Women fed up with work stress

Colin Adamson12 April 2012

The age of power-dressing career women relentlessly pursuing success at all costs appears to be rapidly on the wane, according to a survey out today.

Nine out of 10 working women in London and the South-East say they are worn out with the demands of work and home. A similarly high proportion are sick of being cast as female "can do it all" role models.

The survey of 5,000 women was compiled by health magazine Top Sant? with Bupa.

It found 83per cent in the capital and surrounding region would quit their job tomorrow given the chance, and 63per cent say they are "disillusioned with the whole world of work".

Eighty-eight per cent felt stressed most of the time, 77per cent thought overwork was harming their health, 74 per cent said stress would reduce women's life expectancy, and 18 per cent said they were too tired for sex.

Many women blame men for not pulling their weight either at home or in the office, where they are accused of skiving off and taking the longest lunchbreaks. The result is a sickness boom, with one third of women workers taking at least 17 sick days a year.

Women's average earnings in the capital are now £23,600 a year, £4,000 above the national mean. But most working women in London said tiredness meant they could forget nights out and business trips with their partner. Almost half said their only treat was collapsing with a glass of wine when they get home.

Flirting in the office was recommended to keep women sane. London women workers were the biggest flirts, eight out of 10 having done so. A quarter said they would flirt to gain promotion.

And forget sisterhood. Four out of five said female bosses were the hardest taskmasters and almost as many accused them of abusing power more than men.

Four out of 10 fulltime women workers now earn more than their partners, and almost everyone interviewed felt women were invaluable workers - especially at organising, communicating, multi-tasking, compromising and dealing with the public.

But while 70per cent said they would enjoy their work if that was all they had to do, 88per cent thought they were expected to perform too many roles and given the financial choice, only one in five would be a "career woman".

Only 11per cent of those with a preschool child wanted to work full-time, around a third would work part-time and half would work from home or be a fulltime mother. Nine out of 10 thought children suffered emotionally because of the stress of mothers trying to juggle work and home.

The report says: "Unlike the beaming togetherness of the Blairs, the majority of working mums say their family lives are being driven to breaking point."

Men came in for criticism. Eight in 10 women said they had to take time off when their children were ill and not their partner; 84 per cent said their partner did not do enough on the home front. Eight out of 10 believed the chance of divorce was much greater with both partners in full-time jobs.

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