levels.

What is work stress?

Work stress is when an individual feels that the demands of their work are excessive and that the resources they have to cope are not sufficient. Work stress usually manifests as anxiety and worry, difficulty sleeping, a reduced level of productivity and concerns about being able to cope with the demands of the role.

Sometimes adverse circumstances in the workplace can contribute to work stress, like bullying, or not having a supportive relationship with colleagues. However, work stress primarily relates to feeling that you can’t manage the demands of your job based on the resources you currently have at your disposal. This extends beyond the resources your employer may give you and includes your own bank of resources such as your ability to focus, concentrate and deliver against your objectives.

When should I worry about work stress?

You should worry about work stress when it becomes persistent, impacts your ability to do the work you’re paid for and affects relationships with colleagues. When you are actually beginning to dread going to work, feeling that your functioning is significantly impaired and beginning to get a bit cynical about work, that means that you are advancing from work stress into burnout. Many people don’t realise they are burnt out until it’s too late and they find that they just can’t work anymore.

Interestingly enough, some people continue to work and in fact, work even harder when they are stressed to try to manage the sense that they’re not meeting the demands put upon them. This is known as presenteeism and can be a feature of work stress.

In order to help people understand when they are feeling stressed in the workplace, organisations should have systems in place to support their employees. Mentors and close friends who can tell you when they think you are not functioning or not being yourself are also very helpful.

What are some ways to handle work stress?

The first thing is to identify what the particular issues are for you so you can seek help in addressing them. This may be in the form of counselling related help or seeing a doctor about taking some time off.

Understanding which aspects of work are most stressful as well as determining how other people involved in conflict relate to this is vital as it will enable you to get some kind of plan in place to help to reduce the burden you feel. Whether it's more resources or more time to deliver on projects, essentially the work demands vs resources balance is the key thing to address.

Sometimes, taking time away from work, looking at alternative forms of work or making some reasonable adjustments to the way work is completed in your role can help to alleviate the pressure when you are experiencing work stress. However, it is really important to have the comfort and confidence to seek help early enough such that you don’t reach a point where you are very badly stressed and burnt out. In fact, early intervention is probably the most significant thing you can do for stress.

Another key element to consider is that all people have different levels of tolerance of work demands and varying levels of appreciation of stress within themselves - what stresses one person may not stress another. Therefore, it’s very unhelpful to start working from the assumption of what would stress you when you’re thinking about somebody else’s stress. People are very, very different and it’s essential to remember that whatever is stressing you is valid and you should seek help in that regard.

Can work stress lead to more serious conditions?

Yes, work stress can lead to burnout and depression and it can also exacerbate existing mental health conditions or even lead to heart attacks and strokes. It’s vital to tackle work stress because it is a major cause of employee disability and in very severe cases, work stress can lead to people attempting or even succeeding in taking their own lives. Therefore, for both employee and employer, it’s important to have significant investment in workplace support and systems that catch those who may not be aware of their stress early enough to do something about it.

Has work stress increased due to the COVID-19 pandemic or other factors in recent years?

Undoubtedly, the uncertainty of the last few years, financial pressures and the huge changes to the way we work have had an impact. Additionally, the implications that COVID-19 brought for certain people who needed to work at home and later go back to the office are factors that may have increased people’s stress. I’m in no doubt that the next period we will experience, having come though the worst of the pandemic and now moving in to a cost-of-living crisis, is also bound to cause a lot of increase in work stress.

Therefore, having honest conversations at work with your line management around what adjustments would best work for you in your role is very important. This may relate to how much time you spend at home, whether you have to go into the office, what kind of support you have when you are working remotely and establishing the expectations around productivity in order to keep a balance between resources and work demands.

Dr Ojo is one of the UK’s leading senior consultant psychiatrists who specialises in work stress. If you are concerned about stress at work and wish to book a consultation with Dr Ojo, you can do so by visiting his Top Doctors profile.