It seems our work as marketers is becoming more stressful.

Lately, I keep reading a lot more about mental issues, and hear a lot of colleagues and friends who are struggling with stress.

While the time of Covid was pretty stressful for everyone, a combination of factors seems to be pushing a lot of people over the edge:

Mass layoffs

Expectations of results with less resources

Economic uncertainty

Rising cost of living

Work/life balance (overworking)

Fear of replacement (with AI or automations)

While the percentage of burn-out has fallen according to Statista from the pea of Covid, it’s still higher than before 2019.

Economic or Financial Factors

Inflation increases the cost of living faster than companies increase salaries.

This leads to uncertainty, and possibly overworking to keep a job, trying to make additional income, or looking for a job.

On the employe’s side, the expectations of management rise, again to cover the inflation, with higher expectations over lower budgets.

While some companies really struggle, others find the opportunity for higher profits.

At least in marketing:

• lower budgets,
• less personnel, and
• cost reduction measures…

…come with expectations of higher performance from current employees.

The rise of AI comes with the expectation to automate many jobs, and increase productivity, while reducing jobs.

Employees are stressed by higher performance expectations or potential replacement from AIs.

Is there a Solution?

While I am not a mental health professional, and I do struggle with work/life balance and stress quite often, I have a few thoughts to share.

If you are struggling with mental health or stress, I strongly advice you to talk to a professional or at least a close friend.

Here are my thoughts on the topic:

Consider a mental health professional (SOS)

Manage expectations internally (SOS)

Improve your skills, soft skills especially

Be open to opportunities, or create ones

You are not alone, speak to a friend or colleague

A piece of advice from a fellow SEO who suffered from stress a few months ago Milica Kovacevic:

And, an advice from a friend I got some time ago. It helped with some problems, but I wouldn’t recommend it to everyone:

Resources to Deal With Stressed

While I found an interesting article at Search Engine Journal about the stressors at marketing, there are much better ways I have found to deal with stress.

Here are a few:

Take a Break

Taking your days off, PTO, yearly vacations or even a weekend to fully unplug is incredibly important.

Constantly working and being on the edge doesn’t help.

Even just de-plugging and not answering to work messages, emails, or planning for next week can make a difference.

Take time for yourself, and respect your self as much as possible.

Meditation & HeadSpace

Meditation helps focus and relax. While I am terrible in meditating and rarely do it, a year or two back, HeadSpace which is a guided meditation series on Netflix helped me work towards it and relax from stressful days.

Podcast on Mental Health

As I gamer (which also helps) a friend recommended this podcast: HealthyGamerGG

Dr. Alok Kanojia talks with gamers and helps them deal with many online problems they face in their daily life and work.

Admittendly, there are many more better podcasts for lots of people, you can do some digging around.

Exercise

I do love bicycling, and for the north hemisphere, swimming is a great solution for hot summers.

Physical exercise helps alleviate stress and calms us down. Exercise can also lead to better health, sleep, and has so many positive side-effects, especially combined with healthy eating.

(I should be the one following my own advice as I really neglected these over the past few months)

We Are All in This Together

Mental health is something we all struggle one way or another.

Stress exists in many professions, individuals, and circumstances.

I decided to focus on stress for marketing professions, as this is a topic close to heart which I understand better and can offer my perspective.

Everyone’s struggle is unique.

Please, if you are struggling, consult a professional or at least a close friend.

That’s the best advice I can give you, and hopefully it can help you too!

We are all in this together, and it requires us as a society to work towards improving mental health.

It’s a long road, and I hope we reach it

Be well my friend!