Key learnings

• Emotional balance drives engagement. Suppressing emotions and unchecked negativity both hurt engagement — employees do best when they can express themselves and their managers keep negativity in check.

• Frustration, stress, and anxiety top the list of negative workplace emotions, and left unmanaged, they drive real costs — including higher turnover risk and an estimated $322 billion in burnout-related losses globally each year.

• Managers feel more energy and enthusiasm, but also more stress than individual contributors, highlighting the need to support leaders, not just their teams.

• Not every emotional moment needs the same response. A Support, Manage, or Escalate framework helps managers respond proportionately, from simple empathy to looping in HR right away.

Almost everything we do relates to emotions, even at work. Did you laugh or smile at work today? Were you bored in your last meeting? Upset or sad about losing a customer? Excited about hitting a goal? These are just a few examples of the countless emotional moments that unfold in the workplace every day — and understanding them is more important than most organizations realize.

To offer insight into the variety and complexity of emotions at work, we conducted a research study exploring how employees feel and how those feelings relate to engagement. What we found confirms what many leaders already sense: emotions at work are normal, and they shape judgment, relationships, wellbeing, and performance far more than we tend to acknowledge.

In this blog, we'll break down the most common positive and negative workplace emotions employees experience, how employees can regulate their own responses, how managers should respond when emotions surface on their teams, and when it's time to bring in HR or professional support.

Specifically, we'll cover everything HR and people operations leaders at growing mid-market and enterprise organizations need to know to understand and manage emotions in the workplace, including:

• The most common emotions at work
• How emotions differ throughout the organization
• The relationship between emotions and employee engagement
• How to manage emotions in the workplace

Why understanding emotions in the workplace is important

Understanding emotions in the workplace matters because employees don't leave their feelings at the door — and how organizations respond to those feelings has a direct, measurable effect on engagement.

The report found that employees who rarely or never hide their true emotions at work have engagement favorability of 83%, compared to just 62% among those who always or almost never feel comfortable being emotionally transparent. Similarly, employees who feel comfortable showing emotions around their immediate coworkers report 75% engagement versus 55% for those who don't, and the gap holds across every level of the organization — from HR (83% vs. 57%) to executive leadership (85% vs. 58%) to customers (84% vs. 65%). In other words, emotional suppression isn't just uncomfortable for employees personally; it's a leading indicator of disengagement across the business.

At the same time, the data shows that emotional culture is a double-edged sword — too much unchecked negativity is just as damaging as too much suppression. Engagement drops sharply as negative emotions become more frequent: employees whose managers never express negative emotions report 89% engagement, but that falls to just 50% when managers express negative emotions a few times a day.

The same pattern holds for coworkers, where engagement drops from 91% (never) to 49% (daily). Because emotions "multiply and spread like a virus," as the report puts it, and because unaddressed suppression has been linked to real health consequences — heart disease, insomnia, and autoimmune issues— workplaces have a clear business and human incentive to build a culture that neither buries workplace emotions nor lets them run unchecked, but instead gives employees healthy, supported ways to express them.

The most common emotions in the workplace

To create awesome emotional cultures, organizations need to understand which emotions are prevalent in the workplace and how they affect employees.

Here are the most common positive and negative emotions at work:

1. Comfortable – A sense of ease and psychological safety that lets you do your work without tension or self-protection.
2. Satisfied – A quiet contentment that comes from feeling your work and its conditions meet your expectations.
3. Enthusiastic – An energized eagerness that pulls you toward your work rather than needing to be pushed.
4. Frustrated – The irritation that builds when something blocks your progress or effort doesn't lead to the outcome you expect.
5. Stressed – A state of pressure where demands feel like they're outpacing your ability to keep up.
6. Anxious – A restless unease driven by uncertainty or anticipation of something going wrong.

Positive emotions at work

Positive emotions aren’t limited to only optimistic and hopeful feelings. Examples of positive emotions could include calm, comfortable, energetic, enthusiastic, excited, happy, joyful, peaceful, relaxed, and satisfied.

Our research found that the top three positive emotions felt by employees at work are:

• Comfortable (47.8%)
• Satisfied (37.1%)
• Enthusiastic (36.6%)

These emotions aren't just nice to have — they're tied to measurable business outcomes. Research published in The Journal of Psychology found that employees with a growth mindset, and those who viewed stress as an experience that enhances learning, vitality, and productivity, went on to experience more positive emotions a month later, and that positive affect in turn predicted stronger job performance.

