More employees are facing performance anxiety

UK businesses are failing to recognise employees’ anxieties around communication in the workplace, a new study has found.

Known as work-related performance anxiety, the business world’s equivalent to stage fright, more and more workers are reporting a feeling of anxiousness at least once a week (five times a month).

These results were documented within the Beating Workplace Performance Anxiety report, published by RADA Business, the commercial subsidiary of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, who surveyed 1000 work forces.

Despite this, few businesses act effectively to help reduce incidents of communications anxiety, as 13 per cent of people questioned revealed that anxieties of communicating in the workplace are actually noticed and resolved by the management team.

“It’s concerning to see how many UK workers aren’t getting the support they need to tackle feelings of anxiety around communicating at work,” said Adrian Kirk, tutor at RADA Business.

“These findings highlight the urgent need for more awareness from businesses, and more strategies to support their employees in this area. We’re convinced that organisations work most effectively when everyone has a voice – and we’re committed to giving people the skills to get themselves heard.”

The findings discovered that 20 per cent (one in five) admitted to being less productive, while the same number confessed to ‘pulling a sickie’ to avoid particularly anxious situations, such as performance reviews or meetings.

18 per cent claimed that colleagues who feel anxious about communicating make them feel uneasy too.

Kirk added: “Techniques inspired by acting training can be effective at tackling performance anxiety in the workplace. Managing nerves and their physical effects can help release the build-up of tension and enable us to access our best self in the workplace.”