Search Results for: stress

Stressed staff contribute average ten hours free labour a week

by • Knowledge, News, Workplace

Stressed workers contributing average 10 extra hours work a week

British employees contribute an extra £142 billion a year to their employers, by working on average, an unpaid ten extra hours per week. According to a study by Travelodge of 2,000 workers across the UK, nearly three quarters (72 per cent) routinely do the extra hours, which translates into an average saving of £6,635 for employers. So great is the trend, that one in ten workers cram a whole extra week of unpaid work on top of their normal working schedule so that they can manage their workload, and a third of Britons now work an additional 16 hours a week for free than they did prior to the start of the recession. (more…)

Survey: Work and poor management biggest cause of stress

by • News, Workplace

Stress-300x193Work is the most stressful factor in people’s lives with one in three people (34 per cent) saying their work life was either very or quite stressful – and the top cause (32 per cent) is frustration with poor management. Research commissioned by Mind found work more stressful than debt or financial problems (30 per cent) or health (17 per cent).  However, employees don’t believe that managers are actively tackling causes of stress in the workplace, with only one in five people saying they felt their line manager took active steps to help staff manage stress (22%) or mental health conditions (19%).

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Re-humanising the workplace: why prevention, support and standards matter more than ever

Re-humanising the workplace: why prevention, support and standards matter more than ever

by • Comment, Wellbeing

There is growing recognition that the workplace needs to become more human again, not less.There is growing recognition that the workplace needs to become more human again, not less. For all the talk of performance, productivity and retention, too many organisations still treat stress, ill health and emotional wellbeing as secondary matters. They are not. They sit at the heart of business success. The figures from the Keep Britain Working report, an independent review commissioned by the UK government and led by Sir Charlie Mayfield, the former chair of John Lewis, are a wake-up call. The value at stake is enormous. Employers face an estimated £85 billion a year in lost output and costs linked to ill health. For government, the additional burden in welfare payments and NHS demand is around £47 billion annually. On top of this lies the wider cost to the economy through lower participation, and the human and social costs of lost opportunity, stalled careers and reduced life chances. (more…)

Study confirms that digital tools blur boundaries between work and personal life

Study confirms that digital tools blur boundaries between work and personal life

by • News, Technology, Wellbeing

A new academic study confirms something you probably already know: digital tools are eroding the boundary between work and personal life.A new academic study confirms something you probably already know: digital tools are eroding the boundary between work and personal life. According to the new research, things are getting worse and we experience constantly growing psychological strain as a result of an always on working culture. The study, published in the International Journal of Electronic Finance, finds that widespread use of information and communication technologies such as smartphones, laptops and cloud platforms has enabled greater flexibility but also extended work into nearly all aspects of daily life. (more…)

Employee engagement falls worldwide as AI investment fails to deliver productivity gains

Employee engagement falls worldwide as AI investment fails to deliver productivity gains

by • AI, News, Wellbeing, Workplace

Global employee engagement has declined for a second consecutive year, despite rapid investment in artificial intelligence, according to Gallup’s latest State of the Global Workplace report.Global employee engagement has declined for a second consecutive year, despite rapid investment in artificial intelligence, according to Gallup’s latest State of the Global Workplace report. The study, based on one of the largest ongoing surveys of employee experience, suggests that organisations are struggling to translate technological change into measurable improvements in performance or working life. Employee engagement fell to 20 percent in 2025, down from a peak of 23 percent in 2022 and its lowest level since 2020. This decline has significant economic implications, with Gallup estimating that low engagement costs the global economy around $10 trillion in lost productivity, equivalent to 9 percent of global GDP. (more…)

A word or two on what people tell you about work and workplaces

A word or two on what people tell you about work and workplaces

by • Comment, Wellbeing, Workplace design

All of those surveys about work and workplaces must be telling us something about people and what they do, mustn't they? One of the many criticisms you could make of us as a business is a reliance on company sponsored surveys to generate news stories about workplaces. We don’t publish all of them, you’ll be relieved to hear. The ones we reject are usually too nakedly self-serving. Even the ones that have some degree of statistical cred must be viewed in the right context, distorted as they might be by loaded questions, self-reporting, deliberate lying and other response biases.  Our attitude towards these polls is that they often contain some element of truth, especially if results are repeated over a period of time. When surveys over many years tell you that noise is the biggest gripe about office life, you should believe them.    (more…)

British workers now entirely unproductive, claims report

British workers now entirely unproductive, claims report

by • News, Wellbeing, Workplace

The overwhelming majority of UK workers don’t do anything productive at all, according to a new report published today. The study of available research into the illnesses, injuries, distractions, wastes of time, procrastinations, productivity drains and paralyses that afflict British workers found that the annual cost to the British economy is around £1.8 trillion, equivalent to 98.9 percent of GDP.