Positive emotions also appear to fuel development directly: a growing body of research links employee strengths use to positive affect, which subsequently drives employees to take the kinds of risks that lead to innovative behavior, while employees who lean into their strengths report higher engagement, greater work meaningfulness, and more job satisfaction.

In short, when employees feel comfortable, satisfied, and enthusiastic, they're more likely to stretch, grow, and stay invested in their own development — creating a self-reinforcing cycle between emotional wellbeing and career growth.

Negative emotions at work

There are a lot of negative emotions that can surface at work. Examples of negative emotions could include annoyed, anxious, bored, disinterested, dissatisfied, frustrated, gloomy, miserable, sad, stressed, tired, uncomfortable, unhappy, upset, and worried.

Here's what employees identified as the top three negative emotions felt at work:

• Frustrated (56.2%)
• Stressed (45.1%)
• Anxious (30.4%)

Left unaddressed, these emotions carry a steep cost to retention and engagement. According to SHRM research cited by Management.org, employees experiencing burnout are nearly three times more likely to be actively looking for a new job, and Meditopia's workplace research found that turnover intentions roughly double among burned-out employees compared to their more engaged peers.

The financial impact adds up quickly: Gallup and Workhuman research found that turnover and lost productivity tied to employee burnout costs businesses an estimated $322 billion globally each year, with voluntary turnover from burnout alone eating up 15–20% of payroll.

Chronic stress also erodes engagement well before someone quits — the same Meditopia research shows teams with high burnout experience 18–20% lower productivity and markedly reduced discretionary effort, with engagement levels dropping by up to a third in teams facing persistent stress exposure.

And it's not just about keeping people around: Gallup's State of the Global Workplace research treats emotional connection as central to performance and retention, so when frustration, stress, and anxiety go unmanaged, they don't just push people out the door — they quietly stall the growth and development of the people who stay.

Negative moral emotions in the workplace

Basic emotions like happiness and sadness are pretty straightforward and easy to understand. But many of the emotions we experience in the workplace are much more complex—especially moral emotions.

Morals are the principles that differentiate between good and bad behavior, and they vary from person to person. Emotions that are influenced by our morals are called moral emotions. They include emotions like guilt, regret, and shame—and they carry much more weight than our primary emotions.

When taking average rank and top 3 percentage into account, employees believe the most negative moral emotions are:

• Humiliation
• Disgust
• Resentment

How emotions differ throughout the workplace

There’s a lot that can contribute to both negative and positive emotions at work. Many factors occur in our personal and professional lives, but what about things like tenure and position level?

• Individual contributors may feel frustrated from a lack of support or satisfied when they receive a promotion.
• Managers may feel stressed from conducting many 1:1s or comfortable with the progress their team has made.
• Leaders may feel anxious about the forecast of their business or enthusiastic about starting the year fresh with a brand new focus.

We are all capable of feeling a variety of emotions at work. Yet, our research uncovered some differences between individual contributors and managers.

Managers are more likely to feel energetic, enthusiastic, and happy—but managers likely feel comfortable less often.

There are many factors that contribute to our emotions. Managers may tend to feel positive emotions more often due to their roles as coaches. At the same time, managers often have more responsibilities and encounter more barriers than individual contributors. This could explain a higher frequency of stress.

The relationship between workplace emotions and employee engagement

For some, emotions can take a toll on our day. Some may disengage from their work and some may miss work altogether. Our research shows some clear connections between emotional culture and levels of engagement.

Employees who rarely or never hide their true emotions at work report 83% engagement favorability, compared to just 62% among those who always or almost never feel comfortable being emotionally transparent. That gap holds up and down the organization — employees comfortable showing emotion around their immediate coworkers report 75% engagement versus 55% for those who aren't, and the same pattern shows up with HR (83% vs. 57%), executive leadership (85% vs. 58%), and even customers (84% vs. 65%).

On the flip side, engagement takes a real hit when negative emotions run unchecked: employees whose managers never express negative emotions report 89% engagement, but that number falls to just 50% when managers express negative emotions a few times a day — and the same drop-off happens with coworkers, from 91% (never) down to 49% (daily). Engagement impacts a wide variety of important business outcomes — making a solid case for addressing emotions at work.

