Work-related stress creeps back in as employees return to office
As employees begin returning to prior work routines after a COVID disruption, the same job-related stresses are creeping back in too.
A new survey from Future Forum found that work-related stress reached its highest level since the summer of 2020.
"We know that workers are struggling," Headspace CEO Russell Glass told Yahoo Finance Live (video above). "50% of millennial workers are saying they're contemplating leaving their job due to mental health issues. A third of the workplace is facing burnout right now."
One key source of stress may be inflexible policies now that worker expectations have shifted, according to Brian Elliott, Future Forum executive leader and "How the Future Works" co-author.
“Top talent expects that flexibility is a key part of their work going forward,” Elliott told Yahoo Finance Live. “In fact, flexibility is second only to compensation and people's consideration about where they want to be employed. And that's changing a lot about how people think about not only where, but when people work.”
Great Realization
Those unmet priorities of flexibility and compensation are among the reasons why the Great Resignation has transitioned into the Great Realization or Great Reshuffle, which is characterized by high rates of employee turnover.
A PwC survey found that 1 in 5 people plan to change jobs in the next year.
With a tight labor market, workers are finding that switching jobs increases their odds of securing higher pay. According to Lending Tree, people who started a new job that included relocation within the U.S. enjoyed an 11% jump in earnings — outpacing the 8.3% inflation rate.
But a willingness to leave a job for higher pay at another job isn't always a guarantee of less stress, Elliott noted.
“The grass is always greener on the other side when you join a new organization,” he said. “So thinking ahead about what are you going to get out of it, learning opportunities are really essential when we talk to people.”
For employers trying to navigate employee satisfaction and retain talent, Glass underscored that employee burnout "is now a business continuity issue, which means that businesses, boards, the executives have to be thinking about it."
Coaching company leadership to recognize and talk about mental health could help destigmatize the issue, he added.
"We're all human. We all have these issues," Glass said. "So as executives, as leaders, talking about it helps everybody else talk about it."
Elliott suggested that implementing transparency around return-to-office policies can also incentivize workers to stay on.
“People who don't believe that their senior management is being open with them about their future work plans are four times more likely to tell us that they are definitely looking for new jobs,” he said.
“Instead of sitting there and saying, top-down, we're going to dictate what those rules look like, we realized the different teams have different needs," Elliott added. "So let's start with principles. Like, there are benefits to flexibility. So we're going to afford people the opportunity to work where and when it's best for them."
Rachelle Akuffo is an anchor for Yahoo Finance Live.
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