How Stress in the Workplace Negatively Affects Performance and What Employers Can Do About It

Most people don’t come to work expecting to feel overwhelmed.

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They want to do a good job, contribute something meaningful, and leave the day feeling like their efforts counted. Yet for many people, work has become a steady hum of pressure in the background. The inbox never really clears. Expectations feel blurred. Time to think, reflect, or properly switch off is limited.

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Stress in the workplace rarely arrives all at once. It builds quietly. A heavier workload here. A role that’s never quite been properly defined. A manager who is under pressure themselves and doesn’t have the space or tools to support others. Over time, what starts as manageable pressure turns into something more draining.

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We see this regularly in our work with managers and teams. People are not struggling because they don’t care or lack resilience. They’re struggling because the way work is designed and the way pressure is handled often makes sustained performance harder, not easier.

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In this article, we explore how stress in the workplace negatively affects performance, the real impact it has on focus, confidence and productivity, and what employers can do to reduce stress before it tips into burnout.

What do we mean by stress in the workplace?

Work-related stress occurs when the demands of a role consistently outweigh a person’s capacity to cope. While short bursts of pressure can help focus attention, prolonged stress keeps the nervous system in a heightened state of alert, affecting thinking, emotional regulation and physical health.

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According to Mental Health UK’s Burnout Report 2026, 91% of UK adults experienced high or extreme levels of stress in the past year, with workload, job insecurity and unpaid overtime among the most common causes of stress in the workplace.

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Stress and anxiety in the workplace are not personal failings. They are signals that something in the system needs attention.

The effects of stress in the workplace on performance

The effects of stress in the workplace are rarely dramatic at first. More often, they show up gradually in behaviour, energy and decision-making.

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1. Reduced focus, decision-making and mental agility

When stress becomes chronic, the brain shifts into threat mode. This reduces mental agility, making it harder to think clearly, solve problems or adapt to change.

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Research from the McKinsey Health Institute shows that prolonged stress significantly reduces cognitive capacity, directly affecting task performance and decision-making.

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In practice, this often looks like:

• Difficulty prioritising
• Slower or more reactive decisions
• Increased errors
• Rigid thinking under pressure

All of which undermine workplace productivity.

2. Lower engagement and workplace productivity

Stress also affects how people show up at work. Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace 2025 highlights that high levels of work-related stress are closely linked to disengagement and presenteeism, where employees are physically present but mentally checked out.

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This leads to:

• Reduced output
• Lower quality work
• Missed deadlines
• Increased turnover risk

Understanding how to improve productivity in the workplace means addressing stress, not simply pushing people harder.

3. Increased team conflict and communication breakdowns

As stress rises, emotional regulation falls. Small issues escalate. Feedback feels personal. Conversations are avoided or handled poorly.

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Stress is a significant contributor to team conflict, particularly in environments where expectations are unclear or workloads feel relentless. Managers who have not been supported to manage stress in the workplace often struggle to address issues early, allowing tension to build.

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Learning how to manage conflict in a team becomes essential when pressure is high.

4. Greater risk of employee burnout

Employee burnout is one of the most damaging effects of stress in the workplace. Burnout is not simply exhaustion; it is a state of emotional, mental and physical depletion caused by prolonged, unmanaged stress.

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Mental Health UK reports that one in five UK workers took time off in the last year due to poor mental health caused by work-related stress, and many did not receive structured support on their return

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Without intervention, burnout often leads to:

• Extended absences
• Loss of confidence and motivation
• Increased employee turnover
• Long-term health consequences

Knowing how to prevent employee burnout is now a core leadership responsibility.

The most common causes of stress in the workplace

While experiences differ, research consistently highlights several common causes of stress in the workplace:

• High or continuously increasing workloads
• Role ambiguity and unclear expectations
• Poor management capability
• Lack of psychological safety
• Job insecurity and ongoing organisational change
• Unresolved team conflict
• Limited autonomy or control

McKinsey’s Workforce Interventions Database shows that stress increases sharply when demands rise without corresponding support, clarity or leadership capability.

Why resilience alone is not enough

Many organisations respond to stress with wellbeing initiatives such as mindfulness apps or one-off resilience training. While these can be helpful, they rarely address the root causes of work-related stress.

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Research from the McKinsey Health Institute shows that performance improves most when organisations invest in manager capability, clarity and day-to-day leadership behaviours, rather than placing the burden of coping on individuals.

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Resilience training works best when combined with:

• Clear expectations and boundaries
• Strong manager capability
• Healthy workload design
• Psychological safety

How employers can reduce stress in the workplace

Reducing stress in the workplace requires a systemic approach. It starts with leadership behaviour, not individual coping alone.

1. Equip managers to manage stress effectively

Managers have a significant impact on day-to-day stress levels, yet many are promoted without support in how to handle stress in the workplace, either their own or their team’s.

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Effective stress management in the workplace means managers can:

• Set clear expectations
• Spot early signs of stress
• Have confident, human conversations
• Address issues before they escalate
  
  

2. Build psychological safety and clarity

Psychological safety allows people to speak up early, ask for help and raise concerns without fear of judgement. This reduces stress and anxiety in the workplace and supports healthier performance.

Clear communication and consistent expectations reduce uncertainty, one of the biggest contributors to work-related stress.

3. Review workload and role design

No amount of resilience will fix unrealistic workloads. Employers need to regularly assess capacity, priorities and role clarity.

McKinsey’s research shows that workload redesign and clearer role expectations are among the most effective interventions for improving both wellbeing and performance.

4. Support recovery, not just performance

Reducing stress is not only about prevention. It also means supporting people when they need time to recover.

Mental Health UK highlights that phased returns, regular manager check-ins and clear return-to-work plans significantly reduce the risk of repeat burnout.

Creating a healthier, more sustainable workplace

Stress in the workplace is not inevitable. It is shaped by leadership behaviour, organisational systems and how pressure is understood, held and responded to over time.

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Here at PUSH, we take a holistic, end-to-end approach to supporting organisations. We know that reducing work-related stress and improving performance is rarely about one intervention alone. It’s about joining the dots between how people are led, how they are supported, and what’s happening for them as whole humans, not just employees.

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Our work spans:

• Manager and leadership training: helping leaders create clarity, confidence and psychologically safe environments.
  
  
• Therapeutic coaching: supporting deeper self-awareness, emotional regulation and sustainable change.
  
  
• Specialist coaching: in areas such as stress, finances and nutrition, recognising the wider pressures people are carrying.
  
  
• Mental health and wellbeing training: delivered by our experienced network of coaches, tailored to the realities of modern work.

Whether you’re looking to strengthen manager capability, support individuals under pressure, or take a more preventative approach to stress and burnout across your organisation, we work with you to design support that fits your people and your context.

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If you’re exploring how best to support your team or organisation, book a call to discuss. We’d love to have a conversation about what’s really going on and how we can help.