Stress in Small Businesses. Are we at crisis point?

Barbra Carlisle • February 1, 2023

There are two key people issues to be aware of when leading a small medium enterprise (SME). The first is that people get stressed while at work, the second is that they avoid talking about it.


Being able to recognise stress levels among your team is a leadership skill. Research showed that:


over 4 out of 5 SME employees had been affected by ‘excessive’ workload’

And that one third of SME employees experience a mental health problem during their working life  (CIPD, Employee Outlook, Focus on Mental Health, July 2016)


Add to this that employee health outcomes are worse within the SME sector, owners and SME leaders would be advised to sit up and be aware of what is going on among their employees.


SME employees are less likely to talk about stress with their managers.


Only 17% of SME employees are likely to feel comfortable to talk to their manager about stress, compared to 30% of employees in large companies (Open Business Council). Is it because the smaller no of employees means greater fear about being judged? Lack of anonymity? Or not wanting to ‘let the team down’ ?


Work stresses at play


The lack of career progression, low pay and hence the inability to save effectively are key stress points for SME employees. People in larger companies find the long hours and management pressures as causing the most stress.

Whatever the root cause of the stress it is important that people have someone they can talk to, a path to understanding that they can raise personal issues in a safe space. Businesses that don’t have an in-house HR team may find that their people don’t quite know how to start the conversation.


 Recognising stress


 The Health and Safety Executive has a number of tools and tips on how to manage stress in work ( Work-related stress and how to manage it: signs of stress - HSE). This includes:


  • arguments
  • higher staff turnover
  • more reports of stress
  • more sickness absence
  • decreased performance
  • more complaints and grievances


 At an individual level look out for:


  • taking more time off
  • arriving for work later
  • being more twitchy or nervous
  • mood swings
  • being withdrawn
  • loss of motivation, commitment and confidence
  • increased emotional reactions – being more tearful, sensitive or aggressive


5 steps to creating a safe space for talking


The CIPD recommend the following 5 steps to manage stress in the workplace and create an environment where people are able to talk about their wellbeing.


  1.  Think about the end goal, be proactive and not reactive to mental unwellness
  2.  Write your commitment to employee wellbeing down so that people know what to expect – think about the emotional, physical, financial and social needs of your employees
  3. Develop your commitment with your employees so they can own in
  4. Seek external experienced advice – you don’t need to do it on your own
  5. Track and measure and review 


Time to talk day


2nd Feb has been allocated as Time to Talk day - a day to bring people together to talk about mental health. It is an opportunity for SME owners and their teams to take some time to start talking about the impact of working in a SME on individual sense of wellbeing. For more information on how you can talk about mental health visit Mind and Rethinking Mental Illness. If you need help on how to start the conversation drop me a message and I would happily connect and share ideas and strategies

For more insight on people and creating a great culture subscribe or follow me. for more information on the services I offer visit www.gleecoaching.co.uk


Ideas and thoughts on how to lead well through complexity and change

The Intergenerational Advantage: Why Construction Firms Who Blend Ages Will Outperform Everyone Else

By Barbra Carlisle • March 27, 2026
If you’re worried about not having enough young people, including women coming into construction, you’re asking the wrong question. The real risk is what happens when you don’t use the people you already have properly. The Crisis No One Is Solving Properly Across the UK, the construction workforce is ageing faster than it’s being replenished. There are 20% more workers aged 55+ than under 25. And it gets worse: 35% of the workforce is now over 50, and only 20% is under 30. Yes this presents an industry risk, but closer to home we see organisational risk. Leaders worry about recruitment, apprenticeships, T levels, Skills Bootcamps all useful, but none of them address the real issue: Experience is walking out of the door every single day, and new capability isn’t being integrated fast enough. This is exactly what my conversation with Colin McEllin MCIOB of Clan Contracting highlighted. When a 21 year old commercial graduate joined Clan Contracting, Colin didn’t roll his eyes or think, “another kid who’s never been on a site.” He leaned into it and welcomes thoughts, ideas and advice from 'young Aaron'. Massive benefits for him, and Aaron, and the wider team. Why Intergenerational Leadership Is Now a Strategic Priority The construction sector is staring at a workforce cliff edge: • 140,000+ vacancies lie unfilled. • By 2036, 750,000 skilled workers will retire, stripping the industry of vital capability. • The UK will need nearly 1 million additional construction workers by 2032. Yet recruitment alone isn’t enough. You cannot hire your way out of this crisis. We must integrate generations on purpose, not by accident. What Younger Workers Bring (That Leaders Ignore at Their Peril) Younger talent offers: • Modern thinking around sustainability and digital tooling • Analytical approaches and better documentation habits • A willingness to question processes that haven't been updated since the 90s • A commercial lens shaped by newer training systems In Colin’s words, their thinking “took him right back to when he was 21” eager, energetic, ideas driven. You want that energy before they lose it. What Older Workers Bring (That You Can’t Replace) Your experienced people have: • 30+ years of instinct • Pattern recognition that no textbook teaches • Quiet influence that stabilises teams • Technical fluency on heritage, concrete, structure, sequencing, conservation, problem solving These people are your institutional memory. Once they go, they’re gone. And currently, UK engineering employers admit they only retain knowledge effectively from 57% of retiring staff. That is a crisis hiding in plain sight. Leadership Actions That Works 1. Create deliberate two way mentoring (not hierarchical mentoring). Younger staff teach digital skills, new processes, sustainability thinking. Older staff teach technical judgment, site sense, risk spotting. Both feel valued. 2. Give young people actual responsibility, not token tasks. The CITB plans 40,000+ industry placements a year. It means nothing if leaders hide young people in the corner. Let them make decisions, with support. 3. Systemise knowledge transfer. You cannot afford to rely on “ask Dave if you need help.” You need processes, templates, technical walkthroughs, shared documentation. 4. Remove the “that’s not how we do it here” reflex. 76% of construction workers say current training doesn’t adequately prepare people for the job. So your way probably isn’t the best way anymore. Your Competitive Advantage Is Sitting Right Under Your Nose When generations work in isolation, capability leaks. When generations work together, capability compounds. The firms who win over the next decade won’t be the ones who grab the talent, it will be the ones who blend talent. Listen to the full episode of the podcast here or watch on You Tube here About me I write about topics that my podcast guests bring to the podcast. They have years of experience with challenges and opportunities along the way, highs and lows and are in the thick of leading with purpose and passion, faults an'all. As a coach and trainer I work with leaders and their times to help them thrive, laugh, enjoy their work, be productive and to build teams of all ages.

The Leadership Bandwidth Crisis: Why Owners Who Can’t Step Out of “Doing” Will Stagnate

By Barbra Carlisle • March 26, 2026
We love what we do so we grow in that role, we end up as leader with people around us but we want to stay doing the thing we love doing. Balancing leadership is hard.