Anxiety at work: why it happens, what helps at your desk, and when it is the job

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Anxiety at work is the ordinary stress response attaching itself to your job. You know it as the dread before you log on, the meeting you rehearse for hours, the email you cannot bring yourself to open. The NHS describes anxiety as a natural response to pressure or feeling threatened, and says it becomes a problem when it starts to interfere with daily life. A job is a steady supply of pressure, so for a lot of people work is where anxiety shows up first and loudest.

If that is you, this article covers what is going on, what helps in the moment at your desk, how to get through a meeting, whether and how to tell your manager, and a way to think about the question most people type at some point: whether it is the job rather than you. There is no diagnosis in it and nobody is going to tell you to resign. The guidance is drawn from the NHS, Mind and Acas, and Wobble is in here where it fits.

Work is one place anxiety lands, and the wider toolkit in anxiety self-help is where to go for the rest. If the problem is less dread and more sheer volume, feeling overwhelmed at work is the page for that.

Why am I always anxious at work?

Work keeps the pressure on, and anxiety is the body's response to pressure that does not let up. The NHS lists pressure at work among the common causes of stress, and describes anxiety as the response to feeling under threat. A job supplies deadlines, judgement, other people and the possibility of getting it wrong, every day, so the alarm keeps getting pulled.

A few things tend to be underneath it, and Mind's work and mental health guidance suggests trying to figure out which. Workplace stress is one. Poor relations with colleagues or a manager is another. A particular type of work, the phone, the presenting, the numbers, can be a third. And sometimes it is not the job at all. Anxiety that would be there anyway uses work as the thing to attach to, because work is where you spend your days.

Mind suggests a plain exercise: keep a note of when the anxiety is worst, which tasks or people it is linked to, and what you have started avoiding. After a week you will have a clearer picture than you can get by thinking about it. If the honest answer is that the anxiety follows you home and into the weekend too, how to stop feeling anxious is about the wider pattern.

What anxiety at work tends to feel like

Anxiety at work shows up in the body, in your thinking and in what you start to avoid. The physical side is often the most obvious. The NHS lists a faster or more noticeable heartbeat, feeling light-headed, headaches, feeling sick, sweating, breathlessness and shaking among the physical symptoms of anxiety. At a desk that can read as a tight chest before a call, a hot face in a meeting, or a stomach that will not settle on the way in.

The mental side is quieter and often worse. The NHS lists feeling tense, being unable to relax, fearing the worst, fretting about the past or the future and trouble concentrating. In working terms: rereading an email six times before sending it, replaying a comment from Tuesday, rehearsing a two-minute update for two hours, and struggling to hold a thought because half your attention is on the threat.

Then there is the avoiding. The NHS stress guidance names avoiding certain places or people as a behavioural sign, and Mind's anxiety guidance describes how avoiding what worries us can quietly confirm that we cannot cope with it. Leaving your camera off, letting a call ring out, putting off the task you are least sure of, eating at your desk so you do not have to talk. Each one buys relief for an hour and makes the next one harder. If you are not sure whether what you have is anxiety or a longer run of strain, signs of stress at work covers the overlap.

What helps in the moment at your desk

Small physical steps settle the body faster than arguing with the thought. None of these need a quiet room or anyone noticing, and all of them come from NHS and Mind self-help.

• Slow your breathing for a few minutes. The NHS breathing exercise for stress can be done sitting at a desk: breathe in through your nose and out through your mouth, counting steadily towards five on each, and keep going for at least five minutes.
• Interrupt your senses. Mind suggests sensory distractions when anxiety is building: cold water on your face, something with a strong flavour, a change of temperature. A trip to the kitchen is a legitimate intervention.
• Shrink the task. Mind's advice for a task you have been putting off is to take one small first step, and if that feels too big, break it down again. Open the email. Read it once. Write one line. The dread belongs to the whole task, and the next step is smaller than the whole task.
• Park the worry for later. Mind suggests setting aside a specific time to worry and writing the worry down in one place in the meantime. "Not now, at four o'clock" is a complete answer to a thought that arrives at half past ten.
• Leave the building. The NHS lists regular exercise among the things that help with anxiety. A walk at lunch counts, and so does the walk to a further bus stop.

Two things the NHS specifically advises against: trying to do everything at once, and using alcohol, cigarettes or other substances to relieve anxiety.

How do I get through a meeting when I am anxious?

Get through a meeting by preparing one thing to say, settling your body beforehand, and letting the rest be ordinary. The NHS suggests planning ahead for stressful days or events, and the planning that helps is narrow: the one point you want to make and the one question you might be asked.

Before it starts, use the breathing. Two or three minutes of slow out-breaths at your desk, or in the corridor, is enough to take some of the edge off. During it, if your attention narrows onto your own voice and face, Mind's advice is to bring your focus back to the present moment and your senses: your feet on the floor, the cup in your hand, the words the other person is saying.

The replay afterwards is often the worst part. Mind's anxiety guidance warns against all-or-nothing thinking, the kind that turns one fumbled sentence into evidence that you are not up to the job. If you have the habit of rating yourself a fraud after every room you walk out of, imposter syndrome at work is about that specific loop.

The NHS also advises against avoiding the situations that make you anxious, and suggests building up to them gradually instead. A small meeting is a reasonable place to start speaking up before a big one.

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Should I tell my manager?

Telling your manager about anxiety is your decision, and so is when. Acas's guidance for employees says it is up to you whether you disclose a mental health problem to your manager and at what stage, and that raising it early tends to mean help comes sooner. You do not have to use clinical words or hand over your history. You can say that you have been struggling with anxiety and it is affecting how you work, and leave it there.

