We Must Move The Needle On Stress
April is an opportunity for organisations to raise awareness, reduce stigma, and actively support employee stress levels, before emerging issues escalate.
Do you have plans for your team, to support them in recognising and managing their stress?
Every April since 1992, National Stress Awareness Month has been observed, dedicated to increasing public awareness about the causes of stress and, crucially, how to manage the symptoms. This year, the focus is more critical than ever, with workplace stress reaching record levels, impacting employees across the globe.
The truth is, managing stress is no longer optional - it is a necessity because modern life is relentlessly stressful.
The research paints a stark picture of the key drivers fuelling workplace pressure:
- Workload and time pressure remain the leading cause, affecting a massive 76% of UK employees. Among union safety representatives, 60% cite excessive workload as a major hazard driving stress to unprecedented levels.
- Financial pressure has surged to become the top external stressor. It affects 41% of employees, a significant jump from 2025 statistics. Alarmingly, 52% of employees report that financial worries are negatively affecting their work performance, and 45% say it disrupts their sleep.
- Lack of control and autonomy is also a significant driver, increasing stress levels when employees feel they have little influence over their working environment or decisions.
From Sabre-Tooth Tigers to Modern Day Notification Nightmares...
So, what exactly is stress? How can we recognise when it has become too much and is genuinely affecting our wellbeing? Our stress reaction is primarily a physical response, where our body activates the "fight, flight, or freeze" (FFF) mode because it thinks it’s under attack.
This reaction releases a rush of hormones and chemicals, namely adrenaline, cortisol, and norepinephrine that produce a burst of energy for physical action and increased focus. This mechanism is what allowed us to survive when sabre-tooth tigers and alike were roaming around. Today, however, our stressors are less tiger and more work-life balance, digital device overload and notification nightmares.
While a bit of pressure can help us perform, being under too much pressure for too long is where the danger lies. It leaves excess cortisol and adrenaline sloshing around in our systems.
The Danger of the "Stress Badge of Honour"...
Understanding the basics of stress, what it looks and feels like, is the first step toward managing it sooner and keeping everyone feeling, thinking, and doing well together.
We seem to often use the term ‘stress’ as a throwaway phrase or, worse, wear it as a badge of honour, meaning it gets normalised in its impact. Thus starts the problem of when we have been stressed for a while and no longer recognise what is going on. This continuous, high-level stress is not how we are supposed to feel all day, every day. If it continues, we risk doing ourselves significant damage.
Signs and symptoms that are frequently dismissed include:
- Sleeping less well or waking up during the night.
- Increased irritability towards others.
- Feeling more emotional, perhaps having a disproportionate response to situations, or feeling that every small thing is an attack on you.
- Inability to think clearly or make decisions, which results in procrastination.
- Physical tension, such as your shoulders creeping up to your ears, gritting your teeth, or your tongue resting on the roof of your mouth.
- Using phrases like, ‘I just need to get to the weekend’.
Turning Down The Thermostat - what can employers meaningfully do?
Organisations have a major role to play in tackling this epidemic.
It isn't easy to simply remove the stressors from our modern lives, so we must learn to manage the stress. The most helpful approach is to think of it as ‘dialling it down like a thermostat’.
Here are some meaningful ways employers can actively manage and reduce stress for their teams:
Signpost Support & Intervention: Ensure support is easy for everyone to access. This includes promoting Employee Assistance Programmes (EAPs), peer networks, mentoring, or coaching.
Risk Assessments & Mental Health Policies: Although employers are legally required to assess the risk of stress at work, many are still not doing so, when they should be a priority.
Mental health training is also vital in the ‘suite’ of support and awareness, to equip managers in particular so they feel confident signposting support, rather than feeling anxious about having the answer or saying the wrong thing.
Talk About It: Simple check-ins, both individually and as a team, can prevent emerging issues from becoming prolonged problems. A gentle opening like, "I've noticed you don't seem yourself lately, is everything okay?" can make a huge difference. Managers and Mental Health advocates' roles are to listen, signpost, and support—not diagnose or offer medical advice. This dialogue also helps normalise the fact that stress affects everyone.
Managing Workload: Proactively manage workload to prevent overload. Encourage your team to take their annual leave throughout the year. Ensure they are appropriately trained for their roles, and offer opportunities for two-way feedback. In 1:1 meetings, actively enquire about working relationships and whether workloads feel manageable, offering flexibility where needed.
Communication: Stress often spikes when people feel kept in the dark, especially during periods of change or disruption where rumours and anxiety can spread. Keep teams updated on what's happening and, critically, how it affects them—decoding high-level organisational changes into tangible impacts for your team.
Don't Underestimate Recognition: Recognition is an overlooked but high-impact tool. Research shows that most managers don't give effective or frequent enough recognition. Yet it can increase morale and productivity by 10–20%.
Fitting Your Own Oxygen Mask First - The Bit Managers Often Skip
While nearly one in three workers report that their employer raises awareness about stress and mental health, there's a troubling disconnect: managers often lack the time, training, and resources to provide truly meaningful support.
This disparity erodes trust, creates cynicism, and, ultimately, burns managers out in the process. As a manager, you cannot pour from an empty cup. If you are to lead successfully, supporting yourself must be a priority.
Practical things managers should be proactively encouraged to do for themselves:
Leadership Skills: Model the healthy behaviours you want your team to adopt. This includes setting boundaries, taking breaks, and actively managing your own stress. This signalling makes it acceptable, and expected, for your team to do the same.
Set boundaries around workload: If your demands are unmanageable, you must escalate that upwards rather than silently absorbing it.
Use available support: Remember that support systems like Employee Assistance Programmes (EAPs), peer networks, supervision and occupational health referrals apply to managers as well, not just the ‘rest of the team’.
Get trained: Mental health training, such as that delivered by MHFA can be crucial. It ensures you feel confident and equipped to support others and clear in your part to play, rather than anxious about saying the wrong thing.
If you’d like some support during Stress Awareness Month, I’ve got sessions, physical or virtual, ready to go that can support your team .
Clare is an executive coach, facilitator and endurance athlete who is passionate about enabling ambitious business owners and leaders to really understand their wellbeing as a part of their development and a fundamental for their life and work.
Email: hello@auburnconsultancy.co.uk
