The main stressful factors mentioned were disorganized work environments, being overworked and responsibilities outside one’s area of expertise and skills.
For 27% of respondents, stress at work is moderate and just 7.7% of respondents say they face little or no stress at work.
Four in ten employees say they are stressed because they are forced to take over their colleagues’ responsibilities, while 37% are stressed due to poor communication between management and their team.
Three in ten employees say they wait too long for their boss to make certain decisions and note a lack of teamwork and the prevalence of an “every man for himself” attitude.
Other stress factors for 20% of respondents are hard to reach goals, unrealistic deadlines and lack of complete information required to do their job well.
Work-related emails and text messages outside working hours also contribute to high levels of stress in employees.
Nearly 80% of respondents say work-related stress levels increase in the past three years and for more than 40% stress levels doubled in the same period.
While 43.4% of respondents say they deal with high stress at work only during certain times of the year, 40% say stress levels are constant throughout the year and 8.8% are highly stressed only around deadlines.
Two out of ten employees say they suffer from burnout, three in ten think they will suffer from burnout within six month unless their stress levels drop, while 15% estimate they would suffer from burnout within a year.
Over the course of their career, 60% of respondents said they looked for a less stressful job and less than 5% sought counseling or filed official complaints with their HR department.
More than half of respondents (54%) say their employer does nothing to reduce stress levels in employees, while 42% are not sure their employer is doing anything to tackle the issue.
In terms of solutions, most respondents (52%) say better communication between managers and employees is the most important, while 49% say employers need to hire more people, 32% want their employer to provide a more relaxed working environment and 30% want a pay raise.
Nearly 25% think stress levels would be lower if their employer allowed for a better work-life balance and around 13% wish to be able to work from home occasionally or have more vacation days.
The survey polled 1,018 internet users in the period October 2-18, 2019.