Anxiety at Work

Anxiety at Work Plot Summary

Introduction

Sarah was a star employee at her marketing firm, always delivering exceptional work and meeting tight deadlines. Outwardly, she appeared confident and composed. But beneath the surface, Sarah was paddling frantically, overwhelmed by constant worries about her performance, job security, and the endless stream of responsibilities. When her manager casually mentioned that they needed to talk about a recent project, Sarah spent the entire weekend anxious and sleepless, convinced she was about to be fired. Monday's meeting turned out to be just a routine check-in with positive feedback, but the emotional toll had already been taken. This scenario plays out in workplaces everywhere, where employees like Sarah struggle with anxiety that remains largely invisible and unaddressed. The modern workplace has become increasingly demanding and uncertain, with heightened expectations, constant connectivity, and rapid change creating a perfect storm for anxiety to flourish. Leaders who recognize and address workplace anxiety aren't just being compassionate—they're making a strategic decision that benefits everyone. By creating psychologically safe environments, providing clear guidance, and helping team members navigate uncertainty, managers can transform anxiety from a debilitating force into manageable energy that fuels success rather than undermines it.

Chapter 1: The Duck Syndrome: Understanding Workplace Anxiety

At Stanford University, students coined the term "duck syndrome" to describe the phenomenon where everyone appears to be gliding smoothly through their academic lives, like ducks on a pond. Yet beneath the surface, these students are paddling frantically, struggling to stay afloat amidst immense pressures and expectations. This same syndrome plays out in workplaces around the world, where employees put on a brave face while silently drowning in anxiety. Take Chloe, a promising young professional who landed a coveted position at an investment bank after graduating with near-perfect grades. To her colleagues, she seemed confident and composed, a rising star in the making. But internally, Chloe felt perpetually overwhelmed. She doubted her abilities, comparing herself to peers who seemed more qualified. She worked late every day, retreated to her apartment each night, and experienced mounting dread about the next workday. When Chloe mentioned feeling overwhelmed to her manager, she received a dismissive response: "That's just how it is around here. Try not to stress." Eventually, the pressure became unbearable. One day, Chloe simply didn't show up to work—she "ghosted" her employer, never returning or communicating again. Meanwhile, Chris Rainey, CEO of HR Leaders and a popular podcast host, kept his anxiety hidden for decades. Despite his outward success in sales and leadership, there were days when anxiety prevented him from leaving his house. Rainey maintained this facade for over ten years of marriage without even telling his wife. Only after interviewing a guest who vulnerably shared his own mental health struggles did Rainey finally open up about his condition. The relief was transformative: "The weight lifted off my shoulders. It was unbelievable," he explains. Now he can tell his team when he needs a break, and they support him without judgment. These stories reflect a growing reality. Studies show workplace anxiety costs American businesses approximately $40 billion annually in lost productivity, errors, and healthcare expenses. The pandemic has only intensified the problem, with 30 percent of Americans reporting symptoms of anxiety disorder by mid-2020. Despite its prevalence, only one in four employees who experience anxiety discusses it with their managers. Most suffer in silence, fearing stigma or career repercussions. Anxiety isn't limited to certain personality types. In fact, research indicates that many high-performers experience significant anxiety. Mensa members suffer from anxiety disorders at twice the national average, suggesting a link between intelligence and anxiety. Contrary to some assumptions, those experiencing anxiety are often among the most capable team members—86 percent of people with high anxiety are rated as uniquely productive in their roles. The good news is that leaders can make a profound difference. By recognizing the signs of anxiety, creating psychologically safe environments, and implementing supportive practices, managers can help transform workplaces from anxiety accelerators into spaces where everyone can thrive. This isn't just compassionate leadership—it's smart business strategy that yields higher engagement, innovation, and performance.

