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The pressure of an increasingly demanding work culture in the UK is perhaps the biggest
and most pressing challenge to the mental health of the general population. The cumulative
effect of increased working hours is having an important effect on the lifestyle
of a huge number of people, which is likely to prove damaging to their mental well-
It is estimated that nearly three in every ten employees will experience a mental health problem in any one year. However the recent and dramatic rise in Britain’s working hours would suggest this is likely to increase. 13% of the UK working population work 49 hours or more per week.
Work related stress already costs Britain 10.4 million working days per year. The
human costs of unmanaged work related stress extends far beyond this. A key way to
protect your mental health against the potential detrimental effects of work related
stress is to ensure you have a healthy work-
What are the signs of an unhealthy work–life balance?
A Mental Health Foundation survey found:
- one third of respondents feel unhappy or very unhappy about the time they devote to work
- more than 40% of employees are neglecting other aspects of their life because of work, which may increase their vulnerability to mental health problems
- when working long hours more than a quarter of employees feel depressed (27%), one third feel anxious (34%), and more than half feel irritable (58%).
- the more hours you spend at work, the more hours outside of work you are likely to spend thinking or worrying about it.
- as a person’s weekly hours increase, so do their feelings of unhappiness.
- many more women report unhappiness than men (42% of women compared with 29% of men), which is probably a consequence of competing life roles and more pressure to 'juggle'.
- nearly two thirds of employees have experienced a negative effect on their personal life, including lack of personal development, physical and mental health problems, and poor relationships and poor home life.