Survey: What’s driving dread at work?

Almost half of all employees feel a sense of dread at work at least once a week, and more than one-third of human resources leaders feel both burned out from emotional caregiving responsibilities and overwhelmed by increasing job expectations.

Those are just a few of the disheartening results of the Fifth Annual Workforce Attitudes Toward Mental Health Report, released earlier this month by Headspace, a comprehensive mental health platform for employees and their dependents. Based on a global survey conducted between February and April, the report compiles data from more than 400 CEOs and 4,000 workers in the United States, Australia, Germany, and the United Kingdom to examine workplace issues driving stress and burnout. Headspace also surveyed more than 250 HR leaders in the U.S. and U.K. about the stressors they face.

“Workplace mental health continues to be a top three business priority, with employees and CEOs experiencing frequent levels of stress due to market uncertainty and growing workplace pressures,” Russell Glass, CEO of Headspace, said in a statement. “In response, companies must not only ensure they have robust mental health and wellbeing programs in place, but that their leaders are tending to their own mental health, fostering open conversations with their teams, and helping to reduce stigma in the workplace.”

Here are more eye-opening highlights of the survey:

Employees

• Eighty-nine percent of employees say they have felt moderate to extreme stress over the past 12 months.

• The top drivers of dread are lack of stability creating a constant feeling of unpredictability at work (45%); being overwhelmed by expectations to take on more job responsibilities (45%); and higher expectations and the fear of not being able to meet them (42%).

• Gen Z workers report the highest levels of dread, as do non-binary workers.

• More than one-third of workers (38%) say fear of their job being replaced by technology is a top driver of dread, and Gen Z is the most worried.

• The vast majority of employees (97%) say global events like war, economic uncertainty, political uncertainty, and acts of violence impact their mental health at work.

• Among U.S. workers, 1 in 4 employees say police brutality takes a toll on their mental health, and 1 in 5 cite gun violence as another factor impacting their wellbeing at work.

CEOs

• CEOs report feeling more dread (59%) on a weekly basis than their employees, with economic uncertainty being a major factor for U.S.-based CEOs.

• Three-quarters of global employees worry CEOs will cut back on mental health and benefits support in a recession, but 64% of CEOs say they actually would increase those benefits during a recession.

• An increasing number of CEOs are speaking up about the state of their mental health, and almost all CEOs agree that they’re a better leader when their mental health is strong.

HR Leaders

• Most HR leaders (94%) feel an increasing responsibility to improve company culture by supporting employee mental health.

• While 91% rate of HR leaders rate their mental health benefits program positively, only 41% use those benefits regularly — compared to 64% of CEOs and 73% of employees.

Read more: 67% of employees want their employer to provide mental health support

“HR teams play an especially important role in supporting the emotional wellbeing of employees as they navigate a dynamic and uncertain external environment,” Elaine Beddome, senior vice president of compensation, benefits, and employee mobility at HP, said in a statement. “Headspace’s research clearly demonstrates that HR leaders need to set the tone for the organization by caring for our own mental health and encouraging others to do the same.”