July 16, 2024

Put on your own mask first: Leadership strategies for stress management and emotional resilience

Put your own oxygen mask on before assisting other passengers. If you’ve been on a plane before, you’ve heard this saying. What would it look like if you put your own proverbial mask on before placing others? Looking after yourself first? As a leader, making sure that your own stress is properly managed translates to helping yourself so that you’re available to help others. When we don’t have a handle on our stress, it can reveal our negative personal tendencies, be it arrogance, melodrama or volatility. While those derailers have an immense effect on our ability to produce work, they also negatively affect those around us. More →

April 30, 2024

Stress, unpaid overtime and other pressures taking a toll on people’s wellbeing

by Jayne Smith • News, Wellbeing

A new poll from leisure operator Better suggests that the UK population is working far beyond its contracted hours, and this is taking a toll on the health of the nation. Two-thirds of people surveyed say they regularly work unpaid overtime, on average an extra two hours per week, equating to 14 working days per year. One in ten (11 percent) of 45-54 yrs work more than five extra hours per week; that’s the equivalent of 35 days of unpaid work per year. Those working in the education and HR sectors undertake the most unpaid overtime; at an average of 15 days per year. More →

April 29, 2024

Stress, anxiety and a beamish response to it all

by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Legal news, Workplace

We now have a policy of not offering ourselves as an outlet for any of the deluge of comment pieces and surveys that are published each year to accompany the various days – and increasingly weeks and months – dedicated to certain conditions like stress and anxiety. They are a gift both to and from the PR industry. This is largely because we cover such issues year round so don’t feel the need to add to the PR feeding frenzy they generate. Whatever you make of the findings of the reports and others like them, even cynics would have to acknowledge they tap into an unmistakable feeling that work is not as enjoyable as it should be. More →

February 21, 2024

Leaders who vanish in times of crisis increase stress and likelihood of burnout

by Neil Franklin • Business, News

Leaders who are not present during a time of organisational crisis increase workers’ stress levels and the likelihood of them burning out, according to new research from a number of UK business schools, including Durham University Business School. The researchers show that when leaders are absent it creates a more toxic workplace, turning workers against management, as well as increasing workers’ stress, levels of absence and even turnover. More →

January 22, 2024

Third of UK adults experience a high level of stress each year

by Neil Franklin • News, Wellbeing

Over a third of adults experienced high or extreme levels of pressure and stress always or often in the past year (35 percent), according to the new annual report from Mental Health UK. The report warns that the UK is at risk of becoming a ‘burnt-out nation’. Against a backdrop of rising levels of people out of work due to long-term sickness, the polling of over 2,000 UK adults by YouGov for the Mental Health UK reveals that one in five workers (20 percent) needed to take time off due to poor mental health caused by pressure or stress in the past year. More →

November 23, 2023

Half of work related illness is down to stress, depression or anxiety

by Jayne Smith • News, Wellbeing

Nearly two million workers in Great Britain reported suffering from work-related ill health in 2022/23, according the latest annual statistical report from the UK’s Health and Safety Executive. The statistics reveal that 1.8 million workers reported they were suffering from work-related ill health in 2022/23, with approximately half of the cases down to stress, depression or anxiety. In the recent years prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the rate of self-reported work-related ill health had been broadly flat, but the current rate is higher than 2018/19. More →

November 7, 2023

Angry, stressed and worried. The utter state of the UK workforce in 2023

by Jayne Smith • News, Wellbeing

Gallup has published its 2023 Gallup Global Emotions report [registration] – a study of employee sentiment in the UK workforce. According to the report’s Negative Experience Index, which tracks how many people experience daily sadness, anger, stress, worry, and physical pain, full-time UK employees are experiencing historically high levels of daily negative experiences. This latest Gallup data claims that full-time UK employees scored a 32 on Gallup’s Negative Experience Index. This is up substantially from 23 in 2020. Full-time employees in the UK are now some of the most emotionally distressed in Europe, second only to employees in Malta. More →

September 7, 2023

Narcissistic leaders cause employees undue stress in crisis situations

by Neil Franklin • Business, News, Wellbeing, Workplace

Vulnerable narcissistic leaders are especially likely to make employees irritated during crisis situations, reveals new research from NEOMA Business School. Birgit Schyns, Distinguished Professor of People & Organisations at NEOMA, and co-authors analysed survey data on workers in the UK education sector during the COVID-19 pandemic. Respondents reported their levels of irritation and Coronavirus-related worry in five weekly surveys, as well as their experiences with vulnerable narcissistic leadership – an unstable form of leadership characterised by covert feelings of entitlement. More →

July 21, 2023

It is possible to balance the positives and negatives of stress at work

by Lisa Gunn • Comment, Wellbeing

Stress is an inevitable part of everyday life, and our bodies are hard-wired to respond to it. However, it’s clear stress takes a regular, negative toll on organisations across the country. Last year, 17 million days were lost due to stress, depression or anxiety, which accounted for 51 percent of all work-related ill health cases and 55 percent of all working days lost due to ill health. Poor mental health costs employers between £1,205 and £1,560 per employee, per year. Some of the main causes of stress in the workplace include mounting workload pressures, increased responsibilities, and a perceived lack of support from senior management. More →

June 13, 2023

People now less engaged, less fulfilled and more stressed in their working lives

by Neil Franklin • News, Wellbeing, Workplace

New research from the CIPD exploring the quality of UK working lives suggests there has been a negative shift in how people think about and value their work. The CIPD’s Good Work Index 2023 claims that most people like their work and find it satisfying. However, as many as 6-9 million workers, experience poor-quality work in some major respects. CIPD’s survey indicators show that there has been no significant improvement in job quality in the past four years and, in some respects, job quality has gone backwards. Compared to 2019, workers today are less enthused about work, less likely to perceive their work as useful and more likely to simply see work as purely transactional – simply for the money. More →

May 23, 2023

Many people think workplace is a greater source of stress than a relationship breakdown

by Jayne Smith • News, Wellbeing

A new poll claims that workplace stress is seen as having a greater impact by many people, compared to relationship breakdowns. According to the survey conducted by Westfield Health, more than a quarter of workers (27 percent) ranked their job as more stressful than a relationship breakdown (8 percent). These worrying statistics highlight the negative effects of workplace stress on individuals, surpassing even stressful personal circumstances. More →

April 17, 2023

Women experience more stress than men when working hours are fragmented, claims new research

by Neil Franklin • Flexible working, News, Wellbeing

Women experience more stress than men when their employment hours are split into different sections during the day, such as with flexitime and working from home, new research claims. Zhuofei Lu, of the University of Manchester, analysed survey data recorded during the pandemic in 2020-2021 on 620 British men and women, 40 percent of whom had children. More →