All In Census: one in three feel stressed or anxious

A third of advertising professionals feel stressed or anxious, with higher levels among specific age groups, job levels, and minority groups, the industry’s second All In Census has found.

For the first time this year’s Census included questions around the mental health among advertising professionals.

One third of all respondents reported feeling stressed or anxious, with 14% stating this was primarily work-related.

A higher proportion, more than a quarter (26%), “feel consistently anxious about their job”, and just over one in 10 (12%) said they were affected by mental health conditions including depression, bipolar, and schizophrenia.

Stress and anxiety levels were notably higher than the industry average (33%) for those that identify as non-binary (56%), disabled (56%), LGBT+ (46%), carers (41%), under-34s (38%), mixed race (38%), and women (37%).

Work-related stress was notably higher than the average of 14% for disabled (22%), carers (19%), LGB+ (20%).

Across job seniority, there were marginally higher stress levels for those in junior and middle management roles.

This was measured across gender, age, ethnicity, sexual orientation, socioeconomic background, disability status, caregiver status, and job level.

This comes as demand for the advertising mental health charity NABS’ core services doubled year-on-year, with more than 2,200 needing support in the first quarter of 2023.

Minorities slightly less likely to leave industry in a year

Just over a fifth (21%) of respondents said they were likely to leave their company in the next 12 months.

The most popular reasons to do this was better opportunities/salary elsewhere (71%), poor work/life balance (26%) and career change (19%).

In the previous survey in 2021, nearly one-third of Black employees were likely to quit their jobs in advertising because the sector is not inclusive enough. This year’s survey found this had slightly decreased from 32% to 30%.

The largest drop was in this sentiment was among those that identified as Asian, followed by Mixed, Any Minority Ethnic and White employees.

C-suite positions and discrimination

The survey found there had been an increase in women occupying C-suite positions compared to its last report in 2021, rising from 39% to 43%.

It also revealed 4% of the industry identified as black, 8% Asian, and 5% mixed. When examining this ration in C-suite positions, this dropped to 2%, 4% and 3% respectively.

The London working population registered as 11% Black, 18% Asian, and 3% Mixed, and the wider UK working population was 3%, 8% and 2%.

In the previous survey Black (14%), Asian (11%), Muslim (9%) or Women (9%) employees were identified as the most likely to have experienced discrimination.

This survey found there were percentage decreases on All In 2021 Census of 8%, 4%, 7% and 3% respectively.

More than half (55%) of women respondents believed parental leave had negatively impacted their career progression, 29% believed gender hinders one’s career, and 9% had experienced sexual discrimination in the last twelve months, and 1% sexual harassment.

This is compared to 6% of men surveyed who believed parental leave had negatively impacted their career, and 12% who thought gender hinders one’s career. Just 1% of men reported they experienced sexual discrimination or sexual harassment over the last year.

The first All In Census launched in 2021. This time, the Census gathered almost 19,000 responses from UK employees in advertising roles, making it the largest survey of its kind undertaken by any UK business sector.

It posed questions around gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, disability, age, religion, mental health, social mobility, hybrid working, retention, company culture, hybrid working and demeaning behaviours, which were collated into the All In Report, published today by the industry’s Inclusion Working Group, formed by the Advertising Association, IPA and ISBA.

At the All In Summit today editor Omar Oakes will discuss “The Future of the Workplace: The Impact of Hybrid Working on Company Culture, Creativity and Mental Health with Josh Krichefski, CEO, EMEA & UK at GroupM, and Veriça Djurdjevic, chief revenue officer at Channel 4.

The aim of All In is to:

• To improve representation and inclusion in the UK advertising & marketing industry
• To create a workplace where everyone feels they belong

The split of respondents to the survey was women (60%), men (39%) and then trans/non-binary (1%).

The full results are available on the All In Hub  and member organisations with participation numbers above a qualifying criteria can access their own results to compare how they benchmark against industry average and identify specific areas for improvement.