875,000 Workers Called in Sick for Stress. What If It’s Not the Workload?

The lights were still on when I closed my laptop last Tuesday.

Not because I was grinding. Not because the inbox demanded it. I just couldn’t switch off. And I’ve learned that moment, the hum of the laptop, the quiet ache behind the eyes isn’t always about how much is on your plate. But how long you’ve been pretending it’s fine.

If you’re leading a team, and you’ve started noticing more sighs than laughter… More mental health days than meetings being booked…

It’s not random. It’s not generational weakness. It’s not a problem that lives “somewhere in HR.”

𝗜𝘁’𝘀 𝗮 𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗻𝗮𝗹.

And right now, the signal is loud. 875,000 people were affected by stress last year. 16 million working days gone. And the cost? It’s not just financial. It’s cultural. It’s relational. It’s the slow, invisible leak of energy across your organisation.

But this post isn’t about the numbers. It’s about the feeling no one names.

When Pressure Turns to Powerlessness

We like to say people “burn out.” As if they combust in one dramatic moment.

But in reality? It’s more like a dimmer switch. A slow fading of drive. People don’t collapse from overwork. They collapse from powerlessness.

That sense of:

• "I can’t control any of this."
• "I don’t know what’s expected."
• "No one’s really noticing how hard I’m holding it all together."

The fix? It’s not perks. It’s not another stress webinar. 𝘐𝘵’𝘴 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘳𝘰𝘭.

The moment people feel some say over how they work, not just what they work on, their nervous system catches its breath. It’s not about reducing deadlines. It’s about restoring choice.

What if you gave your team permission to make more of their own rules?

Not All Safety Is Spoken

You can say, “My door’s always open.” You can write policies in 𝗯𝗼𝗹𝗱 Arial 12. But people don’t trust what’s said once. They trust what’s repeated.

They trust what happens when things go wrong.

You build real psychological safety with:

• The tone of voice you use when someone says “I’m not okay”
• The way you follow up a messy week with curiosity, not critique
• The decision not to reward silent suffering with more tasks

That’s influence, whether you intended it or not.

Confusion Creates Stress. Clarity Creates Calm.

Ambiguity is a hidden tax.

Unclear roles. Vague goals. Shifting priorities. You don’t have to micromanage to reduce stress. You just have to name what matters now.

Simple reset questions:

• “What’s the actual priority this month?”
• “What can we drop, even if just for now?”
• “Where are we accidentally overlapping?”

You don’t need a restructure. You need fewer question marks.

Managers Set the Tone Whether They Mean To or Not

Stress doesn’t always show up in a breakdown. Sometimes it’s just someone going quiet. Cancelling one more meeting. Taking longer to reply.

Your managers, the ones closest to the people, are usually the first to sense it. But unless they’ve had the correct input, they’ll default to silence.

Training doesn’t need to be complex. It needs to feel like something they could use today. What to say. What not to say. How to ask better questions. When to pause.

You don’t need them to diagnose. You need them to care out loud.

Data Doesn't Move People. Stories Do.

You can track absence. Build dashboards. Share cost savings.

But what changes behaviour is what it feels like to sit across from someone who’s been quietly drowning for six months and finally says so.

If you want your board to take stress seriously, pair the metrics with the moments:

• “Two key staff quietly stepped back this quarter. They didn’t leave, but they’ve gone missing.”
• “We lost 40 days to stress in this one team alone, and nobody reported feeling unsafe.”
• “That CBT support line we trialled? Quietly cutthe  absence in half for the people who used it.”

We track what we value. But we act on what moves us.

So, What’s the Shift?

This quarter, try:

• A simple, anonymous pulse survey using HSE’s Management Standards
• Private, opt-in coaching support for those in high-pressure roles
• A 20-minute role reset per team, fewer grey zones, fewer grey hairs
• A one-page script for line managers on what to say when someone’s not okay
• A monthly check-in to track absence and realign your culture

Start where there’s least resistance. Let the ripple begin from there.

If It’s Feeling Heavy, You’re Not Broken. You’re Tired.

This post isn’t a call to fix everything.

It’s permission to stop pretending pressure is the price of success.

High standards don’t have to mean low reserves. And sustainable performance doesn’t come from squeezing more out of people; it comes from rebuilding systems that stop the squeeze in the first place.

You can’t outwork your way out of burnout. But you can out-design it.

You’ve handled everything else. 

This? 

This is the moment you get to do it differently.