THE FEMALE REP
There's always stress

Sarah, 28, advertising executive, from London

I sell advertising into magazines and daily newspapers. My job is highly pressured. There’s never no stress: you are busy either because there is too much demand and you are trying to manage it, or because during the quiet periods you are trying to get the ads in. Our bonuses are based on whether we hit budget or not. I sit down at my desk at 8.30am, but by then the commuting by train has already got to me: I am up at 6am and don’t get home until 7.30pm. We are supposed to finish at 5.30, but sometimes stay later. Because of the journey, which is always frazzling, I don’t go out much in the week. But at the weekend, when I go out with my friends, we tend to go for it; work is stressful and I’m going to let my hair down. Talking about binge-drinking, I’ll drink anything up to ten units. But I drink a lot less than I used to. The pain isn’t worth the pleasure any more. I don’t smoke; I know that if I started I’d never stop. I do a bit of exercise: I walk 50 minutes every day to and from the station.

When I get home there’s often a lot of sounding off at my boyfriend; we’re going to live together but for now I share with a couple of girls and we talk about the working day, which helps.

It was a bit of a shock a couple of months back when I discovered I had a stomach ulcer. It is rare for someone of my age and they said it was stress-induced. I only took two days off — we were pretty busy at work and I felt guilty.

THE MALE REP
Drink helps me to relax

Stephen, 25, from London, works for a national newspaper, selling advertising

There are monthly targets, and daily space targets. We work as a team and it can be stressful if it’s 5pm on a Friday and you are waiting for a call to confirm an advert, because nobody can go home until the space is filled. You sit there, nervous glances all round. Even worse is when the phone does ring and it’s a negative response; then it’s back on the phones.

I used to smoke, but I quit six months after university; I couldn’t afford it. It is nice to have a drink, it helps me to relax: wine if I’m at home, a bottle of beer if I’m out. I’m quite thin, so I can’t drink as much as some, maybe six or seven pints. I try to keep fit. I’m single, not long out of a long relationship, and I share a house with three other guys, and I think that helps. It’s a macho thing: you don’t want to be the fattest, slowest, weediest. We push each other to exercise. I can’t imagine women sitting around slagging each other off about their weight.

A year and a half ago I nearly fainted at work, and it turned out I had beta thalassemia, a form of anaemia. It was a lesson in looking after myself, but I’m quite bad: I buy a lot of frozen food.

Now that I have been in my job for a while, I’m less stressed at work. My real stress comes with relationships. Having come out of a long one, the pressure now is to remain single; when you meet someone it is hard to keep it light and not to dive in heavy.

THE FEMALE TEACHER
I sometimes feel trapped