'People think of the working day as starting when you?re at your desk,? says Simon, a City analyst. ?But that?s not how it works any more. It starts the moment you wake up in the morning ? you switch on CNBC, you pick up your BlackBerry to check on Bloomberg, to see what?s going on, and what it means for you and your company. Your brain?s in gear from six, six thirty ? and then it?s into breakfast meetings, research, one-on-ones with clients, briefings, flights. Even when you?re on the train home, or eating dinner with your family, the phone will go, and you?ll have to talk to the office in New York, and see where things have finished for the day. At some point, you find that you just can?t get out of bed in the morning.?
Earlier this year, Simon was diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome: when he spoke to the specialists, he was told that 95 per cent of the cases they were seeing involved City workers just like him. The latest victim of strain and stress appears to be Antonio Horta-Osorio, the hard-charging chief executive of Lloyds Banking Group, who has been ordered by doctors to stand down for six to eight weeks because of physical and mental exhaustion.
Given the pay packets such people earn, it can be hard to be sympathetic: hasn?t it always been part of the deal that bankers work themselves into the ground for a couple of decades in exchange for the chance to enjoy a lucrative and lengthy retirement? Similarly, when Sir Michael Wilshaw, the new head of Ofsted, warns that teachers need sabbaticals because of the risk of burnout, the response might be to scoff: yes, they work hard, but what about those long holidays?
Neither problem, however, can be brushed under the carpet. Every year, more than half of state sector teachers take time off work, with the average absence lasting nine days. Whatever your feelings on public sector efficiency, they can?t all be faking it. In fact, if you pick a random profession, or sector of society ? whether it?s civil servants, students, mothers, children or businessmen ? you can find a survey or study showing that stress and burnout are becoming ever more serious problems.
Partly, this is a result of the dismal economy. With employment increasingly insecure, and pressures on family budgets mounting, people are doing everything they can to keep their employers happy. According to statistics released last year, the average family now spends only 49 minutes a day together; even those parents with decent working hours feel they can no longer afford extended holidays or outings. We are sleeping less, worrying more, nervous about the economy, and about our futures.
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