British workers are now more worried now about their jobs their jobs than they have been since 1986 according to a report by UKCES (UK Commission for Employment and Skills).
UKCES conducts government backed research, the most recent results show that people are deeply concerned about their jobs, moral is at a massive low. The latest results in their research show that 1 in 4 employees are afraid that they are going to lose their jobs; this is the highest level since the reports began in 1986.
The stress doesn’t end there for the British workforce; many of them feel that they are being put under constant pressure which adds to the stress. According to the poll by UKCES around 40 per cent of the workers that took part said that they had to work at very high speeds for at least 75 per cent of their working day and over half of all of the workers said that they were under constant pressure due to tight deadlines for most of their working hours.
Another factor that is contributing to employee stress is technology. Smartphones and email have made workers much more reachable by their employers at any time of the day. In some cases employees are put under pressure to complete work in their own time to make strict deadlines. Some do this because they are afraid that if they don’t it will look bad on them should their company downsize, which many companies have had to do to survive the UK economy at its low point.
Cary Cooper, professor at Lancaster University Management School said ‘People demand an immediate response. In the old days, you could divide up your work into piles, a pile that needs to be dealt with today, another pile that you could leave for a few days and another pile that you could leave for a few weeks. Now we are bombarded by emails.’
Another source of pressure is internal scheduling. Lots of businesses are starting to use computer planning software which can account for every minute of your working day, this can add to stress levels as small delays impact an employee’s day, and there isn’t normally allocations for toilet breaks and the likes. Often companies demand a minimum level of acceptable figures, and when this isn’t met the employee is forced to defend their planning and actions.