Ninety-five per cent of managers find life at work stressful and 28 per cent have taken time off work as a direct result, a survey has revealed.

The survey, which quizzed over 3,000 British public and private sector managers, found that the biggest cause of stress was the workload (62 per cent).

That was closely followed by deadlines (50 per cent), feeling undervalued (39 per cent) and long hours (37 per cent).

Targets, lack of control, too many emails and organisational changes were other significant factors.

The survey, by online learning provider SkillSoft, also found that more than half of the managers surveyed can never imagine a stage in their life when they will be completely stress-free.

Fifty-eight per cent of managers think they will probably spend most of their lives stressed in one way or another and almost 70 per cent say they wake up in the night due to feelings of stress.

Kevin Young, managing director of SkillSoft, said: "Stress in the workplace is a major issue for businesses.

"Helping people to manage stress can have a positive effect on their effectiveness at work and reduce the number of stress-related absences.

"Non-managerial staff can benefit too; our research shows that they are almost as stressed as their bosses."