Small daily stressors like data entry and institutional regulations may be doing more damage to healthcare teams than we realize. These “micro-stressors” (often systemic downfalls) quickly accumulate for clinicians, readily turning into burnout for the whole team if no intervention is enacted.
The good news is there’s something wellness leaders can do about it. The first step is to get a better idea of what micro-stressors are.
What are micro-stressors?
The CDC defines stress as a response our bodies have to pressures or tensions. This response can “cause feelings of unease, anxiety, frustration, nervousness, fearfulness, or helplessness.” Conventional stressors are, however, different from micro-stressors.
Micro-stressors are less noticeable daily occurrences of stress that accumulate and, over time, lead to decreased productivity and burnout.
They Fly Under the Radar
The Harvard Business Review points out in the article “Microstressed Out” that due to the ubiquitousness of technology, “microstress is pernicious…it is part of our everyday lives at a greater volume, intensity, and pace than we have ever experienced before.”
Our bodies are adept at dealing with more recognizable stressors — situations in which our fight-or-flight response kicks in. However, as HBR notes, micro-stressors “can fly under the radar of our fight-or-flight vigilance systems while still taking a significant toll.”
They Quietly Erode Our Mental Health
Think of conventional stressors as rogue waves crashing into a seaside cliff — they’re infrequent, but when they happen, it’s easy to recognize. You can immediately see the damage they cause. But, with micro-stressors, it’s less apparent.
Think of micro-stressors as the tide rising little by little every day. As it regularly flows in and out from the cliff, small acts of erosion occur. It’s not noticeable day in and day out, but over time, the damage is comparable to that of a rogue wave.
Our bodies are less adept at handling micro-stressors because they aren’t as noticeable. And, with the rapid evolution of technology and connectedness, they’re more and more widespread in our lives.
Micro-stressors tend to be most prevalent at work. They can then easily leak into our personal lives and damage relationships.
What are examples of micro-stressors at work?
In an interview with Champions of Wellness, Dr. Bill Becker — an associate professor of management at the Pamplin College of Business at Virginia Tech and researcher of emotions in organizations — says unattainable expectations are a form of less noticeable, daily stress.
“Some of it is coming from our internal drive to want to be good employees and meet the expectations of our leaders. Maybe we go above and beyond what people are actually expecting,” he says.
Overmonitoring Electronic Communication
These unintentional expectations often revolve around what Dr. Becker calls “overmonitoring.” Due to the ever-blurring boundaries between work and home life, employees feel the pull to constantly monitor work email and communications, even during non-work hours.
Through his research, Dr. Becker found that not only does leadership seldom expect this behavior — they’re unknowingly encouraging it through their own habits. “It was interesting the higher you go in the organization, the more they would report that ‘oh, I don’t have expectations for people who are doing this.’ But then you ask them about their behaviors and they go, ‘yeah, I’m always monitoring.’”
Other Micro-stressors
In addition to feeling inclined to overmonitor electronic communications, micro-stressors at work can include…
- Performing additional tasks to cover for a coworker
- Unreliable technology
- Unpredictable managers
- Regularly having to work overtime
- Limited say in scheduling
- Administrative burdens
- Uncertainty about job security
- Lack of organizational support
These micro-stressors might feel manageable in the moment. However, when they occur regularly over a long period of time, these “little things” eventually lead to burnout and turnover.
How do micro-stressors impact healthcare professionals?
Healthcare professionals are particularly prone to micro-stressors. By having a more stressful job overall, the small pressures are more prevalent in a clinician’s everyday work. They’re also likely to downplay the effect of micro-stressors on their mental health and life outside of work.
Dr. Becker notes, “It’s sort of transparent to us. It’s so organic around us that we often don’t notice the effect.”
Through his research, Dr. Becker has found that micro-stressors like overmonitoring can lead to conditions such as “insomnia, depression, and relationship concerns.” While a rogue wave results in the destruction of a seaside cliff, the inconspicuously rising tide can do just as much (if not, more) damage if it’s not addressed.
Without timely and tailored wellness interventions, clinician burnout is apt to spread through the entire organization.
How do micro-stressors impact healthcare teams?
When not properly addressed, micro-stressors can lead to burnout, and feelings of burnout can spread among teams of healthcare professionals. Not only does this phenomenon affect the team — its ripple effect negatively impacts patients and the community as a whole.
Clinician to Clinician
If an individual clinician is dealing with micro-stressors in silence, it inevitably affects their coworkers’ jobs too.