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Traditional open plan offices linked to higher risk of workplace bullying, study claims

Traditional open plan offices linked to higher risk of workplace bullying, study claims

by • News, Wellbeing, Workplace design

Employees working in traditional open plan offices are significantly more likely to experience workplace bullying than those in private or smaller shared spaces, according to new research published in the journal Occupational Health Science.Employees working in traditional open plan offices are significantly more likely to experience workplace bullying than those in private or smaller shared spaces, according to new research published in the journal Occupational Health Science. The study, based on a nationally representative sample of 3,307 workers in Sweden, examined whether office design influences the likelihood of negative interpersonal behaviour at work. Researchers found that employees in open plan environments faced a higher risk of bullying even after accounting for factors such as personality, demographics and working patterns. (more…)

Reality or perception – which do you prefer for managing your workplace?

Reality or perception – which do you prefer for managing your workplace?

by • Comment, Facilities management, Property, Workplace design

In 2026, workplace strategy is sophisticated. We talk about hybrid maturity, behavioural analytics, ESG metrics, portfolio optimisation and experience design. The language has evolved. The dashboards are more advanced. The conversations are happening at board level. And yet, many organisations are still making fundamental property decisions based on instinct. They believe the amount of space is not suitable for their requirements or the wrong type of space. They listen to their teams’ demands for changes to their space without the facts to say no. They feel occupancy is higher or lower than it really is. (more…)

Finland is yet again the world’s happiest country. UK and Canada slide

Finland is yet again the world’s happiest country. UK and Canada slide

by • News, Wellbeing

Finland has been named the world’s happiest country for a record ninth consecutive year, according to the World Happiness Report 2026, as new findings highlight a more complex and uneven global picture of wellbeing, particularly among younger peopleFinland has been named the world’s happiest country for a record ninth consecutive year, according to the World Happiness Report 2026, as new findings highlight a more complex and uneven global picture of wellbeing, particularly among younger people. The Nordic nation retained its position at the top of the rankings with an average life evaluation score of 7.764 out of 10. Its continued dominance comes amid widening contrasts between regions, with several European countries maintaining relatively high and stable levels of wellbeing while English-speaking nations continue to slip down the table. (more…)

AI will either save work or destroy it. Apparently.

AI will either save work or destroy it. Apparently.

by • AI, Comment

It's too early to know what precise impact AI will have on jobs, writes Jo Sutherland. Fortunately for us, the future is still ours to shapeAs someone who works at the intersection of communications and responsible AI, I spend a lot of time thinking about how emerging technologies are explained, sold, feared, embraced and misunderstood. Nowhere is that more palpable than in conversations about AI and the future of work, where certainty is sometimes projected before it’s earned. Over the past few months alone, taking part in debates at both the Westminster Employment Forum and the University of Cambridge, I’ve been struck by just how wide the spectrum of opinion still is. Depending on who has the floor, AI is framed either as a magical productivity fix or an existential threat to jobs. The reality probably lies somewhere in the middle. (more…)

AI isn’t turning robots into humans, it’s turning humans into robots.

AI isn’t turning robots into humans, it’s turning humans into robots.

by • AI, Comment, Wellbeing

in amongst all the noise, I’m paying less attention to how AI is seemingly becoming more human, and more attention to how we are using AI to become robot-like.In all the conversations, debates and shouting matches about AI that continue to dominate the internet, there is much talk about the insidious danger of anthropomorphising AI. There is something chilling about the deliberate stumbles, inflections and hesitations that are put into AI communications, to try and convince people that they are talking to a sentient being. Explanations of AI deliberately use language such as ‘the model understands’ to make us believe that AI is developing a human level of learning, as that is more appealing than saying ‘the algorithm predictions are expanding’ (and neatly glosses over the increasing error rates and hallucinations). However, in amongst all the noise, I’m paying less attention to how AI is seemingly becoming more human, and more attention to how we are using AI to become robot-like. (more…)

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