Nearly a third of young workers quit their jobs last year due to stress, survey data reveals.
The proportion of young workers who need to take time off from work due to stress has also increased compared to their older colleagues, according to a report by the charity Mental Health UK.
Last year, one in three workers aged 18 to 24 required time off due to poor mental health, compared to one in 10 workers aged 45 and over.
Almost half of employees aged 18 to 24 are most likely to feel stressed because they regularly work unpaid overtime or put in extra hours to cope with increased living costs. said.
Meanwhile, about half of employees between the ages of 25 and 34 reported feeling stressed because of: A survey of more than 2,000 workers conducted by YouGov found that this was due to heavy workloads, concerns about job security and redundancy.
The study found that more young people took time off due to stress than last year, with around 29% of workers aged 25 to 34 taking time off in 2024. In contrast, it was 23% last year.
In 2024, a quarter of workers aged 35 to 44 will have taken leave, compared to one-fifth in 2023.
In contrast, the number of older workers taking time off due to stress fell last year, falling to 18-14% for those aged 45-54 and 15-10% for those aged 55 and over.
The charity cited the findings as ’employers and young “This is a warning sign of a breakdown in trust with workers.” They told their managers about the pressure and stress they felt.
Brian Dow, chief executive of Mental Health UK, said the findings showed that “many organizations are still delivering 20th century mental health support in 21st century workplaces”.
He said: ‘Our research shows that young people are most at risk of being exposed to the highest levels of stress in the workplace, but it is important that they open up to their line managers and prevent burnout. “This raises questions about whether reasonable adjustments can be sought to help.”
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“As the generation gap widens, we need to rebuild bridges and open conversations about changing attitudes and expectations about work.
“We are calling on employers to rethink their approach to mental health and work with younger employees to explore reasonable adjustments and workplace health initiatives. We risk losing the latest generation of workers as they look for jobs elsewhere or leave.”
About 8% of those who took time off took short-term sick leave, 4% used long-term sick leave, and an additional 4% took unpaid leave to recover.
Women were 13% more likely than men to report experiencing high levels of stress “always” or “often.”
Men are also more likely than women to say they feel valued at work, with 39% of men saying so compared to 35% of women who report doing more unpaid work at work. The trend was 6 percentage points higher (50 to 44 percent).