Chapter 2: Uncertainty and Fear: Leading Through Challenging Times

Few things trigger anxiety more powerfully than uncertainty, and today's workplaces overflow with it. Ashley, a 26-year-old financial services professional, explains how job instability affects her generation: "My generation's experience has been shaped by what's happened over the past twenty years: 9/11, people got laid off; the crash of 2008, same thing. Now it's AI and robots making our jobs unnecessary." This sentiment reflects widespread concerns—by mid-2020, 60 percent of American workers worried about their job security. The Yahoo decline provides a stark example of how poorly managed uncertainty devastates employee morale. Despite an optimistic public face, internally the company conducted what employees called "stealth layoffs"—quietly firing a handful of people each week. No one knew who would be safe or gone next, and fear paralyzed many workers. When CEO Marissa Mayer finally told staff that the layoffs were over, she even joked that no one would be laid off that week. Yet shortly thereafter, more cuts began. Employees told journalists they didn't want to be "mollified"—they wanted to be "respected and trusted with facts so they could plan their lives, and also help." In contrast, companies that communicate transparently during uncertainty often emerge stronger. When FYidoctors had to temporarily close all 250 of its optometry clinics due to COVID-19, president Darcy Verhun implemented what he called "constant communication transparency." The executive team held daily Zoom updates with their 3,000 colleagues, preparing beforehand by thinking through what employees might be feeling. They reconfirmed their plan daily, discussed key issues, and answered questions openly in real-time. "In being willing to do this, we built trust, confidence, and deep engagement with the team," Verhun explains. Remarkably, team members began mentoring each other and answering colleagues' questions faster than executives could. By midyear, the clinics reopened and reported their best monthly results in the company's twelve-year history. AT&T offers another instructive example. When executives realized that 100,000 of their 280,000 workers held positions that might become obsolete within a decade, they didn't hide this reality. Instead, they communicated the challenges openly and committed to retraining their workforce. The company invested $250 million annually in employee education and development programs, plus $30 million yearly in tuition assistance. By 2018, half of AT&T's employees were actively acquiring skills for newly created roles. This transparency-focused approach helped the company increase revenue from $129 billion to $181 billion between 2013 and 2019, while earning a spot on Fortune's 100 Best Companies to Work For list. The most effective leaders address uncertainty through six key methods: making it okay to not have all the answers, loosening their grip during tough times rather than becoming more controlling, ensuring everyone knows exactly what's expected of them, keeping people focused on what they can control, creating a bias toward action, and offering constructive feedback. Colonel Nicole Malachowski, the first female pilot in the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds demonstration squadron, explains how pilots handle turbulence: "When things get bumpy, we lighten up on the stick, using just a few fingers. If you fly with all five fingers tight and try to react to every bump, you get into a pilot-induced oscillation—bigger corrections that make things worse." This approach to uncertainty applies equally to leadership. Unfortunately, research shows more than half of managers become more closed-minded and controlling during ambiguous, high-pressure situations. By staying loose—open and curious—during uncertain times, leaders create an environment where teams can navigate challenges without amplifying anxiety. The message is clear: transparency about challenges, coupled with a calm, inclusive approach to problem-solving, helps teams weather uncertainty with resilience rather than fear.

