Beyond Stress Awareness: Understanding What’s Really Going On at Work
- Elevation Occ Psy
- Nov 12
- 12 min read
Every year, National Stress Awareness Day invites us to pause and think about how stress shows up in our working lives.
We talk about it often, burnout, overload, resilience, yet stress still feels like one of those topics that’s easier to name than to really understand.
At Elevation Occ Psy, we often see that stress isn’t always about too much work or not enough time. It’s more complex, a mix of pressure, emotion, and meaning. It’s not just what we’re doing, but how we’re doing it, and why it matters to us.
What the research tells us
The literature on workplace wellbeing has moved far beyond the old “fight or flight” view of stress. For decades, stress was seen as something that happened to individuals, a biological reaction to pressure. Today, we understand that stress is shaped not only by workload or deadlines, but by the psychological, relational, and organisational systems we work within.
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) identifies six key areas that influence stress at work: demands, control, support, relationships, role, and change. When these are balanced, people tend to feel healthy, capable, and engaged. When they’re not, stress accumulates. These factors remain a cornerstone of good organisational design and leadership practice.
To deepen that understanding, researchers like Demerouti and Bakker developed the Job Demands–Resources (JD-R) model, which has since become one of the most widely used frameworks in occupational psychology. While introduced over twenty years ago, its relevance endures because it captures something fundamental: stress isn’t only about what’s hard, it’s about what helps.
The model suggests that every role has demands (things that take energy) and resources (things that restore it). Demands might include workload, emotional labour, or time pressure. Resources can be social (support, belonging), structural (autonomy, clarity), or psychological (purpose, trust, recognition).
What’s especially powerful about the JD-R model is how adaptable it’s become. Recent research has extended it into new areas, such as digital demands and resources (dealing with AI, constant connectivity, and remote work), emotional demands in people-facing roles, and recovery resources like boundaries, reflection, and rest.
Across these updates, one message holds true: resources protect us. When people feel supported, trusted, and valued, pressure can fuel growth rather than depletion. But when those resources are missing, even small challenges start to feel heavy, and that’s when stress becomes unsustainable.
Newer perspectives in the wellbeing literature also emphasise psychological capital (PsyCap), hope, efficacy, resilience, and optimism, as personal resources that can be nurtured through leadership, coaching, and reflective practice.
Taken together, these approaches highlight that well-being at work isn’t about removing all stress, but about strengthening the capacity to meet challenge with energy, meaning, and connection.
When organisations focus only on demands, they treat symptoms. When they invest in resources, trust, clarity, autonomy, and care, they build resilience.
The invisible side of stress
Not all stress looks the same. Some people appear calm, organised, and in control, yet they are often carrying the heaviest emotional or mental load. Stress is not always loud or visible. It often hides behind competence, composure, and a desire to keep things running smoothly.
We usually recognise stress when it shows up as exhaustion or irritability, but in many workplaces it also shows up quietly as overthinking, self-doubt, or withdrawal. These subtler forms can be just as harmful over time because they build slowly and are rarely acknowledged.
There are several kinds of invisible stress that shape people’s daily experience at work.
Cognitive stress happens when the brain is constantly switched on. This includes managing complex information, making rapid decisions, juggling priorities, or dealing with continual digital interruptions. The human mind can only process so much before focus, memory, and creativity begin to decline. Even when someone looks busy and efficient, they may be struggling to think clearly.
Emotional stress arises from managing or containing feelings, both our own and other people’s. Many roles require what psychologists call emotional labour: showing empathy, staying calm, or offering reassurance even when we feel drained ourselves. This can include leading through uncertainty, supporting colleagues in distress, or having difficult conversations. Over time, the effort of constantly regulating emotion can lead to emotional fatigue or compassion burnout.
