We study the nature of workplace stress from the aspect of human-human interactions. We investigated the distribution of Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale scores, a measure of the degree of stress, in workplaces. We found that the degree of stress people experience when around other highly stressed people tends to be low, and vice versa. A simulation based on a model describing microlevel human-human interaction reproduced this observed phenomena and revealed that the energy state of a face-to-face communication network correlates with workplace stress macroscopically.

• Received 10 March 2011

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.84.017101