LifeWorks, a leading provider of digital total wellbeing solutions, released its monthly Mental Health Index™ for October, revealing a negative mental-health score among Canadians for the 18th consecutive month.

Key findings:

  • Overall mental-health score of -10.3 compared to the pre-pandemic benchmark, marking the first decline after three consecutive months of improvement.
  • In the latest survey, more than one-third of Canadians (35 per cent) reported that they are either considering or are unsure about leaving their current job. These groups also reported a mental-health score more than three times lower than those who are not considering leaving their job.
  • Eighteen per cent of respondents that have resigned during the pandemic, did so because of increased stress at work.
  • Sixteen per cent of respondents have resigned due to caregiving responsibilities and this group has among the least favourable mental-health scores (-28.4).

Parents and older employees more likely to resign from their job than younger demographics:

  • Older employees are feeling underappreciated in the workplace at a disproportionate rate, with 35 per cent of respondents between the ages of 40-69 citing lack of appreciation as the reason for considering resignation, compared to nine per cent of those aged 20-39.
  • Conversely, among all respondents, those under 40 years old are 70 per cent more likely to consider resigning from their job than respondents over 50 years old.
  • Parents are more than twice as likely as non-parents to report resigning during the pandemic.

Many Canadians have not been asked by their employer about working preferences, contributing to poorer mental health:

  • Close to half (47 per cent) of respondents report that their employer has not asked them about their working preferences for the post-pandemic workplace, and this group has the lowest mental-health score (-11.6).
  • One-third (33 per cent) of respondents report that their employer has asked them about their working preferences and this group has a mental-health score of -9.4.
  • Twenty per cent of respondents indicate that their employer does not allow for much flexibility in working preferences. This group, however, reported the highest mental-health score (-8.0) across all employees.
  • Managers are nearly 40 per cent more likely than non-managers to report that their employer has asked about working preferences.