Chapter 3: Drowning in Overload: Turning Less into More

In the grueling training known as "Hell Week," aspiring Navy SEALs train for five days and nights with only four hours of sleep. While many assume physical toughness determines who succeeds, Brandon Webb, who passed this challenge, reveals otherwise: "What SEAL training really tests is your mental mettle. It is designed to push you mentally to the brink, over and over again, until you are hardened and able to take on any task with confidence, regardless of the odds—or until you break." Research shows that among SEAL candidates, two distinct behavioral archetypes emerge. "Taskers" focus on completing each assigned job and then resting whenever possible. "Optimizers" constantly think about all the tasks lined up during the day, calculating how much time and effort to put into each. Surprisingly, the dropout rate is overwhelmingly higher among Optimizers. While they're busy trying to manage the big picture, they never truly rest because they're always thinking about the next challenge. Taskers, by contrast, break the monolithic challenge into manageable chunks: task, rest; task, rest. This chunking tactic offers a powerful lesson for managers helping employees cope with overwhelming workloads. Many workers today feel crushed by impossible demands, with research from Robert Half showing 91 percent of American employees felt at least somewhat burned out in 2019—before the pandemic intensified workloads further. The consequences are severe: burned-out employees are 63 percent more likely to take sick time and 2.6 times more likely to leave their current employer, while health problems associated with burnout cost up to $190 billion annually in U.S. healthcare spending. Some managers believe pushing employees to do more with less is good for productivity. In the short term, during genuine crunch times, this can be true. The human body responds to stress by releasing energy to handle immediate threats. But chronic overload takes a devastating toll, increasing the risk of anxiety and physical illness. When leaders constantly demand more work in less time, it inevitably leads to employee frustration, rising anger, and eventually burnout. Consider Quan, a midlevel technology manager whose team worked sixteen-hour days to update their company's SAP system. They took pride in accomplishing the upgrade faster than any team before. But afterward, management established this accelerated schedule as the new standard. "Now," Quan lamented, "the company expects the next upgrade in a 10 percent shorter timeframe, and that really is impossible. I made a mistake in pushing my team so hard." Effective leaders like Mary Beth DeNooyer, chief human resources officer for Keurig Dr Pepper, help their twenty thousand employees operate from personalized frameworks that provide clarity and reduce anxiety about workloads. "They include our Vision: What are we trying to achieve from a macro perspective," she explains. "We also include Company Values, how our teams work together; and Competencies, which are how an individual succeeds." These frameworks serve as anchors employees can reference when feeling overwhelmed. "People have them hanging on their bulletin board or as a screensaver," DeNooyer notes. "When the world seems to be on fire, they can lean back and say, 'Okay, does this new thing fit?' If not, they probably don't need to be working on it." From creating clear roadmaps to balancing loads, monitoring progress, helping people prioritize, reducing distractions, and encouraging genuine rest and recovery, thoughtful managers have many tools to help team members cope with heavy workloads. When managers demonstrate that "We're in this together" isn't just a slogan but a genuine commitment to supporting employees through overwhelming demands, they not only reduce anxiety but build the most productive and rewarding teams to lead.

Chapter 4: Finding Clear Paths: Career Development and Confidence Building

The digital generation lives in a world of immediate feedback and visible progress. You post on social media, get likes, add followers, and repeat—a fast-working formula with clear metrics. By contrast, the corporate world can feel excruciatingly slow and ambiguous to younger workers eager for advancement. This disconnect helps explain why 78 percent of Gen Z and 43 percent of millennial employees surveyed in 2018 planned to leave their companies within two years, compared to 40 percent of Baby Boomers who typically stayed with employers for at least twenty years. This job-hopping isn't just about impatience or entitlement. The economic reality for young professionals includes stagnant wages, massive student debt, delayed homeownership, and legitimate concerns about job security. According to Brookings Institution data, 44 percent of all workers qualified as "low wage" earners in 2019, with median annual earnings of about $18,000—hardly enough to build a life, especially in urban areas. One young worker candidly told researchers, "We no longer see companies as having our best interests in mind. We understand that shareholder value is king, and we can be replaced by cheaper labor." Facing these challenges, Marc Cenedella, founder and CEO of job search website Ladders, found a creative solution when young employees expressed frustration with the company's two-year promotion timeline. Rather than dismissing their concerns, he redesigned the program to provide six promotions over two years—with performance hurdles, title increases, and pay bumps at each step. "We kept the same performance standards, the same final pay rate, and the same progression toward expertise over time," he explains. "We learned that more frequent career feedback, with better chances for getting ahead, and some self-direction were actually very effective tools for building morale and contributing to the success of our company." The approach worked brilliantly. New hires worked diligently to reach each level, celebrating even small promotions as significant milestones. Far from seeing these as "fake promotions," employees valued these visible markers of progress. The company also gained more capable workers, as each promotion required mastering specific skills before advancing. Beyond structural changes, managers can also help employees understand the unwritten rules of career advancement. Dr. David Peterson, former director of executive coaching at Google, explains that many employees don't realize they need to invest quality time every week preparing for future roles. "Leaders need to help team members figure out that just being excellent in their current role is not going to get them where they want to go. What will get them to the next level are new and different skills." He recommends a simple "reality test": looking at an employee's calendar for the past week to see how much time they dedicated to growth activities versus current responsibilities. Perhaps most importantly, managers should help employees discover what truly motivates them, ensuring they're pursuing the right path rather than simply climbing the ladder because they think they should. This became clear when researchers advised against promoting Greg, a high-performing employee whose assessment showed "Developing Others" and "Teamwork" ranked near the bottom of his personal motivators. Despite this warning, Greg was promoted to lead a team—a role centered precisely on developing others and building teamwork. Predictably, the situation lasted just six months before his team revolted, citing his lack of empathy and poor responsiveness to their concerns. The company wisely created a new individual contributor role that leveraged Greg's strengths without requiring people management, where he has thrived for years. By implementing these approaches—creating more advancement steps, coaching about career development, assessing skills and motivations, using clear skill development frameworks, making learning real-time and practical, tailoring development to individuals, calibrating growth opportunities thoughtfully, and encouraging peer-to-peer support—leaders can significantly reduce career anxiety while building more engaged, committed teams.

