Workplace Stress Levels Are Higher. How Can Managers Help?

In October 2018, Korn Ferry conducted a survey of nearly 2,000 professionals and reported that 66% found workplace stress levels are higher than 5 years ago¹. 76% of respondents reported that stress at work has had a negative effect on their personal relationships and 66% say they have lost sleep due to work stress. 16% say they have had to leave a job due to stress. 35% express that their manager is their biggest source of stress at work and 80% say that a change in leadership, such as a new direct manager, impacts their stress levels.

No surprise that stress depresses motivation and employee engagement. In extreme cases, stress can lead to emotional, physical and mental exhaustion — a state of burnout. You likely can relate to this situation personally or have seen a friend or colleague struggle. In March 2020, Gallup reported that 76% of employees experience burnout at least sometimes². I can imagine that the current COVID-19 global pandemic is elevating employee stress levels even more.

We must therefore be diligent and take whatever steps we can to identify and reduce workplace stress. The filtering down of corporate messages like "We will do more with less" to combat economic hardship does little to calm and reassure employees who already are fully aware of the storm clouds.

The recent Gallup research reveals 5 managerial behaviors that correlate most highly with employee burnout:

unfair treatment at work
unmanageable workload
unclear communication from managers
lack of manager support
unreasonable time pressure

While I recognize that the perceptions of employees and managers may be different, I think these topics are great fodder for valuable discussion to ensure the communication channels are unobstructed. I am also well aware that everything is possible for those that don't need to do it. Just as managers hold the key to increasing employee engagement, they also hold — in the same keychain — the key to reducing workplace stress.

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