Relational stress involves the pressures that come from the social and cultural dynamics of work. It can include navigating tension between colleagues, unclear expectations, or a sense of not quite belonging. Relational stress can also stem from identity-based experiences such as feeling undervalued, overlooked, or having to adjust behaviour to fit in. It is often subtle but powerful, influencing how safe people feel to speak up, contribute, or be themselves.
These forms of stress rarely appear in workload trackers or performance dashboards. They do, however, show up in people’s energy, engagement, and well-being. When stress becomes part of the background noise of everyday work, people may still meet deadlines and perform, but at a growing personal cost.
Recognising invisible stress requires leaders and teams to look beyond output and start paying attention to tone, energy, and connection. Small signs, a colleague becoming quieter, less collaborative, or less creative, can be indicators that something deeper needs attention.
Invisible stress is a shared responsibility. It sits in the spaces between people, not only within them. By noticing and naming it, organisations can begin to respond earlier and build cultures that protect not just productivity, but people’s capacity to thrive.
“I’m fine” – the most common workplace script
One of the most consistent findings in occupational psychology is that people rarely talk about stress until they are already close to burnout. By the time someone admits they are struggling, they have often been coping quietly for a long time.
Part of this silence comes from stigma. In many workplaces, stress is still seen as a personal weakness rather than a predictable human response to ongoing pressure. Admitting to stress can feel risky, especially in cultures that value resilience, independence, and constant productivity. People worry about being judged, letting the team down, or being seen as less capable.
Another part of the silence comes from habit. Most of us have learned to manage emotion by minimising it. When someone asks, “How are you?” the reflexive answer is often, “I’m fine,” or “Just busy.” These phrases keep the conversation safe and short. They help us move on, but they also close down the chance for a more honest exchange. Over time, this pattern becomes part of the culture. It creates a shared script where everyone appears to be coping, even when many are not.
The truth is that stress is rarely an individual issue. It is a social and organisational signal. When several people across a team or department are feeling overwhelmed, it usually means something in the system needs attention. That might be unclear priorities, unrealistic expectations, or a lack of psychological safety. It could also be that communication channels are too narrow, leaving people to carry uncertainty on their own.
In organisational terms, stress can be understood as feedback. It shows where the system is out of balance. Just as a physical symptom tells us something about the body’s health, collective strain tells us something about the health of the culture. If stress is widespread, the solution is not to make individuals more resilient but to examine what is driving the pressure in the first place.
The most supportive workplaces are those where “I’m fine” is not the only acceptable answer. They create spaces where it is safe to speak openly about capacity, emotion, and need. Leaders who model this openness set a powerful example. When a manager says, “It has been a demanding week for me too,” or “Let’s talk about what might help us manage this better,” it signals that stress is not a personal flaw but a shared challenge that can be addressed together.
Changing the “I’m fine” script takes time, but it begins with curiosity and care. When we replace polite routine with genuine listening, conversations about stress become opportunities for learning and connection rather than avoidance. That shift, small as it may seem, is what starts to build a more honest and healthier workplace culture.
What helps: reflection, relationships, and recovery
Research consistently shows that effective stress management is not achieved through one-off wellbeing initiatives or occasional awareness days. Sustainable well-being comes from embedding reflection, relationships, and recovery into the everyday culture of work. These three areas form the foundation of a psychologically healthy organisation.
1. Reflection
Creating time and space to pause and think is one of the most protective factors for wellbeing. It allows people to make sense of their experiences rather than react automatically. Reflection helps individuals notice what is working well, where strain is building, and what might need to change.
In practice, reflection can take many forms. It might be a short team check-in at the end of a demanding project, a structured supervision session, or a few minutes of personal journaling between meetings. These moments help people process the emotional and cognitive load that builds up through the day.
Research in occupational psychology shows that reflective practice increases self-awareness and emotional regulation. When people have a space to think about their reactions and experiences, they are more likely to recognise early signs of stress and respond constructively. It also supports a sense of purpose, reminding individuals why their work matters and how it connects to their values.
