Member Article

Blue Monday: Less than half of UK workers look forward to work in the mornings

The overwhelming majority of Brits (90%) feel stressed in their jobs, while over a quarter (29%) say they are stressed most or all of the time. That’s according to new research from employee experience company Qualtrics, released this ‘Blue Monday’ — the most depressing day of the year.

The research, carried out with more than 1,000 workers in the UK, also found that less than half of employees (42%) look forward to going to work in the mornings, while 42% are not happy with their work-life balance.

Across all industries, employees working in the financial sector reported the highest levels of stress with a third saying they feel overwhelmed by work most or all of the time. Those in the public sector report the lowest levels of stress.

Commenting on the findings, Ian McVey, Enterprise Lead 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 ted to be less stressed, more engaged and more likely to remain in their jobs.

“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.”

Reviewing Qualtrics’ findings, George Bell a representative from workplace wellness consultancy Sanctus said: “It’s important that businesses place culture at the forefront of their minds, and not just so that it has an impact on the bottom line. Creating a great company culture is not only the right thing to do, but will also create a space where people actually want to come to work, and feel less stressed when they do. This can only have a positive effect on employees, culture and the business as a whole.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Jack Davies .