ABOUT A YEAR BEFORE THE PANDEMIC SET IN, we began to notice something about the high performers we were studying for our ongoing research. For many, their lives felt out of control or had been pushed in directions not aligned with who they set out to be. After decades of research on teamwork and collaboration, we were familiar with the kinds of stress that high performers typically endure. This, though, was completely different.
What we were hearing about was stress, yes, but in a form that neither they — nor we — had the language to articulate. As people fumbled to describe it, patterns emerged. It was never one big thing that led them to feel overwhelmed. Rather, it was the relentless accumulation of small events — in passing moments — that was drastically affecting their well-being.
We call these small pressures microstresses. But being ‘micro’ doesn’t mean they don’t take an enormous toll. We wanted to understand their impact, so between 2019 and 2021, we interviewed 300 people from 30 global companies, evenly split between women and men. Many of these high performers were powder kegs of stress, and to our surprise, most didn’t realize it. But gradually, they began to acknowledge that they were struggling to keep up, with both work and in their personal lives.
Through this research we were able to identify 14 sources of microstress that fall into three broad categories.
CATEGORY 1: Microstresses that drain your capacity to get things done.
These are why so many of us feel that we’re failing at work and in our personal lives: We can barely get through our daily responsibilities. The key sources are:
1. Uncertainty about others’ reliability2. Unpredictable3. Collaborative demands that are diverse and high in volume4. Surges in responsibilities at work or home5. Misalignment between collaborators on roles or priorities
