Talking to Your Employees About Stress at Work (Udemy.com)
Support your team with empathy, clarity, and appropriate boundaries.
Created by: Deborah Grayson Riegel
Last updated May 2025
What you will learn
- Recognize signs of stress and burnout
- Initiate sensitive conversations with confidence
- Ask questions that encourage honest dialogue
- Listen without judgment
- Offer support without overstepping
- Avoid common mistakes when discussing stress
How it compares
Against the other 1,107 rated Udemy courses in Personal Development on CourseDuck:
- Rating4.4 out of 5higher than 20% of them
- Reviews2,003#151 of 1,108 by number of reviews
- Length1.6 hoursshorter than 69% of them
- Last updatedMay 2025more recently than 51% of them
Course Description
Stress at work is real — and managers often find themselves unsure about how to talk about it.
You may notice that an employee seems overwhelmed, exhausted, distracted, frustrated, or unlike themselves. You want to be supportive, but you may worry about saying the wrong thing, becoming too personal, making promises you cannot keep, or stepping into a role that belongs to a mental-health professional.
This course helps managers have more thoughtful, appropriate, and useful conversations with employees about workplace stress.
You’ll learn how to recognize when a conversation may be helpful, how to open the discussion without making assumptions, and how to listen in a way that communicates concern while respecting professional boundaries.
You’ll also explore the important distinction between supporting an employee and trying to diagnose, counsel, or “fix” them. Managers can create clarity, adjust work where appropriate, connect employees with available resources, and build a healthier team environment — without becoming therapists.
You’ll learn how to:
• Recognize signs that an employee may be experiencing significant workplace stress
• Start a conversation with care and professionalism
• Ask open-ended questions without making assumptions
• Listen without immediately jumping to solutions
• Clarify workload, priorities, and expectations
• Explore practical workplace adjustments when appropriate
• Maintain healthy manager-employee boundaries
• Avoid minimizing or over-reassuring
• Connect employees with organizational resources when needed
• Follow up without becoming intrusive
• Create team practices that support healthier conversations about stress
These conversations can feel uncomfortable, especially when you care about your employees and want to help. Having a practical framework can make them easier.
This course is not clinical training and does not prepare managers to diagnose or treat mental-health conditions. It focuses on the role managers can appropriately play in recognizing workplace stress, communicating with empathy, and addressing the aspects of work they can influence.
By the end of the course, you’ll feel better prepared to approach conversations about stress with greater clarity, empathy, and confidence.
Instructor Details
- 4.4 Rating
2,003 Reviews
Deborah Grayson Riegel
Deborah Grayson Riegel is a keynote speaker, executive coach, author, and leadership communication expert who helps professionals communicate more effectively, lead with confidence, and navigate the everyday challenges of working with people. She teaches at Wharton, Duke, Columbia, and Peking University and has worked with leaders and teams at organizations including Google, Amazon, BlackRock, and NASA.
Deb is also a contributor to Harvard Business Review, Psychology Today, Fast Company, and Forbes, where she writes about leadership, communication, workplace relationships, and professional development.
Throughout her career, Deb has helped professionals at every level build the practical people skills that make work better—from communicating clearly and confidently to giving feedback, managing teams, navigating difficult conversations, facilitating effective meetings, presenting ideas, and adapting to an evolving workplace.
Her teaching combines research-backed insights with practical tools, relatable examples, and strategies learners can put to use immediately. Whether you're a new manager, an experienced leader, or simply looking to become a stronger communicator and colleague, Deb's courses are designed to help you build skills you can use in real conversations, real meetings, and real workplace situations.
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Reviews
By Sandra Stevenson on 6/29/2026
I love that we are talking about this and letting manager know its ok to acknowledge this. I've been told in the past its not acceptable. I've also been told to "get tougher skin". Thank you for saying its ok!!!!!
By Miguel Garcia2 on 12/11/2023
I consider that many times we do not realize how others feel, we just act based on what we simply see. I appreciate this advises. I will consider them before I try to give any feedback or even talk to a colleague who is in a bad mood.
By Sherwin Condez on 10/31/2023
The course is exceptional. I learn a lot of stuff on how to manage stress and what are the things that I should watch out to make sure that I will not further stress my co-worker and make them feel supported to open up about their stress.
By Ruth Kasongo-Kamanga on 9/5/2022
It was a good match. I have learnt the definitions of mental health, stress and anxiety. Also learnt that as a Manager it is important to share my experience so that the team members can also open up with their experiences. It is not my job to diagnose a colleague but instead notice mental health disorders.
By Bernhardt Vries on 6/22/2022
This course is amazing, very much informative, and it give guidance on how to offer assistance to colleagues and staff members in stressful situations. Sales department is stressful as it is and this can be impacted negatively with higher level of stress, thus i implore and recommend this course.
By Anonymized User on 5/26/2022
Loved the instructor and materials! However, I wish there was some opportunity to reinforce/practice the concepts like a quiz or activity.
By Anonymized User on 5/4/2022
I found this course insightful and helpful. It offers a variety of tools to help you when addressing mental health and stress in the workplace with your coworkers or direct reports. It also points out internal biases that one might not even realize they have, which is thought provoking and can lead to positive change.
By Anna Dynak on 3/30/2022
This is really a powerfull training! I like the materials that I can download, which remind me later what I have learned. The only thing that I am missing is different language then English - to share this course broadly
By Kyle Davids on 1/24/2022
I am delighted to have taken this course. The amount of value gained is of high regard an its not close to what I expected. I am looking forward to redoing this course and grasping these skills carefully so that I can go out there an impact many lives with the knowledge gained and doing whats best for God an others.
By Joycene Winrow on 12/14/2021
This course is good because I work with a very diverse company and the company is going through a sale and people are very stressed. Communicating with people right now in a compassionate and caring way is very important.
Quality Score
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Overall Score : 88 / 100












