Why working from home can still leave us stressed

IF YOU have got a job, the chances are you are more satisfied, enjoying more opportunities, feeling more engaged in your work and more motivated than you were last year. You are probably even happy with your boss. In fact, the emotion that employees most readily associate with work is that of being cheerful.

However, while job satisfaction is on the up, according to the latest Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) Employee Outlook survey, and work is more flexible than ever, that does not mean we’re immune to stresses of work — or that we are all happy to stay put.

One in three employees is looking to move jobs in order to help reduce stress, which despite our increasing job satisfaction is a significant issue — particularly if you work in the capital.

Overall, one in five of all employees is looking for a job — and half of these have actually started applying.

In addition to seeking a role with less stress, another key reason for looking elsewhere is to get better pay and benefits (54 per cent). Nearly as many (46 per cent) want to increase their overall job satisfaction.

Not surprisingly, Londoners are the most stressed workers in the UK, according to research from Lee Hecht Harrison Penna, the global HR consultancy, to coincide with the end of Stress Awareness Month.

Almost a quarter of staff are frazzled by work and reporting “significant stress each day at work”.

The under-35s are particularly hardhit by pressure.

Even when we leave the office, many of us find it hard to switch off, with research showing that a third of employees take home work to complete in the evenings or at weekends.

Seven in 10 Londoners also admit to checking their work emails in the When looking for a new job, we don’t just want more pay — we also want less stress, but while home working appears great, for many it means they never switch off, writes

Such is the pressure to be at work that a significant number of parents do not even manage to take all of their annual leave.

More than a quarter (27 per cent) of working parents surveyed by Talking Talent said that on average, seven or more days of their holiday went unused due to workload last year.

The gap is wider for men at work, with 72 per cent of fathers claiming to be physically and emotionally worn out by their work and working environment, compared to 51 per cent of working men who do not have children.

This is taking its toll on family life, with six in 10 working parents believing they are “not being good enough parents or partners”. The fact that seven in 10 senior managers also feel worn out by work is having its impact on productivity, with six in 10 reporting that they “often lose focus at work” and four in 10 saying they “do not think clearly at work”.

Graduates and young professionals are suffering even more, with threequarters of professionals aged 25-34 already “worn out by work”. This is impacting on sick leave.

Last year in the UK, younger workers

took more days off work due to stressrelated issues than older workers — roughly 65 per cent of 16-24 young workers compared to only 24 per cent of older workers.

While working from home is seen as a solution to these stress issues, remote working is not always a positive, according to the latest CIPD/Halogen Employee Outlook report.

Its survey of more than 2,000 UK

employees found that workers are divided on whether remote access to the workplace is a positive or negative development.

Nearly a fifth feel as though they are under surveillance due to remote access to work, and two in 10 say it makes them feel anxious or even impacts their quality of sleep.

However, more than a third say having remote access to the workplace makes them more productive, according to the report.