On February 14, 1990, the furthest away picture of planet Earth was captured.
Titled “Pale Blue Dot”, this image was a rude shock at the time; our planet, who we thought to be a titan in the universe, was now just a single pixel lost in the black canopy of space.
This made us rethink our importance and place in the universe; if Earth appears so insignificant, what are we?
Vessels, cells, microbes, atoms?
Far from dipping straight into an existential crisis, this microscopic scale gave us meaning. The most important things in the universe aren’t the biggest ones. The Eiffel Tower, the Burj Khalifa, mountain chains, meteors, and suns, despite their beauty, power or degree of significance, would be nothing without the billions of invisible components structuring them.
This petiteness took away our role of finished product and gifted us with the one of creator.
Countries went from kingdoms to atoms, and at the heart of these atoms lies a nucleus.
London is the nucleus of the United Kingdom. Packed with energy, movement and mass, the hectic city is often considered to be a stressful place. But like astronomy proved us wrong about our place in the universe, recent research from StaySafe, EcoOnline‘s lone worker solution, reveals that London is less stressful to live than other places in the UK, such as West Midlands, the North West and even Wales.
Index on the Data
Looking at various factors that impact mental health, including average earnings, property prices, social activities, exercise, and well-being activities, StaySafe have uncovered the well-being of workers across different regions.
Using a weighted ranking system and data from official sources such as the ONS and Rightmove, the experts gave each region an overall score out of 120 to create the UK Worker Stress Index.
The capital came in decidedly mid-table, with an overall score of 68/120 on the Stress Index, scoring highly when it comes to property prices, core working hours and low levels of social engagement.
Doom and
The average property price in the capital comes in at £667,019 – more than double the UK average, while rents are also exceeding the UK average by more than 50%; the average monthly rent in the capital stands at £2,627, while the UK average is significantly lower, at £1,295 per month.
Despite having the hustle and bustle of everything London has to offer on their doorstep, the capital also scored highly due to low levels of socialising – with Londoners spending more than half an hour less every day on entertainment and meeting family and friends than the UK average.
This lack of social interaction could be due to a lack of time due to work commitments. Working in London has long been seen as a grind, with long hours eating into their work/life balance. And this could very well be the case. The capital came top with standard working hours; those in the capital work an average of 33.5 hours per week (including part-time) – more than an hour per week above average. A lack of sleep could also be causing Londoners to be stressed; those in the capital get fewer hours’ sleep than the average Brit, despite doing the least amount of unpaid household work.
Bloom
It’s not all doom and gloom, however; London’s workers do the least unpaid overtime of anyone in the UK, spend more time exercising than the average Brit, and spend almost 2.5 hours per day on personal care.
“London is often referred to as one of the most stressful cities to live in, and although there are pressures – particularly around the cost of buying and renting a home – the numbers show that London has a more equal balance than we first thought, giving workers in the capital a better work/life balance than many other places in the UK.” says Richard Bedworth, VP Sales for StaySafe at EcoOnline