Burnout, stress and wellbeing in tree care: what the survey and the regulators say
What a survey of people who work with trees found, as a Forestry Commission blog reports it, and how HSE and WorkSafe New Zealand describe work-related stress and what employers are expected to manage.
Checked against the sources at the bottom of this page on October 9, 2026. Rules, fees and pay change: the source has the last word.
This page reports what the official source says. It is not legal advice: ask the office named here. It is not medical advice and it does not tell anyone what to do about their own health. The Forestry Commission blog quoted below prints this line for the United Kingdom: Samaritans, 116 123, free, twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. Support lines for the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand are on the guide to mental health and support lines for tree workers.
The Breaking Points survey
A September 10, 2026 post on the Forestry Commission blog is written by a development manager at the Royal Forestry Society. It reports the Breaking Points survey, which the post calls the sector's first survey into workers' mental health. It asked people who work, or have worked, with trees. Its 538 responses are the base for every figure below. The post gives these results.
| Finding | Share of respondents |
|---|---|
| Named financial issues as the single biggest stressor | 76% |
| Described working in unsafe or high-risk conditions | 62% |
| Shared explicit mental health struggles | 44% |
| Described chronic burnout | 35% |
| Had someone they trusted to talk to on a weekly basis | 43% |
| Had no regular or reliable support at all | 31% |
The post says respondents described late payments, low rates and the rising cost of insurance, fuel, protective equipment and machinery maintenance, especially for the self-employed. It also says the survey highlighted lack of respect, lack of understanding and verbal abuse from the public as causes of worry. By group, it says self-employed workers and machine operators reported the highest levels of isolation, that arborists reported the highest rates of both safety risk and emotional strain, and that managers carried budget pressure and bureaucracy alongside the cost of supporting struggling teams. The post describes a cycle in which financial strain pushes people to take on more risk and isolation leaves no one nearby to notice. It names the Wellbeing in Forestry group, set up in 2024 and supported by the Forestry Commission, as the body developing a toolkit for how consultants and contractors communicate. The survey figures are the survey's, reported by the post's author. This page has not read the full Breaking Points report.
What HSE says work-related stress is
HSE's page Work-related stress and how to manage it says employers have a legal duty to protect workers from stress at work by doing a risk assessment and acting on it, the same duty they have for other health and safety risks. It defines stress as "the adverse reaction people have to excessive pressures or other types of demand placed on them". It says stress is not an illness but can make people ill. It names six main areas of work design that affect stress levels: demands, control, support, relationships, role and change. HSE's Management Standards page sets these out as a process with a preparation stage and five steps: identify the risk factors, decide who can be harmed and how, evaluate the risks, record the findings, and monitor and review. HSE's stress and mental health at work hub also lists pages on suicide prevention, reporting a concern, case studies and resources. The HSE material on this page is summarised from HSE pages published under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
What WorkSafe New Zealand says
WorkSafe New Zealand's guidelines on managing psychosocial risks say the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 defines health as physical and mental health, that businesses must manage psychosocial risks, and that they must consult workers on how to manage health and safety risks related to their work. The guidelines use "must" for a legal requirement and "should" for a recommended practice. Its page on work-related stress lists causes such as high workload, low control over the work, dangerous work, poor conditions, bullying and harassment. It says poorly designed work can result in burnout, high turnover and increased near misses. As examples of ways to manage the risk, it lists time for rest after shift work, worker control over work flow, sharing demanding work equitably, avoiding work in low light or adverse conditions, and limiting and rotating high-stress tasks. The mental health hub page also lists infographics on psychosocial risks for the forestry sector. The WorkSafe New Zealand material on this page is adapted from WorkSafe New Zealand pages and credited to WorkSafe New Zealand.
Where the two regulators differ
| Point | HSE | WorkSafe New Zealand |
|---|---|---|
| Duty | Risk assessment and action on stress | Manage psychosocial risks, consult workers |
| Is stress an illness | No, but it can make people ill | No, an experience from exposure to risks at work |
| Framework named | Six areas: demands, control, support, relationships, role, change | Identify, eliminate, then minimise the risks |
Sources
- Forestry Commission blog, Speaking up about mental health in forestry and arboriculture, September 10, 2026, read October 9, 2026
- HSE, work-related stress and how to manage it, read October 9, 2026
- HSE, Management Standards for work-related stress, read October 9, 2026
- HSE, stress and mental health at work, read October 9, 2026
- WorkSafe New Zealand, managing psychosocial risks at work, read October 9, 2026
- WorkSafe New Zealand, work-related stress, read October 9, 2026
- WorkSafe New Zealand, mental health hub, read October 9, 2026