Poll shows nearly half blame poor line management for workplace stress

But these guys were geniuses. What about your average Joe or Jo? For most of us, too much pressure becomes stressful… and stress can seriously damage your physical and mental health.

For International Stress Awareness Week (04–08 November 2024), we ran an online poll asking, “Which do you believe to be the chief cause of workplace stress?” Of more than 1,850 LinkedIn voters, nearly half (48 per cent) blamed ‘Poor line management’. Alternative responses were ‘Workload’ (29 per cent), ‘No clarity on responsibilities’ (20 per cent) and ‘Other– please comment’ (3 per cent).

Many of those who went for ‘Poor line management’ said they thought the other two stated options were also down to poor management, while quite a few respondents cited ‘All of the above’.

Here’s just a selection of some of the comments that came in:

Poor line management

“One of the main problems is managers who have little or no training on how to be a good manager. They have arrived in the position because of their work knowledge or because they know someone higher up the tree. I’m ex-military and one thing you get in the military is good training; your team is only as good as the weakest member, so you help and bring out their best so they feel wanted and useful.” – Stewart Bransom, QHS&E/Test manager.

“Lack of control of workload and many unable to say ‘no’ when workload becomes excessive. There must be buy-in from senior management, with a clear policy and strategy to reduce stress. This can start with an organisational stress risk assessment which would identify any ‘hot spots’, potential gaps and root causes of stress” – Jessica M Smyrl, Stress and psychosocial risk management specialist.

“Workplace stress is typically caused by a combination of factors but a chief cause is often excessive workload. When employees feel overwhelmed by the amount of work they have or face unrealistic deadlines, it can create pressure that leads to chronic stress. Other major contributors include lack of control over one’s tasks, unclear expectations, poor communication and limited support from management” – Jewen Casilag, Health, safety and environment officer.

“Management style of your immediate manager; mixed messages on your responsibilities; absent manager; manager doesn’t have your back; and your manager offers no shielding from higher management” – Andrew Rafter, Senior construction project manager.

“Good line managers understand the pressures from workload. Good line managers understand the importance of “clarity of responsibility”. Good line managers are trained to identify “other” cases of workplace stress. It looks to me like… line managers are not delivering” – Simon Rider, Senior compliance specialist.

Wrong focus

“Too many organisations have focused on implementing coping strategies and wellbeing initiatives rather than tackling the root causes of work-related stress. This approach has contributed to poor organisational performance, a weak economy and epidemic levels of occupational ill-health” – Dr Matt Parkyn, Organisational health, wellbeing and safety consultant in the housing sector.

Solutions

Work inflexibility

“Often stress is caused by the conflict between work and home life – child care, family commitments, doctors appointments, car repairs, even trying to get a delivery. So, I would say lack of flexible/remote work options can cause unnecessary stress” – James Brown, Health and safety consultant.

Work culture

“Expectation and culture set the standards for everything else” – Rosalind Hopwood, ISO consultant and compliance auditor.

All of the above

“All of the options and more – micro-managing, poor communications, toxic culture” – Stuart Boxall, Engineering manager.