Australian entrepreneurs are good at handling stress, but bad at taking holidays

Australian business owners have managed to stay relatively calm during the hectic financial crisis, with a new study showing they recorded lower than average stress levels during the past year.

But that calm could be doing businesses more harm than good, with a separate study showing bosses are still refusing to use stockpiled annual leave even though they are encouraging other employees to do so.

A new Grant Thornton International survey has found 36% of Australian business leaders said they suffered increased stress levels over the past year – but this is well below the 56% global average.

The survey found that cashflow issues were the biggest concern for bosses at 28%, followed by economic conditions at 27%. Stress from office politics, and heavy workloads, was cited at 15%.

Global competition was the third largest cause for worry for businesses worldwide, but for Australians, this was ranked as seventh. Additionally, only Sweden, Denmark and Finland reported lower stress levels than Australian businesses, while China recorded the highest levels at 76%.

Victorians were the least stressed at 26%, while South Australians were the most stressed at 46%.

Grant Thornton national head of private businesses services, Tony Markwell, said it appears Australian business owners “link satisfaction and happiness at work to the controllable element of their immediate environment rather than what is going on elsewhere”.

“This may be a factor in them being able to manage stress levels better than most.”

Additionally, the study found a correlation between stress levels and the number of holidays taken. Victorians took the most holidays, at an average of 18.8 days, and recorded the fewest cases of increased stress, while South Australians took four days fewer and recorded higher stress levels.

“The comparatively low holiday days taken by Australians in relation to their lack of increased stress levels suggests they must be very good at managing stress in other ways,” Markwell said.

“However, global correlations and the differences between Australian states definitely point to the value for business owners in taking time out to reflect and recharge, in order to help bring a new perspective to their decision-making.”

However, as a whole, Australians take the fewest holidays at 15 days per year, compared with Denmark and Finland at 23 days.

Similar issues are reflected in a new study from TNS, which demonstrates that while business owners are telling workers they must use up annual leave, they are not taking any themselves. Researcher Carolyn Childs said business owners are also sending mixed signals when it comes to taking leave.

“The purpose of leave is to help us recuperate, yet we tend to hold onto it as a safety net or feel we’re not in a position to take it. The research suggests Australians feel they get mixed messages on the subject of taking leave – employers want us to use our leave but send subliminal messages that discourage it.”

“And in times of economic uncertainty, people are nervous about being away from their desks.”

Childs suggested some reform is needed in order to have workers take more annual leave, such as having designated leave expire after a certain period of time. Additionally, some flexibility has been suggested as an option, with 10% of workers saying they did not take leave because they could not get it at the same time as a partner.

“Australia is one of the few countries that allows workers to accrue annual leave, but by OECD standards our leave proportion is low, our ability to stock-pile is extreme, and our provision of ‘social’ leave (such as sick, parental or carers leave) is not generous.”