The Impact of Workplace Stress on Employee Health: Exploring the Relationship Between Work Demands, Job Control, and mental Health Outcomes

Abstract

Workplace stress is a common problem with significant repercussions for mental health and workplace performance. Drawing on the Job Demand-Control model, this study explores how particular workplace stressors—job demands, long working hours, and job control—relate to employees’ mental health outcomes, anxiety and depression, in varied organizational settings. A cross-sectional, quantitative research design was used to survey 300 participants from public and private sector organizational, administrative, managerial, and teaching positions. The stressors and mental health outcomes were measured using standardized instruments and self-developed survey items: the Generalized Anxiety Disorder 7 (GAD-7), the Patient Health Questionnaire 9 (PHQ-9), the Job Content Questionnaire (JCQ), and the Workplace Stress Questionnaire. Significant positive relationships were found between work demands and long working hours and anxiety and depression, but job control had a protective negative influence on these outcomes. Multivariable regression analyses revealed that work demands were the strongest predictor of anxiety and depression, followed by long working hours, while more job control significantly reduced predicted mental health complaints. Group differences indicated that age and occupation significantly affected anxiety and depression when managing the demographic variables. The research highlights organizations' urgent need for interventions to reduce workloads, eliminate chronic overtime, and encourage employee decision-making autonomy. This study has relevance for occupational health literature as it identifies the context-specific evidence among Pakistani nursing staff that adds to the knowledge that management of workplace stress is multifaceted and needs to be addressed with both, the structural and individual level strategies for better and resilient human resource.