Stressed at work? You’re in very good company

David Taylor
@DavidTaylorABC

If someone came up to you at work and said, ‘are you happy?’, how would you respond?

I suspect most people would say, ‘yeah, I’m OK’. If you dig a little deeper though you’ll likely find people have some stress – in some cases, quite a bit.

So, what’s the solution? Should you just throw in the towel and quit?

I want to explore what’s stressing people out at work, what’s being done about it, and whether quitting and moving to another role is the solution.

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Can you blame employees for quitting?

We call them “bad days”. It’s what you tell your husband, flat-mate, mother, or whoever you live with when you come home. Or maybe you just mumble to yourself. You say, “gee that was a bad day”.

Why? It could be a range of things: you’ve been passed over again for that promotion, you’ve been the victim of office gossip, or maybe you’ve been bullied?

They’re all situations that can raise the old blood pressure, and produce a dry mouth. An issue arises when these problems come up again and again. It leaves workers feeling despondent and hopeless.

That’s when you google, “positions vacant”.

A new survey by the Australian Institute of Management showed a concerning drop in employee loyalty.

It revealed that over the past 12 months, over two thirds of the 25,000 respondents said they left their role to go to a similar role at another organisation.

Did you get that? People aren’t even moving to other roles or switching careers! They want to basically do the same job, just at another company – a company they hope won’t have a bullying culture, and where there might be the possibility of a promotion or two.

The survey showed the vast majority of employees who leave their role are looking for better management, and more money.

David Pich is the Australian Institute of Management’s chief executive.

He told me you may also suspect: the grass ain’t greener!

“The grass is definitely not necessarily greener, although many staff members around Australia certainly think it is.”

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Wages growth

The grass being just as brown on the other side is particularly the case with wages.

You see the economy, as a whole, isn’t ‘supporting’ workers. Economic growth is slow, inflation is low, and there’s really no sign that employees will be able to confidently ask for a pay rise in the next 12 months.

So, if you’re not hanging around for a pay rise, what are you hanging around for? It turns out that when you add in a few other negative features of any given role, it is enough to prompt people to look for work elsewhere.

Nothing being done

What’s astonishing about this situation is that managers around the country are simply sitting on their hands and watching their staff leave.

David Pich puts it down to, well… laziness.

“I think what it shows is that there’s a bit of complacency slipping into the workplace, and leaders are not looking at workplace culture as a way of retaining staff.”

In fact, almost half of Australian organisations do not have a formal training policy in place, while training budgets have been slashed by 15 per cent in three years.

What could be done

So here’s the thing. We’re all stressed out with higher utilities bills, and job insecurity. Even if you’re firmly strapped to your seat at work, you’ve got next to no chance of getting a pay rise, and you also have to put up with difficult work mates. But, and that’s a big BUT, managers do have the ability to make your life a little easier.

How? Simple. Investing in your staff involves training and developing them. The world around us is constantly changing, and there’s endless numbers of ways managers can engage staff to improve the way they work, boost creativity, and help provide some freedom.

Most importantly, say the experts, employees need to know that are appreciated and valued. It’s all linked together – is an employee is happy? If the answer is ‘no’, then it’s time to ask why, and engage the employee creatively to help improve their work life.

There’s really no getting around it, managers need to figure out how to improve their employees’ jobs without giving them a pay rise.

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One organisation thinks it may have the answer.

Meet Angie Gibson. She’s the human resources manager at the Local Government Association of Queensland.

“It is changing,” she reassures us.

“I think the wellness programmes are well situated in workforces now.

“I think if people don’t see that this is something that they have to do, well then they’re going to fail.”

Most people need to work. You should be able to enjoy it while you’re there.