A 2026 survey by HR and payroll software provider Ciphr found that 79% of UK employees regret some of their career choices or work decisions.
The number one regret that people have is spending too much time overthinking or worrying about work.
Other things that people commonly see as career regrets include neglecting their work-life balance, not pursuing their dream job, not speaking up more at work, oversharing at work, and not saving enough towards their retirement.
Holding on to regret is rarely helpful or productive. But it can be a positive motivator to help people avoid repeating certain situations, says Claire Hawes, Ciphr’s chief people and operations officer (pictured right).
She recommends making time for regular self-reflection to build self-awareness. Learning from your past experiences – including what worked and what didn’t – can help you make better decisions going forward.
Here’s her advice on how to avoid some of the biggest career regrets.
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Career regret: working too many hours / not prioritising work-life balance
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Career regret: not saving enough money into a pension or not starting to save into a pension sooner
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Career regret: not pursuing a dream job or the career that you wanted to
Career regret: working too many hours / not prioritising work-life balance
Nearly one in four (23%) UK managers say they regret overworking and not doing more to prioritise their work-life balance.
“Work-life balance means something different to everyone, so this is very much down to personal boundaries,” says Hawes.
“If you’re feeling that you’re overworking, then you probably are. There is a fine line between healthy, engaged, ambitious working hours where employees enjoy their role and are happy to do a bit extra when they want to, and an implied expectation that they must work as many hours as are required to get the job done.
“If you’re regularly working more than your contracted hours because you’re feeling stressed or overwhelmed with your workload, or you don’t have enough support, then this needs to be urgently addressed.
“If left unchecked, frequent or excessive overtime, puts people at risk of burnout, ill health or even accidents. And it could impact your home life, relationships, and wellbeing. It’s also time you can’t get back – so be sure you’re happy with the trade-off.
Identifying your personal priorities – what’s important to you, makes it easier to make intentional choices about what’s right for you, says Hawes. “Then you can create boundaries (clear limits on your time and capacity) that protect these priorities, and other non-negotiables. Just turning off notifications on your phone, for example, can help you disconnect from work out of hours.”
What can employers do?
Employers have a duty of care to balance productivity with their employees’ wellbeing. Offering flexible working arrangements is a good first step.
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Presenteeism or a long hours culture should not be normalised. Ensure staff are encouraged to take regular breaks and holidays. Leaders need to role model healthy work behaviours, including taking annual leave, not working when ill, and not emailing out of hours.
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Equip managers with the knowledge and tools to support their teams, and be sure to regularly review workloads and deadlines to ensure work is equitably distributed.
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Regular 1:1s can help managers to identify potential issues before they escalate and catch the signs of employee stress and overwork early. Enabling managers to intervene and provide support.
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Work and workloads are a major contributor to stress and burnout. Ensure employees know what day-to-day wellbeing resources and support is available to them, including mental health first aiders, health insurance plans, counselling and employee assistance programmes.
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Use your HR system’s time-tracking features to record employees’ actual working hours and overtime. This helps ensure that staff are not overworking and are taking adequate breaks, but also, as an organisation, that you’re not breaching UK Working Time Regulations or the national minimum wage rules.
Career regret: not saving enough money into a pension or not starting to save into a pension sooner
One in seven (14%) employees regret not saving enough money into their pension or not starting to save into their pension sooner. This figure is even higher for those in non-management roles (21%), who are likely to be on comparatively lower salaries than managers.
Employers have a vested interest in their employees’ financial wellness. Providing employee guides or independent financial advice as part of a flexible benefits offering can help make pension savings more relatable – especially to younger workers who are decades from retirement.
Hawes says: “A report by The Pension Commission, published in May 2026, found that millions of workers are not saving enough for a comfortable retirement. This will have been exacerbated by the cost-of-living crisis, which caused many people to cut back on pension contributions to cover other expenses.
“It is often easier said than done, but it is vastly better to save less into a pension early than to save more later, due to the power of compound growth over time.”
Everyone’s personal circumstances are different of course and saving money isn’t always an option at times.
“The reality for many people is that it can be really hard to save money,” she says. “But there are things that can help.
“Learning budgeting and personal financial management skills so that you can understand your money, and make financial decisions more confidently, is a great place to start. The better educated you are on how to manage your money, the more chance you have of figuring out how you can save some vs none. And build from there.”
She advises people to check what support and advice is available from their employers.
“There may be one-to-one sessions with a pension expert,” Hawes explains, “where you can discuss the short- and long-term benefits of contributing to a pension – or increasing your contributions.
