Burnout | Two-thirds of staff are battling high stress & low productivity

Two-thirds of staff are struggling with high to moderate levels of workplace stress, a shocking new study has found – and almost a third believe this has had a negative effect on their productivity.

The study of 2,200 employees by nationwide health provider Champion Health discovered that around 60% of workers experience anxiety - with anxious workers almost twice as likely to be female (62% of women compared to 37% male). This fits with recent data that suggests that women are less likely to ask for a payrise (67% of women did not ask for a pay rise in 2020 compared to 37% of men, according to data released Last November on Equal Pay Day), and less likely to speak up in Zoom calls than their male counterparts. Research by the Harvard Business School found that women are also more likely to shrug off praise about their achievements. It all adds up to a scenario where women feel uncertain about their position in the workplace and are therefore more likely to experience stress and anxiety.

However, women are by no means the only ones struggling at work, the Champion Health study found. It also discovered that workers aged 25-34 are most likely to be experiencing anxiety, depression and financial stress – and shockingly, more than half of all workers (52%) are experiencing symptoms of depression, with around a quarter (22%) experiencing clinically significant symptoms.

Interestingly, 56% said that they had “the perfect amount of stress to let them thrive” but 34% said that stress was negatively impacting them. 28% said that high stress was causing them to be less productive.