Stressed marketers facing conflict at work and at home

Senior marketing professionals are not a happy bunch, with widespread high levels of stress and poor work-life balance leading to conflicts not only at work, but at home, too.

So says a new Storyblok survey of 200 professionals at mid to large-sized brands, which reveals that just a third (33.5%) said they had a good work-life balance, 24% stated they were stressed all or most of the time, with only 6% of marketers said they were never stressed.

Some 9% say that work related stress causes them to argue “all the time” with their partners, 13.5% often, and 33% sometimes.

When asked how often they checked work emails on holiday, 47.5% said multiple times, one in ten said every hour, 18% once a day, and 10% never. Some 25% of marketers said they could not stop thinking about work when on holiday.

Meanwhile, a third (33%) of marketers said they did additional work early in the morning before normal business hours.

When asked what their most productive times to do work were, perhaps concerningly for businesses, nearly three-fifths (56%) said they are more productive outside normal working hours.

In relation to their attitudes towards meetings, only 32% of marketers said they enjoyed them and less than half (46.5%) considered their meetings generally productive.

Despite this, over three-quarters (77%) say they have no regrets while a similar proportion (70%) would be happy for their offspring to continue their marketing legacy.

On needing help with a work problem, robots were preferred to people. Some 26% said they now turn to AI for the answer, with 24% saying they would ask a colleague.

In a nod to the continuing arguments about flexible working, the vast majority (75%) said that they would be more productive and happier if they were given the option of working a four-day week, even if it meant working longer hours.

Interestingly, when asked if AI would enable them to do the work that developers do in their team, 18.5% reckon they could do all of a developer’s job, 32% most of it, 37.5% some of it, and 8.5% none.

Storyblok CEO and co-founder Dominik Angerer said: “Marketers are among the most exposed to the impact of technological developments, so gaining a deeper understanding of their personal workplace preferences, stresses, and productivity more broadly can help businesses determine how best to manage change, improve happiness, and productivity.”