New data* has revealed more than 4 in 5 people have described themselves as feeling in the grip of change fatigue in September, exhausted with workplace and social uncertainty.

As the world marks World Mental Health Day on Sunday 10th October, a significant one third of users feel their low mood has increased in the last month.

The data from Untapped AI’s platform, which uncovers uncensored insights to help inform organisational change, is taken from approximately 10,000 users and covers the Financial Services, Professional Services, Energy and Hypergrowth industries.

As the pandemic has progressed, this would indicate that anxiety (down by 14%) has given way to low mood, with people losing touch with their sense of agency and feeling a lack of control. Factors such as an enforced return to the office or lack of coherent strategy with hybrid working are affecting people’s outlook on their jobs and livelihoods.

Commenting on the findings, Kendal Parmar, co-founder and CEO of Untapped AI, said: “The uncertainty that comes with this stuttering pandemic recovery creates dilemmas for companies who are trying to solve them with wildly differing strategic options. Hybrid working is just one of them.”

Whereas self-reporting surveys risk employees censoring their true feelings, Untapped AI insights are captured via an AI platform which reveals subconscious feelings over a period of time.

Parmar continued: “Without a constant stream of uncensored, grassroots data, companies will be blindsighted into making decisions using flawed information. This is impacting their employees’ wellbeing and leading to an overriding feeling of change fatigue and low mood. What was ‘all in it together’ becomes ‘all in this apart’.

“A key factor with our users on our AI platform is to reconnect them with their sense of agency – that being, their capacity to meaningfully and consciously do things that make them feel more in control of their life and their experiences. At Untapped AI we call it ‘liberated data’ – uncensored data without the filters – raw and free to help your company make decisions based on what is really going on under the hood of this post-pandemic world.”

*data from Untapped AI