- Fewer UK workers are taking Health and Safety (HSE) recommended screen breaks than ever while working remotely, a new survey shows.
- A new survey, conducted by City Pantry, looks into the nation’s current workplace behaviour, stress levels, mental health and job satisfaction.
- Employers must promote regular breaks to prevent burnout, as it’s revealed just 18.3% of workers have confided in colleagues about poor mental health.
Fewer UK workers are taking Health and Safety (HSE) recommended screen breaks than ever with less than half of us (49%) taking a break while working from home, new data shows.
The survey, conducted by City Pantry, asked workers about their workplace behaviour, stress levels, mental health and job satisfaction, to get an idea of what Brits’ working lives look like and how they can be improved through a focus on employee wellbeing.
The survey also found that 8% of workers don’t take any breaks during the day at all, despite HSE recommending workers take a 5-10 minute break from their screens every hour.
In fact, those in desk jobs often end up skipping lunch too, with a quarter of us working through lunch 2-3 times per week, and over 20% never taking a proper lunch break at all.
With Brits set to work remotely for the foreseeable future, it’s important that employers encourage workers to take regular breaks in order to prevent burnout or dips in mental health, as almost a tenth of Brits (8.2%) admit to feeling very low while at work.
But burnout isn’t just an issue for those of us working from home – in an earlier survey carried out by City Pantry in February, it was revealed that 42% of office workers spend their lunch breaks at their desks every day, with 20% of workers in London regularly skipping lunch altogether.
The implications of overworking on mental health are clear, as over a third of respondents (34%) state they often feel unmotivated at work, while 32% report feeling sluggish.
Claire Russell, Mental Health Coach, believes that “responsible businesses, leaders and managers need to be looking at the mental health and wellbeing of employees from a holistic standpoint, and taking into account a person’s ‘whole-being’ when it comes to encouraging employees to be healthier at work.”
This includes helping workers maintain a good work-life balance and encouraging regular screen breaks to reduce the likelihood of employees experiencing poor mental health during the colder months.
