We often think of stress only negatively. Forty per cent of workers consider their jobs stressful; a number that has significantly increased during the COVID-19 pandemic. Workplace stress is often linked to lower motivation, absenteeism, poor performance, decline in well-being, and higher employee turnover. It is also estimated to amount to 190 billions in healthcare costs in the U.S. alone.
But could there be a positive type of stress? Can we recall situations with an important but challenging task in front of us for which we put a lot of effort to, in the end, complete it successfully and be rewarded and enriched by the experience? Such workplace experience can motivate employees to push their limits and progress. And it can feel stressful at the time&mdashthis is what researchers termed positive stress or eustress.
In this work, we demonstrated uncovering such positive stress (and distinguishing it from negative) in online employee reviews of S&P500 companies. We found that for companies whose employees exhibited positive stress (as opposed to those with negative/low stress or passivity) their stocks were significantly more likely to grow, and the language in their reviews reflected collaborative and inspiring work environments. Moreover, the overall amount of negative stress in S&P500 companies closely followed the unemployment rate in the U.S. during the Great Recession.
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