Psychologists from a workplace risk prevention firm have been studying the state of mental health of French employees for three years. According to the indicator they publish, 44% of them are in a state of psychological distress.
The psychologists of the Human Footprint firm have been studying the morale of French employees at work for three years. They measured their state of psychological distress, which combines depression and exhaustion and which can have serious consequences such as high blood pressure, depression and anxiety disorders.
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The latest edition of this barometer highlights psychological distress up three points compared to June 2022, with 44% of employees affected by this condition. For 14% of them, the psychological distress is even qualified as high.
Three-quarters of employees surveyed say that their psychological state is partially or totally related to their job. However, eight out of ten employees say they like their work, because they learn new things there, for example. Nine out of ten employees believe that having a job is good for mental health.
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A high risk of burnout
28% of French employees present a risk of burning out, with 10% of them it is a significant risk. The firm stresses that this represents two million people at risk of severe burnout. These figures are down from last year, but still remain twice as high as before the 2020 health crisis.
Six out of ten employees believe that their psychological state will not allow them to work until retirement and almost all of those questioned believe that working conditions should be improved to make it more sustainable. Christophe Nguyen, who heads the Human Footprint firm, regrets “that at a time when we are talking about raising the retirement age, we are not talking about work to make it more sustainable“. Moreover, work seems to take less place in the lives of those questioned, and one in two recognizes themselves in the “quiet quitting” (there “silent resignation” in French), which consists of doing the bare minimum to keep your job.
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