Employee engagement and negative workplace emotions

Experiencing negative emotions expressed by others may decrease feelings of connection. As employee engagement decreases, employees may become more sensitive to negative emotions.

To help decrease the expression of negative emotions at work, you need to understand what happened before those emotions boiled over. Each type of emotion is unique and requires a unique approach to handling it.

Employee engagement and emotional outcomes

In theory, highly engaged employees are more open-minded when it comes to potential outcomes of negative emotions. Yet, they are more close-minded when it comes to potential outcomes of positive emotions.

On one hand, engagement is a negativity filter. At the same time, it promotes positivity bias. Bottom line—highly engaged employees are more positive than less engaged employees.

But it’s also possible that disengaged employees have a harder time coping with emotions in healthy ways. Consider evolving your approach to disengaged employees by viewing them through the lens of reconnection. Help them strengthen their coping mechanisms to handle stress at work.

How to manage emotions in the workplace

When left unchecked, employee emotions can have a serious impact on the workplace. Unaddressed and bottled-up negative emotions increase stress levels, create barriers between employees, and can spill over into productivity, innovation, and customer service — the report notes that negative emotions have a tendency to "multiply and spread like a virus" once they take hold on a team. The health toll is real too: studies cited in the research show that suppressing emotions can contribute to heart disease, mental illness, intestinal problems, headaches, insomnia, and autoimmune disorders.

The data backs this up. Employees whose managers express negative emotions a few times a day report just 50% engagement, compared to 89% when managers never do. The pattern holds for coworkers as well, with engagement dropping from 91% to 49% as negative emotions go from "never" to "daily." And it's not only about frequency — moral emotions like humiliation and resentment came through strongly in employee comments: one employee described feeling humiliated when a supervisor "reprimanded me on the sales floor in front of customers and a coworker," while another described feeling "frustrated, resentful, and disregarded" after a manager overreacted to a minor client complaint. These aren't isolated incidents — they're the kinds of moments that, repeated often enough, quietly erode trust and engagement across a team.

Make sure you understand each of these unique emotions and strive to find the right balance of supporting and preventing them at work.

Building a culture of trust and practicing emotional intelligence skills can allow employees to acknowledge, feel, and express more positive emotions in the workplace. Here are some ways to manage emotions in the workplace.

Coping mechanisms for employee emotions

Coping mechanisms are the tools and strategies we use to deal with stress in our lives. Our various ways of coping eventually create a coping strategy.

You can cope with stress in positive or negative ways. A negative coping strategy might be to ignore your problems and emotions, hoping they work themselves out. But that can be bad for your health. Positive coping strategies allow you to deal with stress in healthy ways.

Managing your own workplace emotions

The best thing you can do to combat negative moral emotions and their repercussions is understand how to deal with emotions. Take the Recognize, Understand, Manage approach when dealing with emotions at work.

Dealing with employee emotions: 4 tips for HR & People leaders

Regardless of how well you handle your own emotions, you can’t control the emotions of others. But it is important to learn how to acknowledge them and respond appropriately. Unresolved issues can lead to decreased productivity, damaged relationships, and lowered engagement.

Follow these tips for dealing with your employees’ emotions and start building a stronger emotional culture at work:

1. Allow for mistakes.

No one is perfect—plain and simple. Mistakes are inevitable and, although they don’t need to be simply accepted, they also aren’t grounds for a scolding. Berating or punishing employees can cause humiliation and hostility.

Calmly correcting or excusing the rare mistake is a great way to build trust. In fact, helping reduce negative emotions with transparency, open communication, and authenticity will lead to better relationships with your employees. But if mistakes continue to pile up, you should schedule time with your employees to create a performance improvement plan. This plan will help make sure both parties are on the same page and set clear expectations for success.

2. Build a culture of trust.

Sharing emotions, especially uncomfortable ones, is one way to show vulnerability. But we can’t be vulnerable if we don’t trust the people that we’re sharing our stories with. Everyone in your organization should feel comfortable being themselves and expressing their emotions.

It’s not enough just to let employees know they can share their feelings—you must be willing to be the example too. When employees can witness a culture of honesty and compassion, they’ll be able to understand and adapt to others’ emotions.

