Insecurity in the workplace is a depressingly common feature today. Not talked about enough either in private or openly, the effects are many and varied.
The causes of workplace insecurity fall into three basic categories: external factors, internal factors particular to the workplace, and personal factors. If we drill into these causes, we can start to understand how we can counter the negative forces they exert and even reverse their impact.
External factors mean the prevailing vibe in the wider environment, specifically the broader economic picture and the situation in the industry sector where we work.
There are few, if any, countries that are not experiencing profound macro-economic uncertainty. Unemployment is stubbornly high, and the jobs markets are generally weak at the moment. For sure there are niche sectors where things are buoyant, but for the masses the outlook is bleak. Fear, uncertainty and doubt is understandably widespread.
A quarter of people under 25 in Spain are unemployed. The figure for the same demographic in France is 18%. It's slightly better in the UK, but there are still 948,000 young people, August 2025 numbers, aged between 16-24 who are not in employment, education or training according to the UK government's own statistics.
In summary, too many people not enjoying worthwhile work or, indeed, any work at all. The prospect of a major shift in these figures in the near term is slim.
For those in work in sectors undergoing change, which is practically all of them, employees are experiencing feelings of vulnerability and are fearful of prospects.
Let's keep looking at those in work a little bit more. These are the people who are affected by internal and situational factors.
All of the usual suspects are gathered here. Poor leadership, a poorly defined management style, poor communication, ill-defined job descriptions, a lack of apparent strategic direction, and so the list goes on.
And there, on top of the above pressures, the pressures that we put upon ourselves, the personal factors. The pressures that we perceive to be real.
Anyone who has previously been dismissed or made redundant knows how painful this is. Feelings of shame, bitterness, regret, worry about money and a lost lifestyle are impossible to avoid.
Insecurity causes us to re-live these feelings.
We re-live the fear and uncertainty. This leads to worrying about our existing position and what might or could happen. These concerns are frequently without foundation.
But we don't often talk openly or in private about these thoughts, so the negative sentiment tends to build. Without an escape valve, these thoughts remain bottled up where they can ferment.
The last driver of insecurity we want to talk about here is imposter syndrome, also known as self-doubt about one's talents and capabilities. Stay with us, imposter syndrome might just be our collective salvation.
OK, we can agree that insecurity is generally a bad thing.
People should not have to routinely feel insecure in a workplace. But they do. In droves. This is a big issue.
At a personal level, the feeling of insecurity can cause mental and even physical health issues. Reduced motivation and performance flow through to low mood, which flows through to poor eating and drinking habits. A downward spiral then.
The UK based careers and jobs site Indeed talks of the dire consequences of excess stress and cite that workplace induced stress will increase the likelihood of being diagnosed with diabetes by 19%.
It's a good job that you are reading this as we will shortly move on to the solutions part of this article. We do however need to understand as much of the diagnostic picture as possible. That way we can be as sure as we can be that solutions are going to be addressing the causes and not merely the symptoms.
It's obvious why, as individuals, the discomfort we feel in the workplace is not ideal, quite the reverse. It's also clear what the impact is for those of us battling insecurity in the office or on the factory floor. And it is a battle that is usually faced alone.
What about the impact on a company?
Companies need to be more than just alive to the problems widespread low morale can cause. Without going into a long discourse on low productivity, diminished performance, lower levels of collaboration and team working, let's cut to the chase.
An insecure workforce with low levels of self-esteem and a higher level of work-related worry impact heavily on the bottom line. The extent of that will shortly be revealed. Every aspect of the business model is impacted negatively. Good staff leave and less capable staff stay. Market share can be eroded, albeit slowly, and the invisible costs rocket. What do we mean by this? Well, it's about multiple missed opportunities. An overall diminution in quality and a degraded business proposition.
Oh, be quiet! This is all just scaremongering.
Sorry! But it just isn't!
Looking at authoritative sources such as the international consultancy Deloitte, the UK Centre for Mental Health and the UK government's own Office for National Statistics, the eye watering figure of £300 billion emerges. To translate that into something a bit more understandable, that is about six times the UK's annual Defence budget.
All rather expensive it would appear. And not a bill that the UK or any country like it can afford to pay, let alone sustain as a business cost. And even if this figure was inflated, and the evidence suggests it isn't, by as much as £100 billion it's still not a cost the country can continue to bear.
What does the solution to this unholy situation look like?
For you as an individual it's to recognise, manage and ease your insecurity by making intentional decisions to empower yourself to move forward.
Recognise. At the personal level, the very first thing to do is acknowledge the insecurity and the feelings and emotions around that are recognised. Say to yourself that you feel this way and you are ready to progress.
Manage. But let's move on to a really strong and positive small change-based approach using the NoWorriesApp to support you with this.
Firstly, make sure you know what aspects of your role you really own. What are you really good at workwise? Refresh yourself by clearly understanding where you excel.
This approach has a number of advantages. If, in an appraisal for example, you've been told you're good at a particular aspect of your work, do more of that if you can and then look for opportunities to grow in areas where you can make improvements.
And if you're not sure what skills you need to develop, use the NoWorriesApp to reflect and decide what you need to do next to strengthen your hand.
Ease worry with intentional decisions about what to do next to build your personal security. Our self-help tool is the perfect solution here. Download the free to use NoWorriesApp from the App Store and work through your worry in a totally secure, private and completely anonymous environment.
But it's not all down to individuals to solve the insecurity thing in the workplace.
To all UK HR managers and directors and all senior leadership teams out there, exactly how much of the £300 billion annual bill do you want your organisation to pay? If you do not have a clear and defined handle on the Sentiment Analysis in Real-Time© in your business, then you're already paying. How much? No idea! But it will be a lot more than you want to be paying.
Ever asked yourselves how many opportunities is our company missing? Why do good people leave? How can we lift productivity? Why don't we appeal to Gen Z workers? How do we move the needle on overall performance?
The question is serious if you can't understand the sentiment of your workforce. Think what you could be missing. Think of the opportunity.
Flicking through a six-month-old staff survey will not give you the answers. Staff surveys rarely point out candidly even what the issues are. If responses are traceable, or even perceived as being traceable, then the responses are worth precious little.
Time to try something new then. Time to try Sentiment Analysis in Real-Time©. Time to try a new type of leadership, Sentiment Based Leadership©.
To find out how important it is to understand sentiment in an organisation and the value of Sentiment Analysis in Real-Time© visit www.NoWorriesApp.com
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