Partner Article

A Stressed Britain: Overworked and Underappreciated

As we approach this year’s National Stress Awareness Day (4th Nov 2015), new research reveals how 60.9% of UK employees feel overworked, with a quarter (25.5%) admitting they have had to take time off due to stress.

The news comes from the UK’s largest job site, CV-Library, which conducted a survey amongst over 1,100 workers to explore stress levels in the workplace. Worryingly, it unveiled that 24.5% of workers don’t know how to deal with their stress and try to keep it to themselves, whilst those that do confront the issue often manage it by adopting unhealthy lifestyle choices. Turning to alcohol and junk food which are both included in the five most common coping mechanisms:

1. Speaking with friends and family (53.8%)
2. Talking to co-workers (23.5%)
3. Having a few drinks (17%)
4. Comfort eating (14.7%) – this jumps to a whopping 23.4% for women
5. Taking time off (13.3%)

Furthermore, when resorting to taking time off work, 15.8% of employees are too scared to tell their boss that stress was the cause of absence.

When it comes to assessing the biggest causes of stress in the workplace, feeling overworked came on top; an overwhelming 60.9% of employees believe they don’t have enough time in the day to complete basic tasks. Other common stress-inducers included:

• Being rushed to complete work (68.1%)
• Feeling underappreciated (51.9%)
• Dealing with poor management (19.7%)
• Working with lazy colleagues (13.8%)
• Failing to achieve a good work/life balance (6.9%)

Commenting on the findings, Lee Biggins, founder and managing director of CV-Library, says: “It’s worrying that such a large proportion of the UK’s working population suffers from stress, which is being caused by strained situations in the workplace. What’s more concerning is the negative stigma attached to stress that prevents employees from being honest with their boss. Staff often feel that admitting to feeling overworked or pressured will automatically create assumptions around their ability to do a job; for the benefit of both workers and businesses, this attitude needs to change.”

Learn more about CV-Library at www.cv-library.co.uk.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Michelle Smithson .