Pie Insurance’s 2024 Workplace Safety Survey highlighted concerns about work temperature and mental stress issues as the primary issues for workers in small businesses operating in the United States.

“Our survey highlighted mental health as a silent and pervasive threat to workplace safety,” the article accompanying the Pie Insurance survey said.

“The insights provided by individual respondents through an open-ended question revealed a worrying trend, with many citing ‘mental health’, ‘mental stress’ and ‘anxiety’ as serious workplace injuries and work safety nightmares,” she said. “In fact, 13% of small business owners identified stress as the most common workplace injury in their companies over the past five years – with that number rising to 22% among younger entrepreneurs ages 18 to 34.”

The study revealed that mental health-related injuries were not limited to a specific industry but were more affected than others.

“Interestingly, those working in less physical industries were actually more likely to cite mental health claims as the most common injury they encounter in their workplace,” the survey report said. From media and arts (19%) and finance (24%) to research, engineering and IT (36%), small businesses are grappling with the repercussions of workplace stressors, underscoring the urgent need for proactive intervention.

Meanwhile, 31% of respondents indicated that employees expressed concerns about overheating in the workplace during the hot summer months because it affects their work. Unfortunately, 35% of respondents said they had no specific plan and were not planning to do anything to address the temperature issue in the workplace.

However, it is unexpected risks that participants consider their “worst nightmare.” Workplace violence and natural disasters such as floods, earthquakes and hurricanes are on the list of unexpected risks that small business owners fear.

Pie Insurance commissioned the British market research and online data analysis company YouGov to conduct the survey. The survey was conducted online only, from February 19 to 27, with 1,034 small and medium-sized businesses based in the United States.

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