“Many people also forget about the ‘free money’ that comes from matched employer contributions and tax relief. Once you can see what’s in it for you, it does make pension saving seem more doable.”
What can employers do?
There’s often a gap in understanding about pensions generally. Providing pension information and education, and illustrating the value of pension contributions, is key to boosting employee engagement. Contributing to a pension should feel simple and accessible. Using a flexible benefits platform makes it easy for employees to manage their pension contributions, alongside their other benefits, in one place.
Salary sacrifice is a popular benefit and can help employees and employers reduce their tax and National Insurance (NI) liabilities. Under salary sacrifice pension schemes, employees (who earn over the minimum NI threshold) forgo a portion of salary in return for savings in NI and an increased employer pension contribution. Employers also save NI. Integrated payroll software, like Ciphr Payroll, automatically calculates NI contributions, helping organisations stay compliant.
Other types of salary sacrifice schemes are available, including electric vehicle schemes, technology loans, and cycle to work. Changes to this scheme are coming, in April 2029, but there’s still time to make the most of the savings.
Employers can also offer broader financial wellbeing support as part of their employee benefits package, such as budgeting and financial education tools and savings schemes, and signpost employees to free debt guidance and regulated financial advice.
Career regret: not pursuing a dream job or the career that you wanted to
Around one in nine UK employees – that’s about 3.7 million people – wish they had pursed a different career path.
It’s not unusual for people’s priorities and outlook on life to change over time. A job that suited someone in their twenties may not be as fulfilling a decade later. Maybe they rushed their career choices, or ‘fell into’ a profession. But that doesn’t mean they have to stay in that role or industry – many people have multiple careers during their working lives.
“It’s almost never too late to change your career,” says Hawes, “it’s perfectly achievable, although it may take some investment and professional training.”
“The thing that normally stops people from pursuing their dream job – beyond putting in the effort – is that it sometimes feels like an all or nothing option. And quitting your current job, or career, before you’ve got something else to replace it isn’t an option for most people. Plus, it’s not always going to be the right decision.”
Hawes advises taking a less drastic approach to test the waters first.
“You could get a mentor in that space,” she says, “do some part-time or freelance work, or volunteer with a relevant organisation to get more work experience. This will also help you check if it really is your dream job. And if it’s a viable replacement to what you currently do.
“If you’re considering making a job change, an easy exercise I recommend is to critically evaluate your current role. Be as honest with yourself as possible when you do this. And then write down where you want to see yourself in a few years’ time. You may find that you are already doing the ideal role for you – especially if you’re happy in your job more often than not.”
What can employers do?
Regular training is vital for retaining top talent. A 2025 Ciphr survey found that one in five (22%) employees want to change jobs because they lack promotion opportunities or feel stuck.
Upskilling employees so they can take advantage of career development and job mobility opportunities is one of the best ways to future-proof organisations and fill skills gaps.
Make career growth visible and accessible, through mentoring schemes, secondments, internal mobility programmes, and structured development plans, so employees can see realistic internal pathways. Using an integrated HR and learning system can streamline the performance management process and enable better development conversations – making it easy to identify training needs and deliver learning journeys.
Invest in continuous manager training – equip them with the skills, tools and confidence to develop their teams. Good managers are vital for talent retention and business growth, because good managers know how to get the best out of every member of their team. Performance management frameworks and recognition schemes can also help make people feel valued and rewarded for their effort.
Career regret: not speaking your mind enough
Holding back or regretting what you didn’t say is common, especially for those in senior management positions.
Ciphr’s research found that nearly one in six (17%) senior managers regret not speaking their mind more often.
An organisation’s workplace culture can influence how readily people feel they can express themselves in work situations, says Hawes. If they don’t believe their views and suggestions will be valued and respected, then they are unlikely to share them.
She says: “Speaking up – whether it’s to raise a concern or discuss a new idea – can feel really challenging to many people, as it’s usually driven by a fear of being wrong or being shut down, or not wanting to ‘rock the boat’ perhaps.
“If you’re talking to someone more senior, maybe you’re worried that they will take a negative view of you. But you should never feel unsafe to speak up or that your opinion isn’t important.”
Hawes recommends reflecting on previous times where you may regret not having spoken up and consider how you could have handled it differently.
“Speaking your truth – at the time or via an email later – gets easier the more you do it,” she says. “Ultimately, as long as you are respectful, that what you’re saying is challenging the problem or outcome vs the person – and you’re also open to your views being challenged too – it is always a healthy exercise to practice.
