Your job might be fueling your anxiety.

Annia Palacios, a licensed professional counselor (LPC) with Tightrope Therapy, offers a few key signs of workplace anxiety:

  • On your days off, you feel pretty good, and your anxiety lowers.
  • If you work Monday through Friday, feelings of anxiety and dread overshadow your weekend, especially when you think about work.
  • You experience trouble talking with colleagues, but you have no problem chatting with people outside of work.

How do you know when your symptoms might relate to generalized anxiety disorder or another anxiety condition?

Anxiety disorder symptoms are “persistent, consistent, and negatively affect several aspects of your life,” says Emme Smith, a licensed psychotherapist and CEO of GraySpace Counseling Group.

The key difference between the two, explains Alexandra Finkel, LCSW, a licensed psychotherapist and co-founder of Kind Minds Therapy, is that workplace anxiety generally develops in response to stress at work. An anxiety disorder, on the other hand, tends to develop and persist regardless of your work circumstances.

According to Palacios, you might:

  • feel better at night but worse in the morning
  • feel physically ill when thinking about work or receiving work emails, or calls
  • have a hard time focusing on work-specific tasks
  • notice that your motivation is shrinking
  • procrastinate on work-related tasks
  • avoid meetings, new projects, or work events

Workplace anxiety may involve physical symptoms, too. These might include:

  • head and neck pain
  • tension in your body
  • sweating palms
  • consistent stomach pain or nausea

A number of factors can contribute to workplace anxiety, and these can vary from person to person.

For example, says Palacios, work stress may stem from:

  • needing to complete an urgent project or present at a meeting
  • imposter syndrome, or a tendency to doubt yourself and feel deeply unqualified
  • not having strong connections with colleagues
  • managing a relationship with a difficult boss
  • lacking a sense of purpose around your work

According to Kimberly Wilson, PhD, LMFT, an organizational psychologist and therapist, you could also develop workplace anxiety if your job:

  • has a toxic workplace culture
  • comes with unrealistic expectations
  • lacks enough staff
  • is highly competitive
  • didn’t provide proper training
  • doesn’t compensate you for overtime
  • doesn’t prioritize your health, wellness, or safety

In some cases, your work stress can also have a deeper, more subtle underlying cause or contributing factor.

As Palacios also points out, “being an anxious person or having a pre-existing anxiety disorder can make us more likely to experience workplace-specific anxiety.”

For example, she notes, if you already live with anxiety, you might go straight to the worst-case scenario. Consequently, your workplace might become a significant source of stress if you (mistakenly) assume:

  • you’ll miss key deadlines
  • your supervisor thinks you’re doing a terrible job
  • you’ll always fall short of expectations

Workplace anxiety can be difficult to manage.

For tips on how to cope, check out our guide to managing workplace anxiety.