Reflection is most potent when it is encouraged collectively. Teams that reflect together strengthen trust and psychological safety. They begin to see stress not as a personal weakness but as shared information about how the system is functioning.
2. Relationships
Social connection is one of the most substantial buffers against stress. Humans are relational by nature, and feeling supported by others directly impacts both psychological and physical well-being.
Workplaces that encourage genuine connection, not just task-based collaboration, create the conditions for belonging and trust. This might look like leaders checking in with interest rather than only for updates, peers offering informal support, or teams taking time to celebrate small successes together.
The concept of social support is well established in wellbeing research. It operates on several levels: emotional (feeling cared for), instrumental (practical help), informational (guidance or feedback), and appraisal (affirmation and recognition). When people experience these forms of support, their resilience grows, and the effects of stress are reduced.
Strong relationships also make it easier to have honest conversations about workload, wellbeing, or emotion. When trust is high, people are more willing to speak up early and seek help before problems escalate. In this way, relationships do not just reduce stress; they create a proactive culture of care and openness.
3. Recovery
Recovery is often misunderstood as simply taking time off. True recovery means restoring energy, focus, and perspective. It requires both physical and psychological detachment from work so that the mind and body can reset.
Research by Sonnentag and Fritz (2007) identifies four key experiences that promote recovery: psychological detachment, relaxation, mastery, and control. Psychological detachment involves mentally switching off from work-related thoughts. Relaxation includes activities that calm the nervous system, such as spending time outdoors, gentle exercise, or mindfulness. Mastery refers to engaging in activities that build new skills or confidence outside of work, such as cooking, learning, or creative hobbies. Control means having a sense of choice over how non-work time is spent.
These elements work together to protect well-being and maintain performance over time. Without regular recovery, people begin each new workday slightly more depleted than the last. Over weeks and months, that accumulation leads to burnout.
Encouraging recovery requires both individual boundaries and organisational permission. It is easier to rest when leaders model it, when emails are not expected late at night, and when people are trusted to manage their energy. Recovery is not a reward for hard work; it is a necessary part of sustainable performance.
When reflection, relationships, and recovery become part of everyday work, well-being stops being an individual responsibility and becomes a shared value. These practices remind us that being well is not just about managing stress but about creating the conditions in which people can think clearly, connect deeply, and return to work each day with renewed purpose.
The conversation we often avoid
At Elevation, we have noticed that many of the most meaningful conversations about stress are not really about workload, deadlines, or targets. They are about identity and values. They are about how people see themselves and what matters most to them.
People tend to experience the highest levels of stress when something personally significant feels at risk. It might be their professional reputation, their sense of competence, or their ability to act in line with their own moral and personal values. When that sense of integrity or identity feels threatened, the body and mind interpret it as danger. Stress becomes not only a reaction to tasks but a response to the potential loss of self.
This perspective connects closely with our ongoing research on difficult conversations at work. We have found that much of the stress people experience is not about the official pressures of the role, but about the private emotional and relational tensions that sit underneath. These are the conversations that people avoid because they feel uncomfortable, uncertain, or unsafe.
For example, a manager might notice that a colleague seems disengaged but hesitates to ask why, fearing that it could open up a personal or emotional topic. Or an employee might feel that a recent decision conflicts with their values but stay silent to avoid being seen as difficult. These small moments of silence accumulate. Each one carries a little bit of strain, a sense of having to hold something back. Over time, that quiet withholding becomes chronic stress.
Research in occupational and organisational psychology supports this view. Unresolved relational tension is one of the most persistent sources of workplace strain. When people cannot express concerns or name tensions, their emotional energy goes into managing discomfort rather than doing their best work. This hidden effort can be exhausting.
The process of having a difficult conversation can act as a form of release. When people have space to talk, to be heard, and to clarify meaning, the intensity of stress often begins to ease. Speaking things aloud helps to transform emotion into language, which in turn allows the brain to process and integrate the experience. What once felt threatening becomes more understandable and therefore more manageable.