3. Be present.

When managers and leaders are unavailable, employees may feel anxious and undervalued. Make time to connect with your team to instill confidence in your employees, their work, and their performance. Empowering your team members to stay connected in this way helps build positive relationships.

Set uninterrupted time apart for each employee at least once a month. And if you're really committed to the cause, we recommend meeting once a week—even for a quick check-in. These meetings offer employees an opportunity to ask questions, provide updates, raise concerns, and provide feedback. These are perfect times to celebrate successes to increase positive emotions in the workplace.

4. Listen more than you talk.

Most times, employees who experience negative emotions aren’t searching for solutions. They want to express themselves and release their pent-up emotions. Listening to your employees allows them to get it all out there and makes them feel cared for and heard. It also establishes you as a trusted resource who can be depended on.

When dealing with someone else's emotions, strive to understand what they are feeling and why. Ask them how they are feeling and if they are okay. If they don't want to talk or say everything is fine, respect their wishes and don't pressure them any further. If they do want to talk it out, find a quiet space and listen.

Your employees are only human, and humans are emotional creatures. Addressing emotions is important for recognizing your employees for who they are and improving your emotional culture.

Support, Manage, or Escalate? An Emotion Response Checklist

Not every emotional moment calls for the same response. Some situations just need a listening ear; others require a documented conversation about behavior; and some need to go straight to HR or emergency support. Use this checklist to help managers quickly assess which category a situation falls into — and respond appropriately.

👐 SUPPORT — Normal emotions that need space, empathy, or help prioritizing

When to use this response:

• The employee is expressing a normal, proportionate emotional reaction to a real event (a missed deadline, a hard conversation, a busy week)
• The emotion isn't disrupting others' ability to work
• The employee just needs to feel heard, understood, or supported
• The root cause is workload, unclear priorities, or a need for clarification
• There's no pattern of repeated disruption — this is a one-off or infrequent moment

How a manager should respond:

• Listen more than you talk. Let the employee express themselves without immediately jumping to solutions.
• Validate the emotion without judging it ("That sounds really frustrating" rather than "You shouldn't feel that way").
• Ask what would help — sometimes it's just being heard, sometimes it's rebalancing a task list.
• Follow up in a day or two to check in, without making it a big production.

Example scenario:

An employee comes to their 1:1 visibly stressed, explaining that three projects landed on their desk in the same week and they're not sure how to prioritize.

Manager response: "It sounds like a lot hit you at once. Let's walk through what's due when and figure out together what can wait a few days." The manager helps re-prioritize, checks in again later that week, and doesn't treat this as a performance issue — because it isn't one.

🛠️ MANAGE — Emotions affecting communication, collaboration, deadlines, or team norms

When to use this response:

• The emotion (or how it's being expressed) is impacting deadlines, teammates, or collaboration
• There's a gap between expected behavior/norms and what's happening
• The issue is recurring, but hasn't crossed into harassment, threats, or safety concerns
• The employee's frustration or stress is being directed at coworkers in ways that affect morale
• A direct, respectful conversation about behavior and expectations could resolve it

How a manager should respond:

• Address mistakes and concerns privately, one-on-one — never in front of peers.
• Focus on observable behavior, not the emotion itself ("When the meeting ran long and you raised your voice, it made it hard for the team to move forward" rather than "You were being disrespectful").
• Set clear, specific expectations going forward and confirm mutual understanding.
• Document the conversation if the behavior is recurring, so there's a record if it continues.
• If mistakes keep piling up, consider a performance improvement plan so both parties are aligned on expectations.

Example scenario:

An employee has snapped at two different coworkers in team meetings over the past month when questioned about their timelines. Coworkers have started avoiding bringing up unfinished work in front of them.

Manager response: The manager pulls the employee aside privately: "I've noticed a couple of moments in meetings where frustration came out toward the team, and I want to check in on what's going on." The manager listens for the underlying cause (workload? feeling unsupported?) but is also clear: "Regardless of the reason, I need meetings to stay a place where the team feels safe raising questions. Let's figure out how to handle stress differently going forward." The conversation is documented, and a follow-up is scheduled.

