Uncovering the burden: addressing mental health challenges in overlooked high-stress jobs through HR practices

Abstract

Workplace stress is a pervasive issue for both employees and organizations. This concept has evolved across various fields, including sociology, biology, and management literature. Sources of stress, as perceived by employees, include job-related factors such as long working hours, high workload, unfavorable working conditions, and roles with immense responsibilities and conflicts. Additionally, work relations with superiors, subordinates, and colleagues often contribute to stress. Some organizations, however, intentionally create a high-pressure environment to generate optimal performance, leading to the concept of the employee performance bell curve, which suggests that moderate levels of stress can be beneficial for some individuals.

While Human Resources (HR) practices can help address stress-related factors, the first critical step is recognizing whether stress is an issue. This oversight is common in industries such as IT, consulting, and professional services. The report uses the consulting industry as a case study to explore the factors leading to this oversight, evaluate current HR practices, and provide recommendations for managing employee stress effectively. Secondary research was conducted to understand the industry's structure, hierarchy, and common stressors for consultants. Primary research involved in-depth interviews with four individuals, representing both management and tech consulting. The sample was intentionally diverse, including two individuals from each consulting sub-field and one junior-level and one senior-level employee within each group.

The results revealed that stress oversight often stems from an organizational culture that deliberately places employees under pressure to maximize output, a fast-paced work environment that leaves little time to address concerns, and industry norms that normalize high stress levels. Based on these findings, the report recommends several HR interventions, including the introduction of weekly pulse surveys, 'Do Not Disturb' Fridays, and a blackout hour policy. Other activities HR can organize include creating better infrastructure, such as breakout rooms, implementing wellness programs, and establishing buddy systems. To manage future or emerging stressors, policies such as compensatory leave, stricter work-hour boundaries, and rotating high-stress projects among teams could be introduced.