Chapter 5: Perfectionism to Progress: Helping Teams Move Forward

Maria Callas, considered by many the greatest soprano of all time, transformed opera in the 1940s and '50s with unprecedented vocal and acting talents. Yet her career illustrates how perfectionism can undermine excellence. Pushed by an overbearing mother from age five, Callas developed what the Washington Post called a "perfectionism that grew ever more fierce as her voice decayed." She demanded flawless performances at the expense of her health and relationships, once refusing to wait for renowned pianist Wilhelm Backhaus to finish rehearsing in a space she was scheduled to use next, declaring: "I'm supposed to start my rehearsal at three o'clock. Tell him it's over." While Callas's extraordinary talent made her a legend, her perfectionism eventually prevented her from performing altogether. "I never lost my voice," she later reflected, "but I lost my courage." Her singing career ended at age forty, while Joan Sutherland—considered history's second-best soprano—continued performing into her mid-sixties. The contrast is telling: while striving for excellence can lead to breakthroughs, perfectionism often leads to breakdowns. True perfectionism isn't simply about high standards. As Dr. Brian Swider of the University of Florida explains: "Yes, perfectionists strive to produce flawless work, and have higher levels of motivation and conscientiousness than nonperfectionists. However, they are also more likely to set inflexible and excessively high standards, to evaluate their behavior overly critically, to hold an all-or-nothing mindset about their performance, and to believe their self-worth is contingent on performing perfectly." Research shows perfectionists experience higher levels of stress, burnout, and anxiety than their peers. Paradoxically, perfectionism can reduce productivity rather than enhance it. Perfectionists often spend so much time tinkering or deciding on a course of action that they accomplish little. Their fear of making mistakes and being judged leads many to procrastinate or put in less effort—subconsciously reasoning, "Since I'm not going to get this exactly right, I won't try as hard." The result is increased pressure as deadlines approach, reinforcing the anxiety cycle. Anthony, one of the authors, experienced this firsthand transitioning from chemistry to biotechnology labs. "In chem labs, we were accurate in weighing and measuring re-agents to several decimal places," he recalls. "It was time-consuming and several hours were allotted to make measurements accurate." When he brought this same approach to his first biotech lab, meticulously measuring agar (seaweed jelly), his lab leader intervened. She explained such precision wasn't necessary for this procedure—they were making food for bacteria, not splitting atoms. "She helped me break the habit," Anthony explains, "which allowed me to devote more time to the things that did need more accuracy. It definitely made me a more proficient lab worker." Leaders can help perfectionist team members through several proven methods: clearly defining what "good enough" looks like, teaching the wisdom of starting with a "minimum viable product" and improving through feedback, treating failures as learning opportunities, regularly checking progress to prevent excessive tinkering, pairing perfectionists with more pragmatic colleagues, and having open conversations about the issue. Ryan Westwood, CEO of Simplus, found vulnerability particularly effective: "It helps tremendously when leaders are open about their own anxieties. We did a leadership training last week, and I told a story about how I screwed up in the way we structured management incentives in our latest acquisition. It was almost like there was this collective sigh of relief by employees on the call." By helping team members recognize when perfectionism becomes counterproductive and teaching them to value progress over flawlessness, leaders can transform anxiety-inducing quests for perfection into healthy striving for excellence. In doing so, they not only reduce stress but create teams that accomplish more with greater satisfaction and confidence.