🚨 ESCALATE — Threats, harassment, discrimination, self-harm concerns, violence risk, severe impairment, or repeated conduct issues

When to use this response:

• There's any indication of a threat — to self, to others, or implied violence
• The behavior involves harassment or discrimination based on a protected characteristic
• The employee mentions self-harm, suicidal ideation, or expresses hopelessness in a way that concerns you
• The employee appears severely impaired (substances, a mental health crisis, inability to function safely)
• A "manage" conversation has already happened and the conduct issue is repeating or escalating
• You're unsure whether something crosses a legal, safety, or policy line — when in doubt, escalate

How a manager should respond:

• Don't try to resolve it yourself. Loop in HR, Employee Relations, security, or emergency services immediately, depending on severity.
• If there's an immediate safety risk, prioritize getting the person (and others) safe first — contact emergency services if needed.
• Stay calm and present with the employee, but don't promise confidentiality you can't guarantee — HR and safety escalations often can't stay fully confidential, and employees deserve to know that upfront.
• Don't attempt to diagnose a mental health condition or label what you're observing — describe behaviors factually to HR, not conclusions.
• Document what you observed (factually, not interpretively) and hand it off to the appropriate team.

Example scenario:

An employee tells their manager, "Honestly, some days I don't see the point in any of this anymore," in a tone that feels different from typical venting. Separately, the same employee has had two written warnings for screaming at colleagues in the past quarter.

Manager response: For the comment about "not seeing the point," the manager doesn't try to assess or diagnose what's happening. They respond with care — "I want to make sure you're okay. I'd like to connect you with our EAP or HR so you have support beyond just me" — and loop in HR right away rather than treating it as a private matter to sit on. For the pattern of outbursts, since this is now a repeated conduct issue beyond a single "manage" conversation, the manager brings it to HR/Employee Relations for a formal process, rather than attempting another informal chat.

A Few Ground Rules for Managers

• Managers should not diagnose mental health conditions. You can describe what you observe ("seemed withdrawn," "raised their voice twice this week") — you shouldn't label it ("they're depressed," "they're having a breakdown").
• Don't promise confidentiality you can't guarantee. If a situation may need to go to HR, legal, or safety teams, say so honestly: "I want to support you, and I also may need to loop in HR depending on what's going on — I want to be upfront about that."
• When in doubt, escalate. It's far better to involve HR on something that turns out to be manageable than to sit on something that needed intervention.
• Document consistently, especially once you move from "support" to "manage" — patterns matter, and documentation protects both the employee and the organization.

FAQS

1. What are the most common emotions employees feel at work?
The most common positive emotions are feeling comfortable, satisfied, and enthusiastic. The most common negative emotions are frustration, stress, and anxiety. Employees also experience negative moral emotions like humiliation, disgust, and resentment, which tend to carry more weight than basic emotions.

2. Why do emotions matter for employee engagement?
Emotions and engagement are closely linked in both directions. Employees who feel comfortable expressing themselves at work report significantly higher engagement (83% vs. 62%), and engagement itself appears to shape how employees experience and cope with emotions — highly engaged employees tend to show more resilience and optimism in the face of negative moments.

3. Do managers and individual contributors experience workplace emotions differently?
Yes. Managers tend to report more frequent positive emotions like energy and enthusiasm, likely due to their coaching and leadership responsibilities, but they also report higher stress levels than individual contributors — often due to increased responsibilities and more frequent barriers to navigate.

4. How should a manager respond when an employee is upset?
It depends on the situation. If it's a normal, proportionate reaction to a real event, the best approach is to listen, validate the feeling, and help problem-solve if needed. If the emotion is affecting the team, communication, or deadlines, the manager should address the observable behavior directly and set clear expectations. If there's any indication of a safety risk, harassment, or self-harm, the manager should escalate to HR or emergency support immediately rather than trying to resolve it themselves.

5. Can suppressing emotions at work actually be harmful?
Yes. Research cited in our study shows that consistently suppressing emotions can contribute to real health consequences, including heart disease, insomnia, intestinal problems, headaches, and autoimmune disorders. Suppression also correlates with lower engagement, since employees who feel they can't be transparent tend to feel less connected to their work.

6. What's the difference between "managing" an emotional situation and "escalating" it?
Managing means addressing behavior directly with the employee — for example, having a private conversation about how frustration is affecting team dynamics, and setting clear expectations going forward. Escalating means looping in HR, Employee Relations, or emergency support because the situation involves a threat, harassment, discrimination, self-harm risk, or a repeated conduct issue beyond what a manager can appropriately resolve on their own.