Work stress levels rose among health and educational workforces during the COVID-19 pandemic, and can affect employee well-being and organisational efficiency.

To explore the association of work stress with mental health, including suicidal ideation and physical health, as well as presenteeism, as aspects of organisational efficiency in UK healthcare and university workers.

A total of 328 UK participants completed self-report questionnaires between April 2022 and September 2023 in the context of the European Platform to Promote Wellbeing and Health in the Workplace (EMPOWER) study. Cross-sectional analyses were conducted.

Two hundred and ninety-two (90%) employees reported work-related stress (Mini-Psychosocial Stressors at Work Scale). Depressive, anxiety and somatic symptoms were reported (61, 55 and 75%, respectively); 11% of the participants reported suicidal ideation (Patient Health Questionnaire 9) and 56% reported presenteeism (iMTA Productivity Cost Questionnaire). Psychological and somatic symptoms were worse when suicidal ideation or presenteeism was reported. Stressful work factors included having too much work to do (63%), a bad working atmosphere (28%), poor work–home balance (32%) and working hours hindering private life (35%). Spearman correlations showed significant associations between work stress and suicidal ideation (0.225), depressive (0.290), anxiety (0.299) and somatic symptoms (0.245) and presenteeism (0.311), but not with having a chronic medical condition.

Given the association between work stress, suicidal ideation and presenteeism, research should explore how psychosocial risk factors linked to work stress could be reduced for healthcare and higher education employees. The findings warrant the development of policies to address work stress, and to provide employee support for suicidal ideation and presenteeism in the work setting.