Chapter 6: From Avoidance to Debate: Creating Psychologically Safe Spaces

A common managerial frustration is that many employees today avoid conflict—they shy away from disagreements, struggle with honest feedback, and sidestep uncomfortable conversations. This isn't limited to a handful of timid personalities. Even high-performing employees admit they regularly avoid difficult situations, often because they fear for their jobs or worry about damaging relationships. While unhealthy quarreling should certainly be addressed, there's a crucial distinction between hostility and constructive debate. In high-performing teams, disagreement and vigorous debate aren't just tolerated—they're welcomed as drivers of innovation and problem-solving. When team members feel psychologically safe to speak up, knowing their voices will be heard without negative repercussions, it increases engagement, enhances psychological safety, and builds confidence and ownership. Consider Darcy Verhun, president of FYidoctors, who recognized during an important Zoom meeting that not everyone was participating. "I had a powerful sense that we weren't utilizing everybody's full intellectual horsepower," he recalls. "So, as we were wrapping up, I stopped and asked each person on the call, 'What are you thinking about this topic but haven't said?' It turned out to be a game-changing question. We'd already made a decision, but in ten short minutes what we learned resulted in us tweaking our decision, making it better and a lot more thoughtful." Team members later emailed to say his approach demonstrated powerful leadership by intentionally including everyone while being receptive to their views. For employees who are highly conflict-averse, however, even healthy debate can trigger anxiety and cause them to flee or freeze. These individuals often worry excessively about what others think of them and believe they won't be liked unless they're seen as agreeable. Ironically, their efforts to avoid tension often increase their own anxiety rather than alleviating it. They may feel responsible for smoothing over all conflicts, take on excess work to help stressed colleagues, or become dumping grounds for others' tasks. This tendency can be particularly pronounced among younger workers, who may prefer texting over face-to-face discussions about problems. Some misconstrue firmness or disagreement as reprimand, even when delivered calmly. One millennial showed researchers a text exchange with his forty-something boss that had caused him weekend-long anxiety. The message simply read: "Got your report," followed by "Haven't dug in too much yet. Enjoy the weekend..." The employee spent the weekend rereading and revising his report, believing something was wrong. As another young professional explained: "Being reprimanded doesn't necessarily have anything to do with volume. It's feeling, 'You're talking at me, and not with me.'" Leaders can help conflict-averse team members by teaching practical methods for handling difficult conversations: addressing issues by focusing on facts rather than personalities, not delaying necessary discussions, sticking to evidence rather than opinions, encouraging people to "use their words" to express concerns, assuming positive intent from all parties, planning conversations thoughtfully, seeking compromise that benefits the team, and becoming comfortable with discomfort during tough exchanges. Bestselling author Liz Wiseman learned valuable lessons about facilitating healthy debate not from her executive career at Oracle, but from teaching third graders. She was trained in three rules: First, ask the question but never answer it yourself. Second, ask for evidence ("Can you prove that?"). Third, ask everyone to contribute, tracking participation to ensure all voices are heard. "I was thinking: I can track that in my head," Wiseman recalls. "But I tried this, and it made a big difference. It allowed me to say, 'Robert, we've heard from you twice, but Marcus, we haven't heard from you. We'd like to hear from you before we move on.'" These simple techniques immediately improved her leadership effectiveness. By creating environments where everyone's input is valued and psychological safety is prioritized, leaders can transform conflict avoidance into healthy debate—unlocking better decisions, stronger engagement, and reduced anxiety for everyone on the team.

