Job Demands

High job demands are one of the most common psychosocial hazards in Australian workplaces, affecting employee mental health, physical wellbeing, and organisational performance.

When workloads become excessive, deadlines unrealistic, or emotional strain goes unmanaged, the risk of serious psychological harm increases significantly.

TL;DR

• High job demands are a recognised psychosocial hazard under Australian work health and safety (WHS) laws
• They include physical, mental, and emotional demands that are excessive, prolonged, or frequent
• Low job demands, such as monotonous or repetitive work, are also a hazard
• Employers (PCBUs) have a legal duty to identify, assess, control, and review job demand risks
• Workers also carry responsibilities to report concerns and take reasonable care
• A four-step risk management process is the recommended framework for managing this hazard
• Control measures range from workload redesign to access to an Employee Assistance Program (EAP)

What Are High Job Demands?

High job demands are sustained or intense levels of physical, mental, or emotional effort that are excessive, unreasonable, or chronically exceed a worker's capacity. They become a recognised psychosocial hazard under Australian WHS laws when they are severe, prolonged, or frequent. Being occasionally busy does not constitute a hazard. The risk arises when excessive demands become the norm with no adequate recovery time.

High job demands sit within the broader category of psychosocial hazards, which are aspects of work design, management, and the work environment that can cause psychological or physical harm.

High Job Demands vs Low Job Demands

Both high and low job demands are recognised psychosocial hazards, and both carry genuine risk of harm. High job demands involve excessive workload, pressure, or emotional strain. Low job demands involve sustained under-stimulation, such as highly repetitive or monotonous tasks that offer little mental engagement.

Low job demands become hazardous when they are severe, prolonged, or frequent. Examples include:

• Long idle periods with no meaningful tasks
• Highly repetitive work with no variety, such as packing products or monitoring CCTV feeds
• Vigilance tasks that require sustained attention but offer no stimulation, such as stop/go machine operation
• Workers being allocated tasks well below their skills or competence level

Both ends of the demand spectrum can lead to stress, disengagement, and psychological harm. Effective risk management must account for both.

Examples of High Job Demands in Australian Workplaces

High job demands fall into three categories: physical, mental, and emotional. Understanding each type helps organisations identify where risk is present.

Physical demands

These  include working long hours without adequate breaks, performing physically exhausting tasks such as heavy lifting or digging, and having too much to do within an unrealistic timeframe.

Mental demands

These include allocating complex tasks to workers without the necessary training or experience, expecting new workers to learn rapidly without sufficient supervision, unclear instructions that require workers to make high-stakes decisions under pressure, and a lack of systems to prevent individual errors in critical roles such as healthcare or emergency services.

Emotional demands

Including:

• Dealing with customer or client complaints, or delivering difficult news
• Supporting colleagues or clients who are in emotional distress
• Engaging in performance conversations or disciplinary processes
• Working in roles that require workers to suppress genuine emotions, such as customer-facing positions that mandate consistent displays of positivity

When any of these demands become excessive and are not managed, the risk of psychological injury increases, particularly when they interact with other hazards such as poor workplace relationships or lack of role clarity.

How Shift Work and Unpredictable Hours Create High Job Demands

Shift work and unpredictable rosters are a significant and often overlooked source of high job demands. Scheduling patterns that prevent adequate rest and recovery can be as harmful as excessive workload.

Situations that may create hazardous demand through work hours include:

• Frequent night shifts or extended shifts without adequate rest periods between them
• Unpredictable or irregular shift patterns that disrupt sleep and recovery
• Regular or unplanned overtime with no opportunity to refuse
• Shifts that provide insufficient time for workers to sleep before returning to work
• An expectation of out-of-hours availability or responsiveness, which may also engage workers' right to disconnect under the Fair Work Act 2009

When assessing high job demands in your workplace, shift design and hours of work must be considered alongside workload and emotional strain.

