Stress at work
- What is work-related stress?
- What causes stress?
- Stress from doing the job
- Stress from work relationships
- Stress from working conditions
- What are the signs of stress?
- What laws apply

Stress at work
- What is work-related stress?
- What causes stress?
- Stress from doing the job
- Stress from work relationships
- Stress from working conditions
- What are the signs of stress?
- What laws apply
- How are the risks arising from stress assessed?
- Why is all this important?
This document discusses stress caused by factors in the work environment. While factors outside the workplace can contribute to a person's overall stress condition, this fact sheet focuses mainly on stress in relation to the workplace.
Stress can affect everyone so this fact sheet is relevant to employees, employers, managers, supervisors, the self-employed, apprentices and trainees.
Bullying in the workplace is one cause of occupational stress but is not covered in great detail. The WorkSafe Guidance note Dealing with workplace bullying: A guide for workers provides guidance in this area.
Workplace violence is also a cause of occupational stress. The WorkSafe Western Australia Commission has produced a Code of Practice on Violence, aggression and bullying at work which provides practical guidance for workplaces where people may be exposed to deliberate and intended physical assault, verbal abuse, threats, intimidation, harassment and bullying. This code explains the responsibilities of employers and employees and suggests strategies for reducing the risk, responding to incidents and recovery.
There are equal opportunity laws which are designed to protect persons in the workplace from harassment by supervisors or colleagues. Harassment may be intentional or result from a lack of awareness of various cultural, religious or other factors affecting an individual or group. Action against harassers can be taken where bullying activity is based on sex or ethnicity, and when harassment continues or intensifies after a complaint is lodged.
Stress in the workplace can affect everyone at one time or another.
Work-related stress is the natural reaction of people to being put under intense pressure at work over a period of time. Many people are motivated by the challenges and difficulties that normally occur with work demands and react by improving performance. Meeting those challenges and overcoming the difficulties causes feelings of relaxation and satisfaction. When the pressure of work demands becomes excessive and prolonged, however, people perceive a threat to their well-being or interests and then experience unpleasant emotions such as fear, anger or anxiety.
The basis of this reaction comes from instinctive "fight or flight" reactions to danger.
The stress response is designed to be used in short bursts and then switched off. If it is activated for too long, or the period between stressful situations is too short, then the body has no time to repair itself, and fatigue and damage occurs. The stress hormones then literally begin to destroy the body so, over time, this affects physical and mental health and quality of life in just the same way as exposure to industrial toxins.
Stress is not a disease or injury but it can lead to mental and physical ill health.
It is reasonable to assume that people in the workplace are fit to cope with the pressure from normal work demands.
The reactions of individuals will vary according to the nature of the pressures and the extent to which the person is directly or indirectly involved. What may be seen as a challenge by one person may be an impossible task or boring and repetitious to another.
A person's background, motivation, experience, skills and knowledge on the one hand and the support and encouragement from managers, supervisors and colleagues on the other, all play an important role.
While it may be beyond the employer's or supervisor's responsibility or expertise to overcome, it is necessary to take into consideration that people will come to work with various character traits and in various moods.
Problems outside of work can also contribute to stress, eg. relationship problems and financial pressures. Non-work problems can make it difficult for people to cope with the pressures of work, and their performance at work may suffer. A death or sickness in the family, a temporary setback or other personal problems may exacerbate the situation and influence the way people cope with work pressures.
Difficult job requirements affect everyone differently. A challenging event for one person can be highly stressful to another.
The causes of stress (often called stressors) can be many and varied, and can occur as a result of combinations of more than one stressor. Most stressors can be grouped into one of three areas. For each group of stressors are suggestions for managers and supervisors to consider when dealing with those triggers.
Stress from doing the job can be caused by:
- boring or repetitive work, or too little to do;
- too much to do, too little time;
- to little/too much training or support for the job;
- confusion over, or too much, responsibility for managing others;
- confusion over priorities, timeframes and standards; or
- sub-standard performance resulting in disciplinary action such as dismissal, retrenchment, demotion, discipline, transfer or redeployment; a worker not being promoted, reclassified, transferred or granted leave of absence or any other bene