Managers Own the Stressors: How to Monitor and Reduce Workplace Stress

Part 2 of 3 in the series on workplace stressors and the manager's responsibility. Read Part 1: Stressors vs. Anxiety.

In Part 1, I separated stressors, which are external and fixable, from anxiety, which is internal and not the manager's to treat. This post covers the part managers do own: the conditions of the work.

The research points to a short list of factors that raise the risk of mental health problems at work. Most of them sit within a manager's control. Here is how to monitor each one and what to do about it.

1. Workload and demands

High job demands show up repeatedly in the research as a predictor of later anxiety and depression.

Monitor: Compare each person's assignments to their real capacity every month, not only at review time. Watch for sustained overtime, missed deadlines, and work that keeps rolling over.

Act: Cut, delay, or reassign work. Ask "what comes off the plate?" whenever you add something to it. If the workload is structurally too large, that is a staffing conversation with your leadership, not a resilience problem for the employee.

2. Role clarity and conflict

A long-term Norwegian study identified role conflict, meaning incompatible requests from two or more people, as the strongest workplace risk factor for anxiety and depression. Role clarity and support from the immediate superior were associated with lower risk.

Monitor: Ask each person to name their top three priorities and who they answer to. If the answer differs from yours, you have found a problem.

Act: Set priorities in writing. When stakeholders send competing requests, resolve the conflict yourself instead of letting the employee absorb it.

3. Control over how work gets done

Low job control and low decision authority are tied to higher risk.

Monitor: Notice where you dictate methods that don't need dictating.

Act: Define the outcome, then let the employee choose the approach. Give people a say in schedules and sequencing where the job allows it.

4. Fairness

Low organizational justice carried some of the largest risk increases in the 2020 meta-analysis.

Monitor: Review how you assign opportunities, distribute difficult work, apply policies, and explain decisions. Look for patterns, not single incidents.

Act: Apply rules consistently. Explain the reasoning behind decisions that affect people. Give employees a way to raise concerns and respond when they do.

5. Recognition and reward

Effort-reward imbalance, which means high effort with little recognition or pay, showed the largest increase in risk in the same meta-analysis.

Monitor: Ask yourself when you last acknowledged each person's specific contribution.

Act: Recognize concrete work promptly. Raise pay and advancement gaps with HR instead of letting them sit.

6. Social support and treatment

Low social support predicted the onset of anxiety in a Dutch study, and bullying appears in the broader literature on workplace risk.

Monitor: Pay attention to how people treat each other in meetings and in chat. Notice who is isolated.

Act: Be available. Address disrespectful behavior the first time you see it. Make it normal to ask for help.

How to monitor without guessing

You cannot read minds, so build monitoring into routine management:

A manager's self-audit

Answer yes or no for each person on your team:

Every "no" is a stressor you can act on this month.

The limit

Fixing these conditions will not eliminate anxiety. The causes of anxiety are personal, and stressors are only one input. But removing avoidable stressors is your job, and the research supports it. Part 3 covers what to do when an employee is struggling with anxiety despite good conditions, and where a manager's responsibility ends.

Want help auditing your management practices or training your leaders? Contact YourHR.pro.

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