22nd April 2025
Beyond the balance sheet: why mental health is becoming finance’s biggest talent risk
Burnout and breakdowns were once whispered about in the City of London. Not anymore. The UK accounting industry, for example, is grappling with what one report calls a “mental health emergency,” as 90% of accountants say they’ve experienced significant stress harming their wellbeing amid a recent exodus of colleagues. In banking, intense pressure has even led to legal action – a former Goldman Sachs executive is suing his employer for £1 million after “unreasonable” working hours allegedly drove him to depression and suicidal thoughts. From boardrooms to trading floors, the financial services sector is facing a mental health reckoning.
Burnout and stress
New data paints a stark picture of stress across financial services. In a 2023 survey of 1,000 UK finance employees, 83% had considered changing jobs because of work-related mental health concerns and nearly half of those had actually quit a role for that reason. Six in ten felt their employer could do more to support workplace wellbeing. Despite progress in reducing stigma, many still suffer in silence – one in four finance workers aren’t comfortable discussing mental health with their manager, and a similar proportion feel a lack of managerial support. One in five even cite a toxic company culture as a key factor harming their mental state.
One of the biggest challenges is job insecurity. Many are reluctant to speak up about their problems, concerned that colleagues may consider any mental health issues as having a potential impact on job performance. The fear is that being marked as ‘weak’, in other words, could mean the difference between keeping or losing your job.
What would help? Employees themselves have ideas. In the finance sector survey, 41% said flexible working hours would improve their mental health and 35% wanted more choice over working from home or office. External economic pressures are adding fuel to the fire as well: 50% of financial services staff said the surging cost-of-living is the biggest threat to their mental wellbeing in the next six months.
High-pressure culture and its consequences
Long hours and “always on” expectations have long been hallmarks of FS jobs – the complexity of the work and relentless deadlines leave many feeling overwhelmed. Junior bankers in several firms have complained of “inhumane” hours and burnout-inducing workloads in recent years.
Internal workplace dynamics can worsen or alleviate stress. Unfortunately, many financial organisations still have cultures where seeking help is perceived as a weakness. The MHFA survey revealed that a quarter of finance employees say they don’t feel safe talking about mental health at work. Such stigma can prevent individuals from accessing support until they hit a breaking point. Additionally, monotony and lack of support play a role – even in prestigious finance roles, work can turn into grind.
Crucially, the current economic climate amplifies the strain on workers’ mental health. With inflation and interest rates up, financial anxiety outside of work is creeping in. For employees already stretched thin by their jobs, this added uncertainty can be debilitating. It creates a vicious cycle: stress at work affects home life, and stress at home (or in one’s personal finances) feeds back into work performance. Without intervention, this cycle can severely undermine engagement, morale and ultimately the bottom line.
It's an issue that’s been exacerbated post pandemic. Individuals describe feeling overwhelm and anxiety more than ever before. Employees often arrive at their job with their mental ‘resources’ already stripped through circumstances external to work. To recognise this, employers could consider what studies have called the ‘personal resource allocation model’ as a backdrop for one-to-one conversations, rather than a traditional appraisal model. This would help account for the fluctuating pressures both in and outside of work.
Because the implications for financial firms are no longer theoretical – they are operational. When four in five employees say they’ve considered leaving to protect their mental health, retention is no longer just an HR challenge, but a threat to business continuity. In sectors like accounting, talent attrition is already reshaping the landscape, with mid-career professionals leaving in droves and recruitment pipelines struggling to keep pace. For firms operating in high-pressure, high-stakes environments, the question is no longer whether to act – it’s whether they can afford not to.
