Why Anxiety Is the Number One Productivity Killer

And why organizations should care about it

And why organizations should care about it.

Anxiety in the workplace is becoming pervasive.

40 percent of America’s employees experience persistent stress or excessive anxiety in their daily lives. 72 percent of them says it interferes with their lives and performance.

Globally, anxiety is the sixth-leading cause of disability (and growing).

I’ve seen this trend growing firsthand. When facilitating team development workshops, anxiety has made it at the top of the list — it’s the most pressing emotion people want to get rid of.

However, anxiety is not an emotion but an experience— it harms our ability to be in control making us feel paralyzed.

Anxiety clouds our judgment — it’s a disorienting experience when facing a threat we can’t understand. On the contrary, fear is an emotional response to a danger that we are aware of.

Stress and fear can be either positive or negative — you can turn them into fuel. However, there’s no such a thing as positive anxiety. That’s why it needs to be confronte…