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Business leaders in the Midlands most stressed
22 January 2020 Health and Wellbeing Workplace Culture
Midlands-based business leaders are more stressed our than anywhere else in the UK, according to a new study .
A study of senior management staff and business leaders in the UK, commissioned by Beeja Meditation, found that 72% Midlands-based business leaders say they are stressed at least once a week and the majority blame this stress on heavy workloads. This compares to 70% of London business owners and 65% of business owners in the North who feel stressed at least once a week.
Across the UK, the study finds that 26% of respondents feel stressed several times a week and 22% of respondents feel stressed daily. Some 58% put stress down to high workloads, and 56% listed tight deadlines as a big stress trigger. A quarter (26%) believe overtime causes their stress.
Will Williams, founder of Beeja Meditation, said: “In many businesses and especially with people in senior roles, tech overload is one of the biggest causes of stress – never being able to switch off. It is an adrenaline culture to get stuff done that actually compromises physiological and neurological function and underpins mental health issues. In addition, there is a rampant culture of perfectionism which leads to negativity, misunderstandings, unattainable expectations, and lots of negative self-talk.”
They found stress is often presented in the form of headaches, sleeping problems, depression and unhappiness, anxiety and being unmotivated. One in six suffer from headaches several times a month as a result of stress and 17% of responders said their stress means they struggle to sleep at least one night a week.
Will continued: “When we don’t sleep well, we under-secrete happy hormones and over-secrete stress chemicals like cortisol and adrenaline, leaving us in a poor mood, and if chronic, significantly raising the probability of developing mental health issues.
“A lack of good quality sleep also means our prefrontal cortex (or CEO of the brain) doesn’t charge up, meaning we tend to lack focus, creativity, decision-making ability and empathy.”
The most popular way to cope with work stress was to spend time with pets – 40%, followed by spending time with friends and family, smoking, drinking alcohol and meditating, according to the report.
Photo by Robert Bye.