Money is the lifeblood of the world and therefore employees of financial institutions face an unmeasurable level of stress from time to time. In this essay I will discuss the main reasons contributing to stress in the banking sector (particularly in the UK), the effects of stress on different parties and how financial institutions and individuals somehow manage to reduce the stress arising from their workload. In commercial banks, one of the most typical reasons leading to high stress is that staff must (by all means) manage to achieve the daily sales target by selling financial products to customers. Hilary Osborne (2013) reports how a Halifax staff member described how stressful the sales culture is, with “sales targets are everywhere” and “throughout the day, staff discuss how much they have sold and how they can sell more ". Specifically, around four meetings were held a day in a Halifax branch, to discuss which products would be sold to which customers, which according to the staff left them quite “discouraged and demotivated” because “how do you know the needs of a customer without ever speaking to him? ”. If available customers at the branch do not purchase many financial products, staff will have to “call existing customers to inform them of potential products they may want”. All sales will be translated into points and as each branch needs to earn around 5,000 points a day, “there is once again pressure on staff to find more points from customers before 5pm”. Things are even worse in investment banking. A former banker comments on the workload in investment banking: “It's crazy because even under normal conditions you could work more than 100 hours a week. I would often suddenly get out of bed an hour or... middle of paper....... Available at: http://rt.com/business/credit-suisse-saturday-off- 585/ (7) (Accessed: 23 April 2014) The Huffington Post/PA (2014) Hormones may worsen bankers' stress during financial crisis, study reveals. Available at: http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2014/02/17/city-bankers-stress-hormones_n_4802802.html (8) (Accessed: 23 April 2014)Tuttle B, (2014), RANKED: The The most stressful jobs on Wall Street, Business Insider, January 9 [Online]. Available at: http://www.businessinsider.com/the-most-stressful-jobs-on-wall-street-2014-1 (9) (Accessed: 7 May 2014)Ward V, (2013), Bank Intern who died after 'working for 72 hours' felt pressure to excel, The Telegraph, 20 August [Online]. Available at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/10255199/Bank-intern-who-died-after-working-for-72-hours-felt- Pressure-to-excel .html (10) (Accessed: April 23 2014)