Millions of Australians are considering leaving their jobs in the coming year, as workplace burnout continues to wreak havoc around the country.
New research from Allianz Australia has revealed that almost 80% of employee respondents, and nearly 66% of surveyed managers, feel that their organisation does not uphold good workplace habits and boundaries.
Furthermore, 78% of managers cited systemic barriers that worsen the issue, such as a lack of time and resources, inadequate technology, and competing workplace priorities.
And 2.73 million Australians are considering quitting their jobs in the next 12 months.
Allianz’s data pointed to a 28.4% increase in mental distress compensation claims between the 2021 and 2025 financial years, with the average time off per claim climbing by 10% to 81 days.
“Our claims data indicates that mental stress and work pressure rank as the second highest cause of primary active psychological claims at 34%,” stated Allianz Australia Executive General Manager of Personal Injury, Mark Pittman.
“While Allianz is committed to supporting workers injured by workplace stress, we acknowledge that the most successful outcomes are achieved through prevention.”
The research undertaken by the company also highlighted that a significant majority of employees struggle to find personal time and cope with pressures outside of work, such as household responsibilities, caregiving, and unaided parenting tasks like school drop-offs.
Further, only a stark minority of managers believed their workplace was well set-up to accommodate working parents and carers.
Ten jobs in Australia that can offer more pay than a CEO
“Allianz is calling on Australian workplaces to take a holistic view of employee wellbeing,” Allianz Australia national manager mental health strategy for personal injury, Brianna Cattanach, said.
“Business leaders can support this through job design that ensures: manageable workloads, a natural ebb and flow to work demands, adequate ‘recovery’ time during work hours and ground rules for disconnecting after-hours.”
Helen Lawson Williams, co-founder of anti-burnout program TANK, said burnout could vary person to person, but it didn’t have to be considered part of the job.
“Employees can start by recognising when their stress (and) recovery balance is off, which could feel like fatigue, overwhelm, irritability, or caring less about their work than usual,” she said.
“Speak up before things escalate, and be specific about what’s making it harder to limit stress or recover well – whether it’s meeting overload, lack of breaks, unrealistic deadlines or inability to focus due to pressures outside the workplace.”
