April is Stress Awareness Month
And the recent figures published by the National Institute of Clinical Excellence suggest that 13.7 million working days are lost each year in the UK because of work-related
stress, anxiety and depression, costing £28.3 billion yearly!
But the great news for accountants is that each and every day we are meeting hiring firms who are taking the bull by the horns and tearing up the rule book when it comes to how they’ve employed accountants in practice, and investing plenty of time and money into embedding employee happiness into their workplace culture.
So, if you’re one of the thousands of accountants up and down the country who are feeling the impact of stress at work, this Stress Awareness Month we’re encouraging you to join the global campaign to #ChooseHope and take action to reduce your stress levels and live a happier and healthier life.
In 2023, the top causes of stress are:
- Money
- Work
- The economy
- Family responsibilities
- Relationships
- Personal health issues
- Housing costs
- Job stability
- Family health problems
- Personal safety
Many of these issues are intrinsically linked. Stress is a mental health condition and we all know that mental health impacts physical health and vice versa.
As an accountant in practice if you’re spending the bulk of your weekday working hours in a role that makes you feel suitably challenged (but not run-ragged), valued, rewarded and gives you a community to become an integral part of, you’ll be able to eliminate many of the top causes of stress in your life from that list. And by default, if work is making you feel happy and fulfilled, this will have a knock on to the levels of stress that you experience in other areas of your life such as relationships.
But if you’re reading this feeling the symptoms of high levels of stress (holding your breath, deep sighing, an inability to concentrate, indecision, forgetfulness, mood changes to name just a few), you’ll likely be wondering how on earth you can #ChooseHope and break the cycle.
The first step is to recognise the impact that stress is having on your life as an accountant in practice.
And before you allow yourself to feel any sense of guilt or shame that you are feeling stressed, remember that we’re all susceptible to stress. Whether you’re a Junior Accountant whose firm allocates you a significant workload that you struggle to keep up with or an Equity Partner feeling the impact of massive responsibility, stress holds no prejudice and can affect us all.
When you’ve acknowledged that you’re suffering from stress, make a decision to address it.
For most of us, this will mean stepping off the hamster wheel and temporarily turning away from the cause of your stress (an unmanageable to do list or a situation of conflict at work) to get on top of it. It can be hard to take that step as you’ll feel like your burden will become even greater, but we assure you it’s worth it.
This might mean taking a day off to seek professional support, cancelling a day of meetings so that you can sort your workload into priorities and consider what you might be able to delegate or outsource, or even allowing yourself time to update your CV and arrange a call with our experienced team to get the balls in motion to finding you a better role in practice that will reduce your stress levels.
And while you’re at it, use some of the time you’ve seized to do something positive for you. Go for a walk in nature. Take a nap. Focus on breathing properly or call a friend that you know always makes you feel better.
Taking control of your stress levels can be a real turning point.
More often than not, stress doesn’t just materialise overnight. Liken it to a slow trek up a steep mountain, often we don’t notice it creeping up on us and slowly increasing. Where the peak of that mountain lies is up to us and when we decide to tackle the source of our stress.
At Public Practice Recruitment Ltd, we’re highly experienced in matching ambitious job seekers with the very best firms all over the UK. But we’re also proud to provide unbiased career counselling to candidates who are feeling lost at sea.
‘Sometimes the accountants who reach out to us for help securing their next role know exactly what they want and what they deserve. But more often than not, we support accountants who just want something in their professional lives to change and it’s in these instances that our niche market knowledge and experience really sets us apart from generic recruiters. We can not only advise stressed out accountants about what alternatives are available to them, we can also quickly match them up with exactly the kinds of employers they want to work for.’
Garry Howling, Managing Director
Whether it be greater flexibility, more autonomy to get the job done, rewards commensurate with your experience and work ethic, or a client portfolio that will reignite your love of the job, we can support you to make the career changes you need to be happy at work. We’re doing it day in and day out and the results speak for themselves.
To get the ball rolling email us for a career counselling call or upload your CV today. You can trust us to help you #ChooseHope and find a brighter future as an accountant.