Say Nurse A is constantly frustrated with the lack of say he has in the scheduling process. He’s having to work overnights, when it works best with his partner’s schedule to work days. His schedule is a constant strain on his mind and his relationship. He keeps telling himself he’s lucky to have a job, but he can’t help the negative emotions he has during every night shift.
This causes Nurse A to frequently lash out at Nurses B and C. Which, in and of itself, becomes a micro-stressor for them. While trying to avoid Nurse A, Nurse B doesn’t complete all of her essential tasks. So, Nurse C has to pick up the slack.
Clinician to Patient
Because Nurse C is trying to cover for Nurse B, patient care suffers. Nurse C has to deal with Nurse A’s outbursts in addition to being spread too thin. With these micro-stressors impacting every shift, he becomes short with patients. He starts to skip some of the essential tasks of his job out of frustration with his colleagues and the lack of organizational support.
In this very possible hypothetical, patient satisfaction plummets and mistakes skyrocket.
[RELATED: See the insights from nearly 14,000 nurse wellness assessments from 2024.]
Educator to Student
In a 2023 paper published by Permanente Journal, researchers studied the toll of burnout on academic physicians and how it subsequently affects medical students. “Production pressure negatively affects both the teacher and the learner. Teachers find themselves with inadequate time to prepare content and refine their teaching skills through specialized training.”
It goes on, “Students may find themselves without adequate mentorship and guidance for scholarly projects. They also mirror the values and behavior modeled by faculty and thus may learn to devalue teaching as part of their own career path.”
With no intervention, micro-stressors can accumulate and morph into burnout. Burnout can lead to fewer medical students becoming educators, and even giving up their education altogether.
How can leaders address micro-stressors?
Healthcare leaders can mitigate micro-stressors for their clinical workforce by fostering a culture of wellness. The first step is to uncover the key drivers of employee distress (which likely include micro-stressors).
Unearth Drivers of Employee Distress
Collecting measurements with a validated assessment provides objective, actionable insights into what’s causing employee stress, dissatisfaction, and burnout. It’s imperative to get a clear understanding of employee well-being before implementing any wellness initiative — starting with reliable data allows you to make the most of an intervention.
By uncovering what stressors and micro-stressors are actually impacting people, you’ll be able to take a tailored — and, therefore, more effective — approach to increasing well-being.
Find the Groups in Most Need of Support
Using real-time analytics and benchmarking enables leaders to pinpoint groups most at risk of burnout. While all populations within a healthcare system need some level of support, it’s important to find those in most immediate need.
Take, for example, the 2024 Physician Well-Being Snapshot By Specialty. After collecting over 23,000 physician wellness assessments, the Well-Being Index found that by specialty, Neurology has the highest levels of distress. In second place are Emergency Medicine, Obstetrics and Gynecology, and Pathology.
[RELATED: Discover more insights on clinician well-being in the FREE State of Well-Being 2024-2025 report.]
Understanding the groups in most need of support allows wellness leaders to intervene before any more damage can be done.
Develop and Implement a Data-Backed Plan
Equipped with the necessary data, leaders can create wellness interventions specific to their team’s needs. One-size-fits-all initiatives rarely achieve the desired outcomes, leading to wasted funds and increasingly distressed employees.
Implementing tailored strategies and validated frameworks gives leaders the confidence to address specific micro-stressors affecting their teams. This approach leads to long-term improvements in staff satisfaction, retention, and patient care.
Measure Well-Being Over Time
Implementing a wellness initiative is only the beginning. To ensure lasting impact, leaders must measure its effectiveness over time. This way, data-driven adjustments can be made when necessary.
Ongoing measurement also builds a foundation of trust and transparency. When employees see their feedback being taken seriously, they’re more likely to buy into the credibility of the initiative. And when more people buy in, the more likely your organization develops a culture of well-being.
Another facet of building trust in your organization is making it okay for employees to set boundaries. To Dr. Becker’s point, most leaders don’t realize the precedent they’re setting with micro-stressors like overmonitoring digital communications. If setting boundaries became a norm for leaders, it’s more likely it would become a norm for employees.
Take Action Against Micro-Stressors
In many cases, micro-stressors are symptoms of a larger systemic failing. Therefore, the burden of mitigating these daily frustrations shouldn’t be on the shoulders of individual employees — it should be on the organization.
Organizational leaders can take immediate action against the erosion of employee mental health by scheduling a talk with a Well-Being Index expert.
The sooner you collect the needed data, the sooner your employees will be healthier, happier, and more productive.
