A huge three quarters of workers regularly come to the end of their tether by 11.16am each day, but Tuesday morning at 10am is when they peak in terms of stress, according to research.
A survey undertaken among 3,000 UK employees aged between 18 and 45 by recruitment agency Michael Page, revealed that, after staff had spent Monday trying to get their brain into gear, catching up with gossip from the weekend and chatting about TV programmes, mid-morning on Tuesday was when most started to feel overwhelmed.
After having gone through emails that they had failed to deal with the day before, this was the time that reality set due to a combination of impending deadlines and a huge ‘to-do’ list as attempts were made to plan for the week ahead.
A spokesman for Michael Page said: “It seems our jobs are the biggest cause of stress in our lives – even little things like the computer freezing – is enough to get us worked up. Whether we feel over-worked, are neck deep in paper or just battling a to-do list which seems never-ending, we are all in agreement when we hit our melting point.”
The study found that a quarter of respondents regularly felt stressed at work, with three quarters feeling that 11.16am each day was when things got on top of them most. A worrying one in five, however, felt that things got too much before 9am.
Two out of five blamed heavy workloads for the situation, a third attributed it to difficult customers or clients, while 30% pointed to their boss. A further one in six blamed their colleagues for not listening to their requests for help.
