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- NSC.org
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- Injury Facts
- Safety+Health Magazine
While a moderate level of stress can motivate performance, chronic or excessive stress leads to fatigue, impaired decision-making, health problems and safety incidents. For employers, and particularly those in safety-critical sectors like construction, manufacturing and transportation, stress represents a hidden but measurable risk to productivity and workplace safety.
Workplace stress has become a critical occupational health concern. Surveys show that about 83% of American workers report experiencing work-related stress, and more than half say it negatively affects their home life. Chronic workplace stress is linked to serious health outcomes, including an estimated 120,000 deaths in the U.S. each year, and is the No. 1 workplace health issue, contributing to absenteeism, presenteeism and safety incidents.
Burnout, characterized by prolonged workplace stress and exhaustion, is rampant. In the past year, 52% of employees reported feeling burned out, with mid-level employees experiencing higher rates (54%) compared to entry-level workers (40%). Recent surveys indicate that 77% of workers experienced stress in the last month, and 57% reported negative effects such as emotional exhaustion, lack of motivation, irritability with coworkers, reduced productivity or even a desire to quit. Younger workers, particularly those in Generation Z, are disproportionately affected, leading to higher rates of sick days and mental health challenges.
Research also confirms stress is strongly associated with health and safety outcomes: chronic stress is linked to cardiovascular disease, anxiety, depression and musculoskeletal pain. Fatigue from stress and poor sleep is estimated to contribute to 13% of workplace injuries.
Stress in Safety-critical Sectors Globally, workplace stress contributes to an estimated $300 billion annually in lost productivity, absenteeism and healthcare costs.
For employers, stress shows up in multiple, measurable ways:
● Higher absenteeism & turnover: Workers under chronic stress take more sick days and are likelier to quit; a cost-estimation model attributes a significant portion of absence days to stress and psychosocial risks
● Decreased productivity and presenteeism: Even when employees are present, stress impairs cognitive focus, energy, decision making and output; a cross-sectional study found that higher stress was correlated with lower productivity scores among employees
● Greater healthcare expenditures: Chronic stress is linked to increased incidence of mental health conditions, cardiovascular disease, musculoskeletal problems and other conditions, which drive medical claims and insurance costs
● Increased errors and incident rates in safety-sensitive jobs: Stress impairs attention, vigilance and decision making, increasing the risk of mistakes, near misses and incidents; in work settings where safety is critical, the cost of even small error rates can be high
Stress not only degrades worker health and safety, but also erodes organizational performance, and well-designed interventions, particularly those targeting systems, workload, management practices and support, can produce meaningful returns. Evidence shows addressing stress through prevention and support programs provides a strong return on investment, with interventions such as workload redesign, supervisor training and Employee Assistance Programs showing improvements in wellbeing and safety incidents related to stress.
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