Stress has become an overheard word of modern life. Everyone experiences stress to some degree when one encounters a difficult situation. In recent decades, a transition can be seen in society and industries due to urbanisation and globalisation. Scientific-technological advancement in industries has changed employees’ working patterns and their way of living (Giorgi et al. in Front Psychol 8:2166, 2017). It would not be wrong to say that today’s organisation is characterised by volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity (VUCA). According to Selye (Nature 138:32, 1936), stress is a non-specific reaction in the body that affects both the mind and body. Due to the fast-paced lifestyle, people’s stress levels have increased, hence, WHO has asserted stress as the “health epidemic of the twenty-first century” (Fink, in Stress: concepts, cognition, emotion, and behavior. Elsevier Inc., pp. 3–11, 2016). Today, occupational stress has become a common and costly affair as workers affected by stress show poor performance at work, increased absenteeism and staff turnover (Godin et al. in BMC Public Health, 5:67; Bhagat et al. in Organisational stress and coping in seven national contexts: a cross-cultural investigation, in Keita. American Psychological Association, Washington, DC, pp. 93–105, 1994; Burke in Cross Cult Manag 17(1):5, 2010). Long-term exposure to occupational stress can lead to physical risks such as high cholesterol, high blood pressure, increased heart rates, and mental problems (Michie in J Occup Environ Med 59(1):67–72, 2002). The current paper is a literature review with the primary objective of identifying occupational stressors among working female employees and studying the relationship between occupational stress and workplace ethics.