Workplace Stress: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

In the heart of the buzzing business district, Ella sat amidst a sea of sleek glass and endless possibilities. She had just started a job at a startup that was growing quickly—her dream job.  She was filled with excitement,  and was ready to work hard and help her company become a big success. Little did she know where this very excitement and hard work would bring her in the future. 

Though Ella is a fictional character, her story is a mosaic of true experiences. She represents the shared journey of countless individuals who’ve been on a journey from passion to burnout, unfolding every day in offices around the world. 

The Good

Starting in a new role is never easy. Everyday challenges, be it client calls, team presentations, or post-onboarding tests, each carried its own degree of stress. During her first months at work Ella felt this type of stress rather than excitement and extra energy that helped her navigate in the new role.

Indeed, from a biological perspective, stress is not a negative term. Stress is a reaction to a challenge that brings about adaptation to the new environment. Like challenges in a video-game when addressed successfully bring us to the next level, moderate short-term stress helps us grow.

It’s essential to distinguish though between eustress – the good stress that aids in sharp decision-making, quick thinking, and improved performance – and the damaging, long-term distress. To better understand the difference between the two let’s have a closer look at the stress reaction.

I’m sure you’ve heard of the ‘fight or flight’ response – our body’s primal reaction that is hardwired for survival. This response is characterized by an increased heart rate, faster breathing, muscle tension, pupil dilation, and a temporary shutdown of non-essential bodily functions. All these changes prepare us to become stronger, faster, and more alert, thus enhancing our ability to either confront an enemy or flee from danger.

This reaction evolved millions of years ago when our ancestors faced a completely different set of challenges, such as attacks by wild animals or hostile neighbors. Today, it’s unlikely that we’ll physically fight a difficult client or an unsupportive colleague, but our bodies respond to stress from such interactions as if we were facing a tiger baring its teeth in the wild. The stress response is universal.

It may seem as though we are overreacting to everyday stressors, and to some extent, we are. However, this doesn’t typically pose a problem as long as the body can enter a relaxation phase after each stress response to recover and prepare for the next challenge. Without adequate downtime, this pressure can build up and become problematic. Imagine being tense and alert all the time, does it sound healthy or optimal? Unfortunately, this is the reality for many knowledge workers today, and Ella is no exception.

The Bad

A year into her role, Ella grappled with a range of workplace challenges. Overwhelming  workload, toxic colleagues, a lack of support, and a prevailing culture of urgency meant that relaxation doesn’t occur.  

The continuous activation of the ‘fight or flight’ response and the subsequent hormonal changes transformed Ella’s motivating eustress into a debilitating distress. She found herself constantly on edge, as if permanently trapped in a life-or-death scenario.

Whether being on the edge affected Ella only personally or also professionally might be important to ask. This graph below is the Yerkes-Dodson law – a psychological theory that suggests the relationship between stress and performance. Although it may lack complexity and should not be seen as an absolute rule, it serves as a valuable introduction to comprehend the interplay between stress and performance. 

This graph demonstrates the pivotal balance between stress and performance. It highlights how a moderate level of stress can optimize our performance, but beyond a certain point, excessive stress leads to a decline in productivity and well-being

At the left side of the curve both the alertness and the performance levels are low – this is a state of perceived boredom. When we don’t feel challenged enough  we don’t perform at our best. As arousal increases, performance improves, and it might be tempting to conclude that stress is necessary for high-output work. However, this only holds true to a certain extent. When stress continues to increase beyond the optimal level, performance starts to diminish and we see that after the peak at the optimal arousal level  our performance plummets due to high-stress levels. And that’s what happened to Ella.

In the beginning, Ella’s heightened alertness was her superpower, allowing to adeptly navigate her new job. Yet later, the chronic nature of her stress began to erode her performance. As studies suggest, chronic stress adversely impacts cognitive skills, memory,  and decision-making, while also killing creativity. 

However, for a person under chronic stress it’s not that clear what’s going on. Ella noticed she was incapable of solving problems as easily as before but instead of blaming the stress levels she started to question her own competencies.

No surprise, Ella’s mental distress began manifesting physically, with recurring headaches, digestive issues, and backaches. She found herself often wide-awake in the middle of the night simply unable to sleep. These symptoms were the direct result of her body being constantly in the ‘fight or flight’ mode. This ancient stress mechanism fails to differentiate between real, imminent threats and modern-day workplace pressures, always preparing the body for action.

Despite these glaring signals, Ella carried on with doubled effort. 

Indeed, that’s what happens way too often when we are so stressed. The thought that we need to take a break, properly relax to manage our tasks better is rare and alien in the modern world. So Ella found herself in the vicious cycle of working too much – being too stressed – performing less – pushing even harder – performing even less.

Trapped in a Loop: This diagram depicts a cycle, where high stress leads to lower performance, which in turn causes us to push harder. This often results in a further drop in performance, illustrating the critical need for relaxation and stress management  interventions.

The Ugly

As Ella was stuck in the cycle, her emotional and physical exhaustion grew exponentially. She began to alienate her friends and colleagues, her health deteriorated, and she lost her spark. Misinterpreting her chronic stress as personal failure, she bore the weight in silence. By this time Ella’s symptoms check all the boxes for the classic burnout definition: emotional depletion, social isolation, and a reduced sense of personal accomplishment. 

Not realizing that she has entered a state of burnout, but hoping to improve her work situation Ella decided to speak to her manager. However, her manager, consumed by their own set of challenges, brushed off her pleas, advising her to stay resilient. 

Fast forward a few months, and the strain of endless sleepless nights combined with the constant being overwhelmed took its toll. Ella reached a breaking point. One morning, the weight of burnout became unbearable, making her unable to work. Eventually, the company’s doctor diagnosed her with severe burnout, putting her on sick leave indefinitely. 

The unfolding of Ella’s story is a profound lesson that when we drive our teams to perform without regard for their mental well-being, we are ultimately undermining our own success. The consequences of such oversight can reverberate through  organizations, costing us in talent and morale.

In contrast, by building organizations where individuals thrive—where they are seen, supported, and valued—that we truly enhance our business’s potential and achieve excellence.