Stress shows itself in a number of ways, such as ulcers, irritability, or difficulty making routine decisions. These symptoms fit under three general categories: physiological, psychological, and behavioral symptoms. Most early concern with stress was directed at physiological symptoms because researchers found that stress could create changes in metabolism, increase blood pressure, bring on headaches, and induce heart attacks.

Job dissatisfaction is an obvious cause of stress. But stress shows itself in other psychological states—for instance, tension, anxiety, irritability, boredom, and procrastination. Behavior-related stress symptoms include reductions in productivity, increases in absences, safety incidents, and turnover, changes in eating habits, increased smoking or consumption of alcohol, and sleep disorders. Researchers have begun to differentiate challenge and hindrance stressors, showing that these two forms of stress have opposite effects on job behaviors, especially job performance.

A meta-analysis of more than 35,000 individuals showed role ambiguity, role conflict, role overload, job insecurity, environmental uncertainty, and situational constraints were all consistently and negatively related to job performance. There is also evidence that challenge stress improves job performance in a supportive work environment.