Wouter Snyman, founder and CEO of the attooh! Financial Services Group, recently made a powerful statement during a keynote talk: ‘We spend most of our lives building wealth until we lose our health − only to then spend all our wealth trying to regain our health.’
I regularly present well-being-focused talks and workshops to professionals and leadership teams. Kicking-off with a short well-being assessment almost always captures attention − even from those who tend to dismiss well-being as ‘pink’’ or ‘fluffy’.
In a recent session on integrated leadership with a group of chief financial officers, I posed the following questions:
- Do you train your brain daily?
- Do you monitor your cortisol levels?
- Do you have effective stress-relief tools in your toolbox?
- Do you check your C-reactive protein (CRP) level? (An elevated level may indicate inflammation or infection in the body.)
- Do you engage in a combination of cardio, strength, flexibility, and racket sport exercises?
Out of 80 CFOs in the room, not a single person scored 4 or 5 out of 5. Only four participants answered ‘yes’ to three of the five questions. The remaining 76 had scores of 0, 1, or 2. If this was a well-being board exam, the pass rate would have been a mere 5%.
The statistics are equally alarming outside the room. The Professional Provident Society (PPS) reported that in 2024 it paid out R97 million in critical illness claims to professionals under the age of 35 − a demographic group typically seen as low-risk. That number has nearly doubled since 2019, when the critical illness claims for this age group stood at R50 million. Most claims were linked to physical trauma, mental health challenges, musculoskeletal diseases, and cancer. Considering how many South African accountants are PPS members, these numbers raise serious red flags for the profession.
Despite unprecedented access to technology, knowledge, and research, people are becoming less healthy and less happy. We live in an era dominated by digital overload, instant gratification, and the glorification of being ‘busy’. Chronic stress and anxiety have become ingrained in the professional DNA. Companies, driven by profit, sales targets, and shareholder value, too often sacrifice employee well-being along the way.
In this constant rush, there’s little time left to prioritise our health. The questions in the wellness assessment relate to physical health, brain health and stress management − all of these are deeply inter-connected with workplace performance. After all, we don’t leave our bodies and minds at home when we walk into the office!
How did you score on this short well-being assessment? Maybe it’s time to give your well-being the attention it deserves.
In brief
As accountants, our careers often revolve around ‘ratings’. Did you pass your board exams on the first attempt? Did you complete your articles with one of the Big Four firms? What rating did you receive during performance appraisals? How is the business performing against its key performance indicators? How do actual results compare to the budget? How do we measure up against competitors? We thrive on numbers, scores, ratings, and benchmarks. But how often do you stop to evaluate your well-being rating?
Ronel Jooste CA(SA)
Managing Director at FinanciallyFiTLife and PhysEQFiT Wellness & Leadership Development
