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Benefits October 25, 2011
Employees Too Stressed to be Effective
October 25, 2011 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - Two-thirds of employees claim high stress levels and 29% say they come to work too stressed to be effective on five or more days per year, according to the latest StressPulse survey by ComPsych.
Reported by Rebecca Moore
The survey found workers continue to have sustained, high stress levels – 66% in this category, compared with 68% last year.
Workload remains the top cause of stress (40%), followed by people issues (33%), juggling work/personal life (18%), and lack of job security (9%).
More than half (52%) report they miss one to two work days per year due to stress, while nearly a third indicate they miss three to six days. Eighteen percent say stress causes them to miss more than six work days per year.
Stress and personal relationships are the most common reasons for absences for 48% of respondents. Forty-two percent cite medical reasons, and 10% say caregiving responsibilities more often cause them to be absent.
To cope with stress, 52% of those polled indicated they take frequent “stress breaks” at work to talk with others. More than a third (35%) work harder, while 13% take the day off.
Six in 10 respondents say accomplishing basic responsibilities is the most important work priority, while 21% say it is performance improvement.
The StressPulse survey was conducted from October 15 to September 26, 2011, receiving responses from employees of more than 1,500 ComPsych client companies nationwide.