While experiencing some stress at work is normal and can even be helpful at times—for example, it might keep you motivated or emotionally engaged in your job—it can also become problematic if you’re dealing with intense stress on a regular basis.

In these cases, work stress can interfere with your career goals and take a toll on your personal life as well.

What is work stress?

Definitions of work stress vary, but most include the idea of mental, physical, or emotional tension caused by work and career-related factors.

When you’re stressed, you might feel overwhelmed, have trouble relaxing or sleeping, or experience other symptoms of common mental health conditions such as anxiety or depression.

Symptoms of work stress

Everyone reacts to stress differently, but the following are a few of the most common symptoms of work stress:

• Anxiety or worry : You may be frequently preoccupied with thoughts about your work and find it difficult to relax or focus on other things.
• Felling overwhelmed: Stress can make you feel like you’re not able to manage all of your job’s demands.
• Conflicts with others, both at work and outside of work: You may be irritable and easily upset, which can cause tensions with colleagues and supervisors as well as loved ones outside of work.
• Worsened performance at work: If your job is stressing you out, you might be less able to do a good job at work, which can add even more stress to the situation.
• Physical symptoms: Stress often comes with physical symptoms including muscle tension, headaches, and digestive troubles. You might find that these symptoms get worse when you’re at work, or thinking about work.
• Difficulty sleeping: You might have trouble falling asleep or wake up feeling unrested.

Types of work stress

Work stress comes in countless forms, but some common scenarios include:

• Being overworked and/or underpaid: You might simply feel like you have more to do than you can reasonably handle, and/or that you’re not being fairly compensated for your work.
• Lack of control over projects and/or outcomes: Not being able to exercise control over a work-related situation can often increase work stress.
• Tensions with colleagues, supervisors, or clients: You might find it difficult to work with certain people in your professional circles and feel stressed out as a result.
• Career changes or uncertainties: If you’re starting a new job, thinking of leaving your current job, or feeling unsure of your career path in general, you might be more likely to experience stress at work.
• Issues related to work-life balance: Particularly if you’re balancing the demands of parenting or caregiving at home, you may be dealing with stressful conflicts between your job and the rest of your life.
• Burnout: If you no longer find joy in parts of your job you once enjoyed and/or consistently dread going to work, you may be experiencing burnout.
• Vicarious trauma: Those who work with individuals who have been traumatized are vulnerable to vicarious trauma , in which caregiving professionals—such as doctors, therapists, and social workers—experience symptoms of trauma without direct personal experience of traumatic events.
• Physical workplace stress: Physically demanding jobs can lead to injuries and back problems, while desk jobs might lead to hand pain and strained eyes, among other ailments. These physical issues can intensify the psychological stress of work.
• Stress related to discrimination or harassment: If you’re being harassed at work or discriminated against on the basis of race, ethnicity, culture, gender identity, sexual orientation, or disability, you’re likely to experience higher levels of work stress.
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