Hidden reality of ‘mental health days’ as most stressed workers revealed
One generation is taking more days off because of stress than any other age group, with fears it could be impacting their job opportunities.
Gen Z’s “mental health days” are costing the nation’s workplaces millions of days off in distress leave and, without knowing it, possibly even their own jobs.
Researchers at Macquarie University found 26 million days of work a year are missed by young workers aged between 18 and 29 – making them the most stressed demographic in the country alongside women and those in Victoria.
Workers in that age group are one and a half times more likely to be distressed compared to workers aged 50 to 64, according to the report, titled Workforce Psychological Distress and Absenteeism in Australia.
The findings are based on Australian Bureau of Statistics National Health Survey data from 2020 and 2021.
Lead author and Macquarie University lecturer, Kristy Burns, told news.com.au young workers tend to work in casual roles with little job security, with significant financial stress as a result.
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“Apart from job insecurity, young people are also more often exposed to workplace conflict, low control over their work, and bullying, which are all associated with poorer mental health,” she said.
“Our concern is that we don’t want employers avoiding hiring young workers on this basis.
“Young people make important contributions to the workplace, and we know that being employed improves mental health, (and) it’s important for society that young people are viewed as an important and valuable part of the workforce.”
It reflects a “rising trend in psychological distress in the population over the last 20 years, a trend likely exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic”, Ms Burns told The Advertiser.
The report found stress costs workplaces close to $17b a year, with the most highly stressed workers missing more than 20 days of work a year – an additional month off compared to their less stressed counterparts.
It is the cause for about 10 per cent of serious injury claims, with 18 per cent of workers reporting psychological distress.
Of that, clerical and administrative workers came in on top at 25.9 per cent, followed by financial and insurance services at 23 per cent.
Meanwhile, mining was industry with the least stressed workers at 8.5 per cent.
A total of 56 million total days off due to distress are estimated to have been taken – with younger workers accounting for the greatest number (26 million days), despite having the smallest workforce.
Healthcare, education and training, accommodation and food, and retail workers were found to take the most days off.
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Women tend to be more stressed, with 21.9 per cent experiencing distress compared to 14.8 per cent of males, the report found.
Twenty-two per cent of Victorian workers register high or very high stress rates, closely followed by the ACT and NT at 19 per cent.
Only 14 per cent of Western Australian workers are overstressed, the lowest in the country.
Victoria also has the highest annual average loss days of 5.7, closely followed by Tasmania with 5.19.
Workers in the ACT took the least amount of days off, sitting at 3.35.
It comes as research by News Corp’s Growth Distillery with Medibank earlier this year found that, of the 34 per cent of Australians currently experiencing burnout.
Of those, 45 per cent were Gen Z and 41 per cent Millennials – citing a lack of downtime and saying they feel overburdened daily due to career demands, family responsibilities, and social expectations.
The most widely-used burnout measure, the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI), defines it by three criteria: exhaustion; loss of empathy towards service recipients or cynicism directed towards one’s job (known as depersonalisation); and reduced professional accomplishment.
Milly Bannister, the award-winning founder of Gen Z mental health charity, ALLKND, said it is a “major oversimplification” to frame burnout as nothing more than being “too tired from working too much”.
“It’s not just a physical state … it’s an identity crisis. When work starts stripping away your sense of self, your values, and your ability to connect with others, that’s when real damage is done,” she said.
To her, burnout isn’t about workload.
Instead, “it’s about misalignment – when the work that once energised you starts depleting you”.
Originally published as Hidden reality of ‘mental health days’ as most stressed workers revealed