Chapter 7: Building Connection: Transforming Exclusion to Belonging

Cornell University researchers discovered something remarkable about fire stations: they perform better—including saving more lives—when firefighters eat meals together as a team. "Eating together is a more intimate act than looking over an Excel spreadsheet together. That intimacy spills over into work," explains lead researcher Dr. Kevin Kniffin. When firefighters dined alone, they often expressed embarrassment when asked why. "It was basically a signal that something deeper was wrong with the way the group worked," Kniffin noted. This research highlights how powerfully inclusion affects performance. By contrast, exclusion—being left out of conversations, activities, or information sharing—can be as damaging to mental health as outright bullying. Professor Sandra Robinson of the University of British Columbia found that 71 percent of professionals have experienced some degree of workplace exclusion, with significant psychological consequences. Exclusion particularly increases anxiety because humans have such a fundamental need to belong. Unlike overt bullying, exclusion often operates through subtle, even inadvertent actions—what's not happening rather than what is. Phone calls not returned, meetings where some aren't invited, lunch offers that never come. These sins of omission can be difficult for managers to spot, yet they profoundly affect employees' sense of acceptance and value. FYidoctors president Darcy Verhun implements what he calls a Ten-Ten Commitment in his company's clinics and offices. "For the first ten minutes of each day, leaders walk around and ask their team members how they are doing with a friendly hello and no other agenda but a welcome to the day," he explains. "It's incumbent on the leaders to do this to demonstrate visible leadership and caring. It's ten minutes at the start of the day, and another ten minutes at the end of the day to see how everyone's day has gone. I'm amazed at the power of a simple check-in." Finding ways to build genuine connection became even more critical during the pandemic when many workers faced unprecedented isolation. Ryan Westwood, CEO of Simplus, was deeply affected during a teleconference with a remote employee who tearfully confessed, "I haven't had a hug in three months." In response, his company created geographic regions for its six hundred employees, giving those in areas with at least ten people a budget for activities. "We don't have a leader looming over the gatherings," Westwood explains. "It's about people genuinely connecting in the way they want. We have found that our employee happiness scores have gone way up from this small budget." The journey from exclusion to connection often begins with identifying shared values. Former presidential candidate Mitt Romney recalls how this transformed his experience at Bain Capital when the founding partners faced "intractable conflicts" threatening to tear apart the firm. In a last-ditch retreat, they completed an exercise identifying the people they most respected and the qualities they admired in those individuals. To Romney's surprise, despite their apparent differences, the partners identified essentially the same core values. "Every one of us had included love and service. And in the list of people we most admired, every one of us had included Abraham Lincoln. We were not so different after all," he reflects. The discovery allowed them to align their mission with these shared values, working together productively for another decade. Fostering connection doesn't require elaborate team-building events or forced socializing, which can actually increase anxiety for some. Simple practices like ensuring everyone contributes in meetings, buddying new hires with seasoned employees, recognizing individual contributions regularly, and making special efforts to include remote workers can transform a culture of exclusion into one of belonging. When employees feel genuinely connected and valued, they experience less anxiety, greater engagement, and a deeper commitment to their team's success.

Summary

The modern workplace has become a perfect storm for anxiety—rife with uncertainty, overload, unclear paths forward, perfectionism, conflict avoidance, exclusion, and self-doubt. Yet throughout these challenges, a powerful truth emerges: compassionate leadership makes all the difference. When managers create psychologically safe environments where employees can speak openly about their struggles, when they provide clear guidance amidst ambiguity, when they help balance workloads and foster genuine connection, they don't just reduce anxiety—they unlock the full potential of their teams. The journey from anxiety to assurance requires leaders to embrace a new paradigm. Rather than viewing anxiety as weakness or something employees should handle privately, forward-thinking managers recognize it as a widespread challenge requiring thoughtful intervention. The most effective leaders communicate transparently during uncertainty, create manageable chunks of work during overload, develop clear career paths, help perfectionists progress rather than polish, facilitate healthy debate without fear, ensure everyone feels included and valued, and express gratitude that turns doubt into confidence. These practices don't just make for happier employees—they drive measurable improvements in engagement, innovation, retention, and performance. In a world where workplace anxiety has become epidemic, creating environments where people can thrive isn't just compassionate—it's the new competitive advantage.

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Adrian Gostick

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