“The onus is on employers to foster a healthy work environment, where employees feel included, and listened to, and part of decision-making processes.”
What can employers do?
Inclusive leadership and management are key to building a good workplace culture, where feedback is welcome and encouraged, where efforts are valued and recognised, and everyone feels respected and able to contribute.
Ciphr’s employee experience research found that people who feel a strong sense of inclusion and belonging are significantly more likely to stay with their current employers for longer.
Actions employers can take to improve inclusive leadership:
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Actively invite contributions from all team members to get different ideas and perspectives, and ensure everyone feels equally valued and respected
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Signal your commitment to delivering inclusion through policies and regular diversity and inclusion training, implemented from the top down, and make everyone accountable for their actions
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Leaders need to be an active ally and be seen to challenge workplace biases, support equitable hiring and promotion, and amplify the voices of underrepresented or marginalised groups
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Foster psychological safety and provide clear routes for employees across the business to ‘speak up’, including anonymous feedback channels, regular engagement surveys, and skip-level meetings. Building in regular feedback and check-ins helps embed good habits
Career regret: oversharing at work
Good working relationships with colleagues are incredibly important to employee happiness, but they can be a delicate tightrope to walk. Especially when different people have varying opinions about what qualifies as an appropriate topic of conversation at work. What may seem fine to one person, could qualify as an ‘overshare’ to another, creating tension or discomfort and impacting how teams work together.
Having a multigenerational workforce has changed expectations around work. Traditional concepts that once defined professionalism, such formal dress codes, office-based presenteeism, and working nine-to-five, have evolved. So too has the way we communicate. It’s easy to see how some boundaries may get blurred.
Oversharing regret – feeling like you’ve said too much about a certain topic or been too open about your personal life – is relative common among workers, especially younger team members. According to our research, one in ten people aged 25-44 years old regret oversharing something at work, compared to just 3% of people over 55. Suggesting perhaps that older workers are less inclined to talk about their personal lives at work (or if they do, they have no regrets about it).
“Experience tells me that everyone has different views on what is appropriate to share at work,” comments Hawes. “Some people are happy discussing the ins and outs of their finances, or ailments, or relationships. But oversharing can be disruptive. It may make others uncomfortable and reflect negatively on you – impacting how you’re perceived at work.
“Candour needs to be balanced with discretion. My guiding rule is: ‘would I share it with my CEO?’ or ‘would I want people discussing that about me?’. If the answer’s no, I don’t share it with any colleagues.
“You can maintain authenticity – and be genuine with your work colleagues – without sharing inappropriate or personal information that isn’t meant for the workplace.”
Being friendly, having general day-to-day conversations – asking someone about their weekend and holidays, family or pets, for example – and sharing a laugh together, helps build trust and familiarity. But professional boundaries need to remain intact, warns Hawes.
“Remember, you’re still at work,” she says, “there are reputational risks and it can undermine your credibility. Oversharing personal details that could compromise you personally, or breaching company trust and confidentiality to ‘make friends’ or be personable, can be incredibly damaging. Especially if you’re a manager or leader.”
She recommends taking a mindful pause before speaking, to sense-check whether it’s the right place or time to say what you’re about to share.
“It’s hard to get some boundaries back once you’ve been too open. Try to be mindful of what you’re saying, and whether it’s actually a safe space to do so.”
What can employers do?
Everyone has a role in fostering inclusion and respect at work, and people need to be aware of the effect that their behaviour, the language they use, and topics of conversation may have on others.
While it’s easy to assume that everyone ‘knows’ what’s appropriate at work, it’s essential to have communication guidance and policies in place (ideally from onboarding) to establish clear expectations and what this means in practice. So there’s no room for misinterpretation; especially when it comes to polarised views, and exclusionary or offensive humour.
Ensure all employees know where to access company policies in your HR software, enable confidential reporting, and implement robust complaints and investigation procedures.
It’s important to note that oversharing or over-explaining can often be an unintentional habit. It can stem from anxiety, or a fear of being misunderstood. Usually a friendly reminder from a manager, in private, to filter what’s being shared, is the best approach to re-establishing professional boundaries. But it’s important to identify if any underlying issues require further support.
Oversharing is particularly common among neurodivergent individuals (those with ADHD or autism, for example). Equipping managers with neurodiversity awareness training can help them be more neuroinclusive, so they can support and accommodate the needs of all their team members..
Ciphr's integrated HR, payroll, benefits and learning software helps employers put all of this into practice. Download our brochure or book a demo to see it in action.