Workplace stress and error: Key facts at a glance
Recent findings highlighted by IOSH and research conducted by Astutis point to a sustained rise in workplace stress and its impact on day-to-day performance.
High-level indicators:
- Over half of surveyed UK workers (52.6%) reported making mistakes at work when under significant pressure
- More than a quarter (27.5%) missed deadlines due to feeling overwhelmed
- 63.2% of partipants considered leaving their role as a result of sustained stress
These findings highlight a growing operational issue with direct implications for safety, quality, and organisational resilience.
When pressure becomes a workplace risk
Sustained pressure changes how people think, prioritise, and make decisions at work. Under prolonged strain, attention becomes narrower, working memory is reduced, and risk perception becomes less reliable.
These changes rarely appear as dramatic failures. They emerge gradually through small errors, incomplete tasks, and reduced situational awareness. Left unaddressed, it increases the likelihood of incidents, weakens controls, and erodes confidence across teams.
Why errors increase in high-pressure environments
Mistakes under pressure are typically a response to cognitive overload rather than a lack of competence. When workload exceeds capacity, people rely on shortcuts, assumptions, and informal fixes to keep work moving.
Over time, this leads to:
- Steps being skipped or reordered
- Checks becoming informal or inconsistent
- Actions being delayed or completed without full verification
These behaviours are often well-intentioned attempts to cope with demand, yet they create conditions where risk accumulates quickly and quietly.
Silence and psychological safety at work
Many employees experience pressure without raising concerns through formal channels. Research referenced by Astutis indicates that individuals are far more likely to speak to partners or peers than to managers when under strain.
This pattern suggests that psychological safety directly influences risk visibility. Where people doubt that speaking up will lead to support or change, issues remain unreported. Over time, silence becomes normalised, reducing opportunities for early intervention.
For managers, psychological safety plays a practical role in surfacing emerging problems before they affect outcomes.
Common sources of pressure managers often miss
Workplace pressure is frequently created by how work is structured rather than by individual roles.
Typical contributors include:
- Conflicting priorities without clear escalation routes
- Additional responsibilities introduced without removing existing tasks
- Manual tracking caused by disconnected systems or duplicated processes
These pressures build gradually and are often invisible to senior leaders until performance is affected.
Managing psychological safety as part of everyday operations
Psychological safety supports effective risk management by enabling open reporting, challenge, and discussion. Where employees feel able to raise issues early, adjustments can be made before errors escalate.
This requires consistent signals from management:
- concerns are welcomed,
- feedback leads to action,
- workload discussions are treated seriously
When these signals are absent, pressure continues unchecked and decision quality deteriorates.
Reducing pressure through work design
Reducing stress at work often involves simplifying how tasks are planned, recorded, and reviewed. Clear processes reduce uncertainty and limit the need for mental juggling across multiple systems or priorities.
Practical steps include:
- making priorities explicit during high-demand periods
- reducing duplication across reporting and other activities
- linking actions, evidence, and follow-up in a single workflow
- reviewing tasks that add effort without reducing risk
These changes support both wellbeing and operational reliability.
Recognising early indicators of overload
Pressure often appears indirectly in day-to-day behaviour before formal issues emerge.
Early indicators may include:
- increased rework or clarification requests
- actions being completed late rather than missed entirely
- reduced challenge or engagement in discussions
- greater defensiveness around minor errors
Recognising these signals allows managers to adjust workload and expectations while issues remain manageable.
Core Takeaways for Managers
- Sustained pressure affects decision-making and error rates before absence or turnover becomes visible
- Mistakes and near misses often signal overload rather than poor performance
- Psychological safety influences whether risks are identified early or remain hidden
- Many sources of stress originate from process design and workload structure
- Simplifying workflows and clarifying priorities reduces pressure at its source
- Early intervention improves safety, quality, and team resilience
