Best questions for employee survey about workload and stress

Here are some of the best questions for an employee survey about workload and stress, plus practical tips on designing effective surveys. If you want to build your own survey in seconds, we recommend using Specific’s AI survey builder.

Best open-ended questions for employee surveys about workload and stress

Open-ended questions are powerful for uncovering the real stories behind workplace stress and workload issues. These questions let employees express themselves freely, explaining the “why” and “how” behind their feelings. They're best used when you want to capture detailed insights, spot patterns, and discover the unexpected. Research shows that 83% of workers in the U.S. experience work-related stress, with workload being the top cause—making it crucial to really understand what’s happening on the ground. [1]

1. What aspects of your workload feel most overwhelming or manageable?

2. Can you describe a recent situation where you felt especially stressed at work?

3. What resources (tools, support, people) help you cope with your workload?

4. How do current deadlines and expectations affect your stress levels?

5. What changes would have the biggest positive impact on your daily workload?

6. How does your workload impact your work-life balance?

7. Are there any tasks or responsibilities you think should be prioritized differently?

8. How do you decompress after a stressful day at work?

9. What, if anything, prevents you from asking for help when you’re overloaded?

10. Is there anything else you wish management understood about your work and stress levels?

These questions make it easier for employees to reflect on their true experiences. Using open-ended questions at the start of the survey can set a conversational tone and surface issues that structured questions might miss.

Best single-select multiple-choice questions for employee workload and stress surveys

Single-select multiple-choice questions work well when you need quick, quantifiable feedback. They're perfect for benchmarking, tracking changes over time, and when you want respondents to start thinking about a topic before diving deeper. Sometimes people find it easier to pick an answer from a list rather than type everything out—once you break the ice, you can always follow up with clarifying questions to dig deeper.

Question: How would you rate your current workload?

• Very manageable

• Somewhat manageable

• Neutral

• Somewhat unmanageable

• Completely unmanageable

Question: What is your main source of work-related stress?

• High workload

• Lack of control

• Lack of support

• Unclear expectations

• Other

Question: How often do you feel you have enough time to finish your tasks during the workday?

• Always

• Often

• Sometimes

• Rarely

• Never

When to follow up with "why?" Add a follow-up question like “why do you feel this way?” after a single-select response to uncover context. For example, if someone selects “Completely unmanageable,” asking why gives you actionable details. That extra “why” can be the difference between spotting a trend and actually doing something about it.

When and why to add the "Other" choice? You should always provide an “Other” option when the listed answers don’t quite cover every possible response. By following up on “Other” with a question like “Can you tell me more about what’s causing your stress?” you unlock unexpected insights that might never surface otherwise.

Should you use an NPS question in employee workload and stress surveys?

NPS, short for Net Promoter Score, asks how likely someone is to recommend their workplace to others. For workload and stress topics, using NPS can highlight the relationship between employee well-being and advocacy: those under too much stress are much less likely to act as promoters, potentially warning of retention risks. Given that 61% of employees have experienced burnout and 53% consider their workload unmanageable [2], tracking NPS around stressful touchpoints can be an eye-opener.

If you want to see what an NPS survey focused on workload and stress might look like, you can generate one instantly using Specific’s NPS survey generator.

The power of follow-up questions

Follow-up questions are where AI-driven, conversational surveys really shine. Specific’s automated follow-up questions feature lets you go beyond the initial answer by asking smart, context-aware questions in real time. This conversational approach collects richer insights, uncovers nuances, and saves tons of time compared to manual follow-up emails.

For example, if you rely only on initial answers, you might end up with feedback that leaves you hanging:

• Employee: "I feel stressed often."

• AI follow-up: "Could you share a specific example of a situation that caused you this stress?"

• Employee: "My workload isn’t manageable."

• AI follow-up: "Which tasks, in particular, make your workload feel unmanageable?"

When you can ask "why", "which tasks", or "can you elaborate?", you bridge the gap between vague comments and insights you can act on.

How many followups to ask? Usually 2–3 targeted follow-up questions are enough to gather ample detail without fatiguing the respondent. Specific offers settings to stop follow-ups once you’ve captured the information you need—this keeps the survey efficient and participant-friendly.

This makes it a conversational survey—the experience feels more like a chat than a traditional survey, which makes it easier for employees to open up and feel heard.

AI survey response analysis: Don’t let lots of unstructured feedback overwhelm you. With tools like Specific, you can use AI survey analysis to break down responses and extract patterns—without reading every single comment yourself.

Try generating a survey with automated follow-ups to see for yourself how much richer your data will become.

Prompting ChatGPT for great employee workload and stress questions

If you want to use ChatGPT or another LLM to come up with questions, start with a basic prompt like this:

Suggest 10 open-ended questions for Employee survey about Workload And Stress.

You’ll get even better results by giving more context. For example, specify your industry, workforce size, or whether you want to focus on burnout or time management:

We’re a tech company with 80 employees, running an internal survey about workload and stress. Many teams are remote. Suggest 10 open-ended questions that explore specific workplace stressors, time pressure, and work-life balance in this context.

Next, ask ChatGPT to help organize your survey:

Look at the questions and categorize them. Output categories with the questions under them.

Review the categories, pick the ones most relevant to your goals, and then request:

Generate 10 questions for categories “Burnout triggers” and “Team communication.”

What is a conversational survey—and why AI survey generation beats the manual approach

A conversational survey is an interactive, chat-like feedback experience that feels just like a human conversation. Instead of bombarding your employees with endless forms and checkboxes, you invite them into a back-and-forth where their thoughts and feelings can naturally unfold. This approach improves participation and gets you deeper, richer answers.

If you’ve ever tried to create a comprehensive survey by hand, you know it can be a headache—lots of trial and error, missed opportunities for follow-up, and a big time commitment. AI-powered survey generators (like Specific’s AI survey maker) fix these pain points by using language models that understand the topic, recommend expert-level questions, and automate conversational logic. You’ll get a polished, high-impact survey in a fraction of the time.

Why use AI for employee surveys? AI-powered survey tools let you tackle complex topics like workload and stress by surfacing not just what’s happening, but why. They're faster to build, friendlier for employees to complete—especially on mobile—and offer richer insights by combining smart questions with powerful analysis tools. AI survey examples make it almost effortless to explore specific focus areas, from stress triggers to burnout prevention.

Specific delivers a best-in-class conversational survey experience, for both creators and respondents, making feedback feel natural and productive. If you want a step-by-step walkthrough, check out our guide on how to create great employee surveys about workload and stress.

See this Workload and Stress survey example now

Get immediate feedback with a conversational AI survey—designed for richer context, smart followups, and actionable insights. Start now to see why top teams are switching to AI-powered survey creation for real employee well-being programs.