Over the past couple of decades, there has been an explosion of scientific research into how the workplace impacts our emotional health and our relationships, both at work and outside of it. The findings paint an alarming picture of how deeply work has penetrated into our lives and minds and the damage it is doing, often without us being aware of it.

This Is Your Life on Work

The number of people experiencing intense work stress in today’s workplace has been at the highest levels recorded for the past five years. In a 2024 American Psychological Association poll, 43% of workers reported high stress, and 67% reported symptoms of burnout. No surprise, then, that thriving at work was also at an all-time low.

Intense stress and burnout are serious conditions that pose equally serious threats to your physical health and emotional well-being. They include increased risk of cardiovascular and gastrointestinal disease, diabetes, respiratory infections, anxiety, depression, alcohol and substance abuse, suicide, and general mortality.

Activities that pose such severe risks to health and well-being typically come with a warning label. Work does not.

Our health and well-being aren’t the only........

© Psychology Today