When pressure mounts and systems break down, it’s rarely individual mistakes that are to blame — it’s the underlying psychosocial risks that go unchecked.

It all started with a late-night email.

A junior team member, working on a time-sensitive report, flagged a missed file upload to their manager at 10:53pm. The email wasn’t rude or emotional – just factual. A supporting document critical to the report had not been uploaded, and as such the finalised report could not be sent. But when the issue was raised in the morning stand-up, the manager was visibly frustrated and said, “We can’t keep having mistakes like this – we’re all stretched. Get your act together!”

Within 48 hours HR had received a formal complaint. On the surface, it appeared to be a simple interpersonal conflict – a manager losing their cool under pressure. The matter was logged, and a note was made to ‘monitor’ the situation.

But when a follow-up review was conducted two weeks later, a very different story emerged.

Multiple employees reported working very long hours with little guidance. There was confusion about roles and responsibilities, and no project lead had been formally appointed. Team members were fielding urgent client requests independently – sometimes duplicating work, sometimes missing critical tasks altogether. Some employees were even skipping their breaks just to keep up. Others weren’t speaking up at all, feeling it would only add to the pressure.

The file upload issue wasn’t the real problem. It was the pressure cooker environment surrounding it.

Everyone involved had been trying to do the right thing: getting a high-stakes project over the line in time with the limited resources that were available. However, in doing so they were all contributing to an unsafe work environment.

The HR manager involved in this case later reflected: “The temptation is to believe that these things are personality issues. If we hadn’t reviewed the case and checked in with the team, we would have believed that in this case. But it wasn’t – it was our systems.”

This story unfolded in a property management business, but the pattern is common across industries. What first presents as a minor interpersonal issue often reveals much deeper organisational risk: poor role clarity, lack of supervisor support, and job overload. All three are identified psychosocial hazards under the model WHS laws. Yet in many workplaces, they go unnoticed until something breaks and an incident forces them into the spotlight.

Building a better way forward

In response, the business made three key changes:

1. Project leads were formally assigned to all large-scale group assignments and projects. This allocation was the responsibility of one of the department directors.

2. A clear escalation pathway was introduced for high-pressure tasks, giving employees permission – and a defined process – to raise red flags without fear of blame, including access to a designated senior manager for when workloads became unmanageable.

3. Manager training was rolled out to spot early warning signs of psychosocial risks, to more effectively engage in the control of these risks, and the creation of organisation specific tools and templates to make it easy for managers to then manage and document those risks.

Within three months, employee feedback scores improved, quality issues reduced and incident reports decreased. The culture didn’t shift overnight, but the conversation had started.

Psychosocial hazards are an evolving area of risk, and staying ahead of the curve requires more than compliance – it demands active, informed leadership.

Join DLPA for an enlightening webinar on 16 May at 11am to explore practical, innovative approaches to identifying, assessing, and managing psychosocial risks in today’s workplaces.

Karlie Cremin is the Managing Director of Dynamic Leadership Programs Australia (DLPA) and the CEO of Crestcom Australia.