Acas suggests some preparation first, and it is the same exercise as the diary above: when is it better and when is it harder, which tasks feel manageable and which do not, which situations set it off. That gives you something concrete to ask for. The examples Acas gives are small and specific: extra breaks during heavy workloads, a change to start and finish times, a preferred way of being contacted such as a message rather than a spontaneous call, a quieter workspace, or splitting a long job into shorter pieces. Acas says employers should explore adjustments like these even where the problem does not amount to a disability.

What your employer owes you in return, according to Acas and Mind, is a duty of care under health and safety law, which means doing what they reasonably can to support your health and wellbeing at work, and treating mental health with the same seriousness as physical health. Many employers also offer counselling through an employee assistance programme, which is worth asking HR about. If a conversation goes badly or nothing changes, Acas suggests raising it informally first and then through a formal grievance, and the Acas website is the place for anything about your rights at work.

If you want to think it through with a therapist before you decide, that is the kind of question Wobble was built for. A Wobble is one message from you, in writing or by voice, and a personal video back from a qualified UK therapist working to the Wobble response framework: what they understood from what you sent, practical guidance for your situation, and one or two clear next steps. People use it once, or as a regular check-in alongside a hard stretch at work. Wobble's Clinical Lead is James Penney, NCPS Accredited Psychotherapeutic Counsellor.

Should I quit my job if it gives me anxiety?

Quitting is one option among several, and the useful first step is working out what the anxiety is attached to. An article cannot tell you to resign, and this one will not. What Mind's guidance offers instead is a way of separating the strands.

Work itself can be good for mental health. Mind lists a steady income, a sense of identity, routine and structure, and contact with other people among the things a job provides. The question is usually about this job as it is, this job changed, or a different job, rather than about having a job at all.

A few honest questions help:

• Is it the work, the people, or the hours? Mind suggests trying to figure out what in particular is making work worse. A role you like under a manager you dread is a different problem from a role you dread under a manager you like.
• Has anything been tried yet? If you have not spoken to your manager, asked about adjustments, or had any support for the anxiety itself, you are weighing a decision before most of the levers have been pulled.
• Does the anxiety follow you? If the dread is there on holiday and at weekends, a new job may bring the same anxiety to a new desk. The NHS suggests speaking to your GP when self-help is not helping, and that applies whichever way the job question goes.
• Do you need a break rather than an exit? Sometimes the honest answer is that you cannot think straight while you are in it. Time off work for mental health covers what that looks like in practice.

The NHS advises against focusing on things you cannot change and suggests setting small, achievable targets instead. Applied here: pick the one strand you can act on this month, act on it, and revisit the bigger question from a steadier place. If you do leave, let it be a choice made on a steadier day than your worst one.

When to see your GP, and when it is urgent

See your GP if anxiety is affecting your working days and self-help is not shifting it. The NHS says to see a GP if you are struggling to cope with anxiety, if the things you are trying yourself are not helping, or if you would prefer a GP referral to talking therapies. In England you can also refer yourself to NHS Talking Therapies without seeing a GP, from age 18, or 16 in some areas, and you do not need a diagnosis to do so. Waits vary widely. In Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, the usual route is through your GP.

If you are feeling low or hopeless alongside the anxiety, or having thoughts of harming yourself, do not wait for it to pass. Call NHS 111 and choose the mental health option, or call Samaritans on 116 123 at any hour. Call 999 or go to A&E if you or someone else is in immediate danger.

Who you can talk to today

Several people will talk to you today about anxiety at work, and most of them cost nothing to reach.

• NHS Talking Therapies (England): refer yourself online without seeing a GP, from age 18, or 16 in some areas. No diagnosis needed. Waits vary widely.
• NHS 111, mental health option: urgent support when it is not a 999 emergency.
• Samaritans: call 116 123, any time, from any phone.
• Shout: text 85258 for confidential support by text, around the clock.
• Mind: Infoline 0300 123 3393 for information and finding support near you, and the Support line 0300 102 1234 to talk about how you feel, both 9am to 6pm Monday to Friday.
• Acas: acas.org.uk for anything about your rights at work, adjustments and how to raise a problem with your employer.
• Your GP: for anxiety that is sticking around, and for a referral if you would rather not self-refer.

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Quick summary

Anxiety at work is the stress response attaching itself to your job, and work keeps the pressure coming. It shows up as a racing heart and an unsettled stomach, as rereading and replaying and rehearsing, and as the things you start to avoid. At your desk, slow your breathing, interrupt your senses, shrink the task to its next step, park the worry for a set time, and get outside at lunch. In a meeting, prepare one point, settle beforehand, ground yourself during, and do not let the replay run afterwards. Telling your manager is your call and your timing, and Acas has the detail on what you can ask for. Whether to leave is a question to answer from a steadier place, after the smaller levers have been tried. See your GP if self-help is not shifting it, and call 111 or Samaritans if it tips into something darker.

For the wider toolkit, see anxiety self-help. For the volume problem, see feeling overwhelmed at work. For the replay loop, see imposter syndrome at work.

Sources and further reading

• NHS: Anxiety, fear and panic
• NHS Every Mind Matters: Anxiety
• NHS: Stress
• NHS: Breathing exercises for stress
• NHS Talking Therapies self-referral (England)
• Mind: How to manage anxiety and worry
• Mind: How to be mentally healthy at work
• Mind: Helplines
• Acas: Looking after your mental health at work
• Acas: Reasonable adjustments for mental health
• Acas: Supporting mental health in the workplace
• Samaritans: 116 123
• Shout: text 85258

This article is for information only and does not replace advice from a qualified medical professional. If anxiety at work is affecting your daily life, please speak to your GP or contact NHS 111. If you are in crisis, please call 999 or go to A&E.