Last week, I spoke with an office worker who had previously been a paramedic. Despite the less intense pressures of his current role, he still experiences high levels of stress. This conversation highlighted a growing issue: the Psychological Erosion Effect. This modern-day disease, driven by both work and home life pressures, depletes our psychological resources and impacts our overall well-being. In this article, we will explore the factors contributing to this effect and discuss strategies to mitigate its impact.
The Nature of Modern Work
Paramedics deal with intense emotionally and physically demanding situations regularly. These intensely demanding situations unfortunately led to this individual permanently leaving the profession. During our conversation, he shared that while the pressures in his current office-based role are less intense than those of a paramedic, these office-based pressures still result in high levels of stress.
The gravity of this example puts the complex and demanding nature of our modern work into perspective. Each workplace interaction, whether it be face-to-face, an email, a phone call, a text, or chat, requires individuals to invest their psychological resources to interpret intentions, regulate emotions and behaviours, and respond appropriately. Even in sedentary, office-based roles, with hundreds of daily interactions, the work can still lead to emotional exhaustion and burnout (Maslach & Jackson, 1981; Ahmed et al., 2024), compassion fatigue (Figley,1995; Joinson,1992; Smith & Brown, 2023) and moral injury (Shay, 1994).
The Psychological Erosion Effect
This conversation made me reflect on how modern work environments are not designed for psychological health, contributing to what I call the Psychological Erosion Effect. This effect is a modern-day disease influenced by both our work and home lives. The increase in mental load associated with daily living has affected everyone, regardless of age, gender, or socioeconomic status, by depleting our psychological resources to manage the inevitable stresses of everyday life (Hobfoll, 1989; World Health Organisation, 2020).
The pace of modern technology and its invasion into every aspect of our lives, with an ‘App’ for everything, constant 24/7 connectivity, heightened social awareness, and comparison occurring on a global level, requires excessive psychological resources to navigate even simple tasks like paying a bill or selecting which recycle bin to use.
The Impact of Technology
While advances in technology provide convenience by automating repetitive tasks, the remaining tasks are more cognitively complex. And each interaction with our phone, iPad, laptop, ‘App’, and multifactor authentication that is necessary to achieve outcomes, is also a demand on our cognitive resources, consequently eroding our psychological health. Even positive interactions with our colleagues and clients, which can protect our overall well-being, are still cognitively and emotionally demanding. The accumulation of work and home-related psychological demands wears down our mental health and impacts our wellbeing.
Preventing the Psychological Erosion Effect
Prevention starts with acknowledging the factors in our environments that are contributing to the erosion of our psychological resources, including excessive cognitive and emotional demands, limited opportunities for recovery, lack of resources, and both the absence of support and/or poor-quality support. These erosive factors deteriorate our psychological health, leaving us exhausted, with no energy left to invest in our families, hobbies, and communities—types of positive connections essential for maintaining good mental health. Over time, this deterioration results in the Psychological Erosion Effect we see in our population today.
Building Psychological Health
Much like physical health, building psychological health requires individuals to appropriately and regularly invest their efforts. Common and effective strategies to build psychological health include engaging in positive connections and finding opportunities for recovery.
Positive Connections: These are activities that bring us well-being, social connection, and fun. It can be slightly different for each person but usually involves a mixture of mindfulness, exercise, and creative hobbies.
Recovery: This involves both micro-breaks throughout the day and significant breaks from high cognitive and emotional demands. Much like our muscles, our brain is more effective when we allow it to have some rest periods throughout the day.
The Workplace’s Role in Prevention
Psychological health does not begin and end in the home. Opportunities to build psychological health can and should also be found in the workplace. The shift in demands from physical to psychological forms of work, and at an ever-increasing pace, limits opportunities for both positive interactions and adequate recovery, explaining the persistently poor mental health statistics in Australia and other parts of the world (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2022; Bailey, 2025; Statista, 2025). Despite the notable progress workplaces have made in understanding good mental health, providing greater access to mental health resources and supports, and reducing the stigma around psychological ill health, we still have not seen a decline in psychological illness and injury (Safe Work Australia, 2023).
To prevent this psychological erosion effect, we must first identify the contributing psychosocial factors and acknowledge their potential to cause harm, just as we would with hazardous chemicals or machinery. By understanding and managing the sources of mental and emotional load in our organisations to minimise exposure and designing targeted resources and supports to match that effectively reduce harm, we can protect worker psychological health leading to better productivity outcomes. We can mitigate the Psychological Erosion to protect mental health, at least within our work environments.
Conclusion
Psychological Erosion is a significant issue in modern work environments, driven by both work and home life pressures. By acknowledging the factors contributing to this effect and implementing strategies to build psychological health, we can mitigate its impact and improve overall well-being.
References:
Ahmed Ali, S., Alaghbari, M. A., & Al Astal, A. Y. M. (2024). Burnout and Its Impact on Employee Performance: A Comprehensive Systematic Review. In Studies in Systems, Decision and Control, 564, 543-551. Springer.
Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2022). National Study of Mental Health and Wellbeing, 2020–2022. Australian Bureau of Statistics. Retrieved from https://www.abs.gov.au
Bailey, T.S. (2025). The Safety Evolution – From Physical to Psychological Hazards. World of Safety & Health Asia, February 2025. Retrieved from https://wshasia.com/e-magazine-mobile/2025-02/
Figley, C. R. (1995). Compassion fatigue: Coping with secondary traumatic stress disorder in those who treat the traumatized. Brunner/Mazel.
Hobfoll, S. E. (1989). Conservation of resources: A new attempt at conceptualizing stress. American Psychologist, 44(3), 513–524. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.44.3.513
Joinson, C. (1992). Coping with compassion fatigue. Nursing, 22(4), 116–121.
Maslach, C., & Jackson, S. E. (1981). The measurement of experienced burnout. Journal of Occupational Behaviour, 2(2), 99–113. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.4030020205
Safe Work Australia. (2023). Psychological health and safety in the workplace: A review of Australian trends and statistics. Safe Work Australia. Retrieved from https://www.safeworkaustralia.gov.au
Shay, J. (1994). Achilles in Vietnam: Combat Trauma and the Undoing of Character. New York: Scribner.
Smith, J. A., & Brown, L. M. (2023). Compassion Fatigue in the Workplace: Causes and Solutions. Journal of Business and Psychology, 38(2), 123-135.1
Statista. (2005). Mental health worldwide. Statista. Retrieved February 19, 2025, from https://www.statista.com/topics/8066/mental-health-worldwide/#topicOverview
World Health Organization. (2022). World Mental Health Report: Transforming Mental Health for All. Retrieved from WHO website