Stress is rarely a purely individual problem. It is relational in nature. It exists in the spaces between people as much as within them. The way we speak to one another, the level of trust and safety we create, and the willingness to stay present in uncomfortable moments all shape how stress moves through a system.
Workplaces that recognise this begin to see conversations as part of the solution, not a distraction from work. When people can discuss their experiences honestly, they strengthen understanding and reduce the emotional distance that often feeds anxiety. This approach builds what psychologists call psychological safety, the sense that it is acceptable to take interpersonal risks such as admitting uncertainty, asking for help, or naming a problem.
The conversations we avoid are often the ones that most need to happen. They are the points of tension where growth, connection, and change become possible. When leaders and teams create time and permission for these exchanges, stress becomes less about isolation and more about shared problem-solving. In that environment, well-being is not an individual task but a collective practice.
Moving from awareness to action
National Stress Awareness Day gives us an important opportunity to pause, but awareness is only the first step. Knowing that stress exists does not automatically change how we work. To make lasting change, organisations need to shift their focus from reacting to individual signs of stress to intentionally designing systems, cultures, and practices that support wellbeing every day.
This means looking beyond one-off wellbeing campaigns or short-term fixes. True change requires embedding wellbeing into how work is organised, how people are led, and how success is measured. When stress is viewed only as a personal issue, the response often centres on resilience training or self-care advice. While these can help, they place the responsibility entirely on individuals. The more transformative question is how the organisation itself can become a healthier place to work.
A good starting point is to create environments where people can speak up early. Psychological safety plays a crucial role here. When employees feel that their concerns will be heard without judgement or penalty, they are more likely to share what is really going on. Open dialogue allows stress to be addressed at its source rather than after it has already caused harm.
Managers also need the skills to recognise emotional load, not just task load. Many leaders can spot missed deadlines or declining performance, but fewer notice subtle signs such as withdrawal, irritability, or loss of enthusiasm. Training in emotional intelligence and reflective supervision can help managers interpret these signals accurately and respond with empathy rather than pressure.
Another important step is to weave recovery, reflection, and connection into the everyday rhythm of work. Regular team check-ins, shared learning sessions, and time for personal reflection can help people process experiences before they become overwhelming. Encouraging small, consistent practices such as pausing after intense meetings or protecting genuine breaks during the day can make a significant difference to long-term wellbeing.
Finally, leaders should consider how organisational systems either support or undermine wellbeing. Workload planning, communication norms, recognition practices, and performance metrics all shape how people feel. Redesigning these structures to promote clarity, autonomy, and fairness helps to reduce chronic stress and strengthen engagement.
Moving from awareness to action is not about grand gestures. It is about consistency, curiosity, and care. When organisations listen deeply to what stress is telling them, they begin to build cultures that value health as much as performance.
A final reflection
Stress is part of being human, and in small amounts it can even be useful. It can focus attention, spark creativity, and drive problem-solving. The problem arises when stress becomes chronic, hidden, or unsupported. In those situations, it shifts from being a signal to being a strain.
The key is to treat stress as information rather than failure. It tells us something about the relationship between people and their environment. It asks us to notice where energy is being drained faster than it can be renewed.
At Elevation Occ Psy, we believe that well-being at work begins with conversation. The act of noticing, naming, and reflecting is not just therapeutic but strategic. When people are encouraged to talk honestly about their experience, they become more aware of what supports or hinders them. That awareness creates the foundation for meaningful change.
So this Stress Awareness Day, instead of asking only “How stressed are we?”, we might ask, “What do we need more of to feel well?” The answer will look different for every team. It might be clearer priorities, more connection, greater flexibility, or simply permission to rest.
By asking this question regularly and listening to the answers, organisations can turn awareness into action and stress into insight. In doing so, they begin to create workplaces where wellbeing is not an annual topic but an everyday reality.
That is the real conversation, and it is one every team deserves to have.
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