Wrike Survey Reveals Communication and Collaboration Challenges are Leading Sources of Stress at Work

Nearly a Third of Workers Report High to Unsustainably High Stress Levels; 55 Percent Have Searched for a New Job and 25 Percent Have Quit Due to Stress

San Jose, Calif., September 6, 2018 -- Wrike, the collaborative work management platform for high-performance teams, surveyed more than 1,600 working adults in the United States and United Kingdom and found that poor teamwork may be at the root of much of the stress experienced in the workplace today. According to the Stress Epidemic Report, the top stressors are “poor communication” (39 percent), “team members not pulling their weight on projects” (28 percent), and “bottlenecks” (25 percent).

“The pace of work has accelerated as a result of a number of converging trends from digitalization to the on-demand economy and globalization,” says Wrike CEO Andrew Filev. “Work is often expected yesterday, and in trying to keep up with the sometimes breakneck speed, workers are stressing themselves to the point of burnout. This report shows that communication and collaboration must be optimized - just like the assembly line during the Industrial Revolution - with digital tools that make work as frictionless as possible, increase productivity, and create a place where teamwork can thrive.”

The Stress Epidemic Report also found that stress is a slippery slope, and that all-to-common work practices, like after-hours emails and new assignments with unrealistic deadlines, affect high-stressed workers far more than those with low stress. Among these, “being unable to locate information I know I’ve seen in the past,” impacts already stressed workers 54 percent more than their less stressed colleagues. This suggests that investing in solutions that provide a single source of truth for everyone involved in a project, as well as visibility and accountability for teams could be a viable  starting point for reducing stress.

“Communication isn’t just about one to one conversations - it’s about knowing where work stands and where to find information,” Filev added. “Businesses that implement processes that keep information moving should find workers are less stressed and better able to balance work and life.”

These survey results suggest that stress is causing employee retention issues for companies, especially larger companies, where 11 percent of employees are experiencing the negative impacts of stress at home everyday. From this group, 45 percent ultimately decided to quit a job due to stress, taking their invaluable organizational knowledge with them, which ultimately costs the company due to lost productivity, as well as the costs associated with recruiting, onboarding, and training new employees.

Additional findings include:

• Nearly a third (27 percent) report high to unsustainably high stress;
• Over a quarter (24 percent) of respondents report a decline in work quality due to stress with 30 percent UK respondents reporting a negative impact on work quality;
• Almost half of UK respondents were more than twice as likely to say “stress causes me to shut down and be unproductive” than US respondents at 18 percent;
• Work-related stress is felt outside the workplace; 53 percent of respondents say stress has caused them to lose sleep and 54 percent said that stress negatively affects their personal lives at least once per week - and some say as frequently as everyday;
• Thirty-one percent of UK respondents reported that they have “stopped caring or checked out” as a result of stress, compared to 51 percent in of US respondents;
• US respondents were 15 percent more likely than UK workers to report losing their temper at work due to stress.

The Stress Epidemic Report can be downloaded here: https://www.wrike.com/library/ebooks/the-stress-epidemic-employees-are-looking-for-a-way-out/.