Work-related stress is one of the leading causes of mental ill-health. Defined by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) as the adverse human reaction to excessive pressures or other types of work demands, it is often brought on by poor work-life balance, overwhelming workloads, long hours, tight deadlines, and unsupportive managers. According to the 2020 UK Workplace Stress Survey, a staggering 79% of British workers commonly experience work-related stress, in which further research by HSE highlights that a grand total of 17.9 million working days were lost to the occupational health issue in 2019/20. These alarmingly high numbers are not, however, surprising. The COVID-19 pandemic has triggered extensive lockdown measures, leading to mass remote working and, in turn, a complete reliance on digital workplace technologies for anything and everything. Rates of technostress and burnout have, therefore, skyrocketed, with one industry facing the brunt of it all: the IT sector.

IT professionals have been at the forefront of work-related stress for years: the fast-paced nature of tech roles means professionals are susceptible to full-on employee burnout, with many in the UK ‘as stressed as NHS workers’. Pandemic-induced restrictions have only worsened these conditions, as tech employees are reportedly three times more stressed working from home than others. In fact, it wasn’t too long ago that the Founder of digital challenger bank Monzo publicly announced that he was resigning due to the emotional strain of managing a full-blown tech business in a lockdown. So where does this leave IT and the working world in general? What enterprise solutions are available to support employee wellbeing and reduce stress levels?

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