New Survey Claims 59% of UK Telecoms Workers Suffer Stress

A new survey of 10,053 UK employees (inc. 322 telecoms workers) from 25 sectors by Salary Finance has found that 52% of telecoms workers reported experiencing financial worries, while 59% suffer stress, 47% claimed they were more prone to panic attacks, 46% felt depressed and 52% of engineers were tackling sleeplessness.

Admittedly this does rather make telecoms workers sound like a bunch of stressed-out manic depressives (well.. we can be), although when pushed most people in different industries would undoubtedly make similar moans about their own jobs.

Speaking of money woes, telecoms workers were estimated to be spending 2.6 hours each week worrying about their finances and this includes those who appear to be quite well paid. The research found little correlation between rates of pay and levels of financial worry (e.g. 49% of those earning over £100,000 a year had money worries, compared with 40% of people overall).

The study identified that how people spend, save and borrow are key to whether or not they have financial worries. Respondents were asked ten questions about their money habits, resulting in a financial fitness score from 1 (‘Not in Control’) to 5 (‘Financial Freedom’). Some 82% of those with a score of 1 had money worries, versus only 8% of those with a score of 5.

Those scoring lower were more likely to run out of money before being paid, causing reliance on short-term, high-interest borrowing including payday loans. More than half of the telecoms workers surveyed scored ‘3’ or below, with a “staggering” 41% scoring 2. Low levels of financial literacy also emerged, with ISAs, pensions and income protection ranking as the least well-understood financial products.

Asesh Sarkar, co-founder and CEO of Salary Finance, said:

“These figures show that hard-working telecoms professionals are the sector struggling the most under the weight of money worries, with a real impact on wellbeing. However, they also indicate that higher levels of financial literacy and access to responsible finance have the potential to improve the situation.”

The survey itself should probably be taken with a big pinch of salt since it reflects a vested interest by the company that conducted it. On the other hand that’s not to say they don’t still have a point and certainly there are plenty of people who could benefit from having a better understanding of how best to control their money.