How High Job Demands Harm Employee Health and Wellbeing

High job demands cause harm by depleting a worker's physical, mental, and emotional reserves faster than they can recover. When demands are severe or sustained without relief, the cumulative effect becomes hazardous.

Documented impacts include increased stress, anxiety, and depression, employee burnout, physical health problems including headaches and elevated blood pressure, reduced concentration and decision-making quality, and increased absenteeism and staff turnover.

The risk is compounded when multiple hazards exist together. A heavy workload combined with poor support, unclear role expectations, or conflict within a team creates a significantly higher risk of psychological injury than any single hazard alone. Organisations should always assess job demands in the context of all other psychosocial hazards present.

If you want to understand the broader organisational cost, the cost of poor mental health in the workplace is a useful starting point.

Legal Obligations: What Employers Must Do Under WHS Laws

Under Australian work health and safety laws, a person conducting a business or undertaking (PCBU) has a primary duty of care to protect workers from psychosocial harm, including harm caused by high job demands. This is not discretionary. PCBUs must eliminate psychosocial risks where reasonably practicable, and minimise them where elimination is not possible.

This duty requires PCBUs to proactively manage the risk of high job demands by applying a structured risk management process, consulting with workers throughout, implementing appropriate control measures, and reviewing those controls regularly. State-based Codes of Practice, including those published by SafeWork NSW and WorkSafe Queensland, provide practical guidance on meeting these obligations.

A psychosocial risk assessment is the recommended starting point for organisations seeking to meet their legal duty systematically.

The Four-Step Risk Management Process for High Job Demands

Australian WHS frameworks require PCBUs to apply a risk management process when addressing psychosocial hazards, including high job demands. The four steps are as follows.

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Worker consultation is required at every step of this process, not just at the identification stage.

Control Measures for High Job Demands

Control measures for high job demands should be selected based on the specific hazards identified, applied using the hierarchy of controls, and reviewed regularly for effectiveness. The following table outlines practical controls across each demand type.

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Reviewing Control Measures: When and How

Reviewing control measures is a legal obligation, not an optional step. Controls must be reviewed if a worker reports that a measure is not working, if a new hazard is introduced, if there is a change in team structure or workload, or following any workplace incident or workers' compensation claim related to psychological injury.

Regular check-ins with workers, combined with ongoing monitoring of employee engagement metrics such as absenteeism, turnover, and incident rates, provide the most reliable indication of whether controls are having the intended effect.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the difference between high and low job demands?

High job demands involve excessive workload, time pressure, or emotional strain that exceeds a worker's capacity. Low job demands involve sustained under-stimulation through monotonous, repetitive, or insufficiently complex work. Both are recognised psychosocial hazards under Australian WHS laws, and both carry a risk of psychological harm when they are severe, prolonged, or frequent.

Are high job demands a psychosocial hazard under Australian law?

Yes. High job demands are a named psychosocial hazard under Australian WHS legislation and associated Codes of Practice, including those issued by Safe Work Australia, SafeWork NSW, and WorkSafe Queensland. PCBUs have a legal duty to identify, assess, control, and review risks associated with high job demands.

Can shift work cause high job demands?

Yes. Unpredictable rosters, frequent night shifts, extended shifts without adequate rest, and expectations of out-of-hours availability can all create or compound high job demand risk. Shift design should be assessed as part of any psychosocial risk management process.

What tools can I use to assess job demands in my workplace?

Psychosocial risk surveys and structured assessment tools are the recommended approach. Foremind's platform provides purpose-built tools for identifying and monitoring psychosocial hazards including high job demands. For organisations seeking guidance on the broader process, how to manage psychosocial hazards at work is a practical starting point.

When do I need to review my control measures for job demands?

Control measures should be reviewed regularly and must be reviewed following any incident, complaint, or workers' compensation claim related to psychological injury, after significant changes to workload, staffing, or work design, and whenever a worker reports that existing controls are not working.

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Foremind helps Australian organisations identify and manage psychosocial hazards, including high job demands, through its integrated EAP and compliance platform. Learn more at foremind.com.au.

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