New studies find that 90% of the UK workers are stressed most of the time

With the new year of work now in full swing, a new report by Qualtrics has found that 90% of the UK workers that participated in this survey, felt stressed in their current jobs, with more than half describing themselves as stressed at work ‘most of the time’.

From this recent research, they found that 29% of UK workers say they feel stressed or emotional because of work ‘always’ or ‘most of the time’. However, despite the negatives of this high number of employees being stressed, the figure falls below the global average proportion of stressed-out employees, which is 31%.

The impact of stress in the workplace can have a significant impact on their future at work. As their statistics showcased the participants who were stressed all of the time or most of the time was only 20% likely to stay at their current company for the next two years.

Commenting on the findings, Ian McVey, Enterprise Lead for Northern Europe at Qualtrics, said, “This research presents a worrying trend in work culture, with high levels of employee stress increasingly becoming the ‘new normal’. We know from our research that employees who feel they have a healthy balance between their work and personal lives tend to be less stressed, more engaged and more likely to remain in their jobs.

Across all industries, employees working in t

he financial sector reported the highest levels of stress with a third saying they feel overwhelmed by work most or all of the time.

Ian McVey finished by saying “Given that it costs up to 10 times as much to train new staff as it does to retain existing workers, employers should think carefully about how they can help their staff manage work-life balance. If managers are going to get the most out of their staff, they need to work to alleviate stress by championing a better work-life balance, and providing support on how to manage a demanding workload.”

When looking at the common reasons behind workplace-related stress, research by Reboot Digital found that the main reasons were excessive workload at 84%, over-emphasis on results at 79%, and constantly having to deal with the incompetence of fellow work colleagues at 76%

Due to these high levels of stress, this could potentially have an impact on productivity and effectiveness of companies workforces. With a recent report by Deloitte Voice of the Workforce report finding that only 27% of employees are not performing to the best of their ability.

Anne-Marie Malley, UK human capital leader at Deloitte commented on this lack of performance, and what companies are having to deal with now due to this lack of productivity, saying “Businesses are facing an uphill struggle to address these factors which are leading to dissatisfaction, disengagement and despondency among employees,”

She continued by discussing what companies must do to tackle this issue “Employers must offer more support to strengthen their workers’ skills and communicate the value their roles are bringing to their company, the economy and ultimately society as a whole.”

Also included in the report, found that 50% of UK employees that were surveyed said that they were ‘somewhat’ or ‘very’ satisfied with their job. When looking at the most satisfied age group, 25-34-year-olds seemed to be the happiest with their careers, with 64% feeling satisfied or very satisfied in their current role. Although for the age group of under-25s only 54% said they were somewhat satisfied, with 30% saying that they were dissatisfied.

The research carried out with more than 1,000 workers in the UK, also found that just one in five (20%) would describe their company as unsupportive of a healthy work-life balance.

To find out more about the Qualtrics Employee Pulse, visit https://www.qualtrics.com/uk/employee-experience/employee-engagement-research/