How the communications industry deals with stress

However, the survey shows that well over half of PR professionals are paying more attention to their own health since the Corona pandemic and are focusing on sports and social contacts to counteract the stress of the job.

Permanent availability and parallel tasks

When asked whether they feel they have to be permanently reachable at work - even after work - 51 percent of communications professionals answered "Yes, definitely" (24 percent) or "Somewhat yes" (27 percent). Significantly more men state that they believe they have to be permanently available in any case (30 percent versus 19 percent women). A total of only 43 percent said "Rather no" (21 percent) or "No, definitely not" (22 percent) to this question.
Stress point multitasking

In addition to permanent accessibility, multitasking also ensures a high workload. Three quarters of the survey participants tend to work on several tasks at the same time under high time pressure and bear responsibility at the same time (77 percent). "Rather rarely" or "never" is the case for only 14 percent of respondents. The answers to this question also differed to some extent between male and female communications professionals: While 81 percent of the women surveyed said they were rather to very often responsible for too many tasks in parallel, only 72 percent of the men surveyed felt this pressure.

Interpersonal factors biggest stress triggers

The greatest stress for communications professionals is unreliable team members. 30 percent of respondents are stressed when they cannot rely on their colleagues. Women are significantly more stressed by unreliability than men (35 percent compared to 25 percent). Both genders feel almost equally under pressure when management provides poor leadership or tasks are not clearly defined. In each case, 27 percent of communications professionals cite this as a stress factor. Just under one in four PR professionals also feels stressed by too much work or technical problems (24 percent each).

Fewer communications professionals, on the other hand, are stressed by too much pressure or responsibility (16 percent). Too few staff, and thus more work for the existing team, also causes stress for only one in seven (14 percent).

More mindfulness since Corona

Covid-19 has caused many communications professionals to become more aware of their personal well-being. For example, 62 percent of survey participants say they are paying more attention to their health since the pandemic began than before. 28 percent continue to take the same care of their health as before the pandemic, and only 7 percent have taken rather or definitely less care of their health since then.

In terms of increased mindfulness, there are no significant differences between male and female respondents; women are a few percentage points ahead (65 percent), but the majority of men have also been paying more attention to their own health since the pandemic began (60 percent).

What do communications professionals do specifically to reduce professional stress and stay healthy? Most respondents rely on physical compensation through sports and social contacts. For 40 percent, exercise and for 37 percent time with family and friends are the most popular anti-stress measures. Hobbies or other leisure activities, in turn, help just over one in four survey participants to cope better with stressful situations at work (28 percent). Digital detox is the ideal way for one in five to switch off and wind down (22 percent). Communications professionals, on the other hand, rely less often on healthy eating (18 percent) or meditation (16 percent). Shopping is the most popular anti-stress remedy for a mere 2 percent of respondents.

Women relax more often with the help of Digital Detox than men (25 percent to 17 percent). As many as 4 percent of male communications professionals go shopping to relax, compared with just 1 percent of women.