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International News
Published Online: 19 October 2007

Europeans Report Work Factors That Impact Their Mental Health

Joan Arehart-TreichelAuthors Info & Affiliations
Publication: Psychiatric News
Volume 42, Number 20
https://doi.org/10.1176/pn.42.20.0020b
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Every five years the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions, an autonomous research organization, takes the pulse of European workers' mental and physical health.
Results from its most recent survey—the Fourth European Working Conditions Survey—are now available. Some of the results may be of interest to psychiatrists.

Work's Negative Impact

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Although there has been a general trend toward a service- and knowledge-based economy in the European Union, the physical and psychological strains on workers have not been reduced substantially during the past 15 years. For example, 23 percent of workers report work-related fatigue, 22 percent report work-related stress, 11 percent report work-related irritability, 9 percent report work-related sleep problems, and 8 percent report work-related anxiety.
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Workers in agriculture and construction are more prone to physical problems, while those in professional careers are more prone to psychological ones.
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Which country Europeans work in also seems to influence whether they experienced work-related physical or psychological ones. For example, workers in Greece, Estonia, and Lithuania report high levels of both types of problems. Workers in Poland, Slovenia, and Slovakia say they experience high levels of physical problems, but relatively low levels of psychological ones. In contrast, workers in Austria, Germany, Ireland, and the Netherlands appear to experience little of either type.

Negative Treatment by Colleagues

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1 percent of European workers report having been discriminated against because of religion, ethnicity, or sexual orientation.
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2 percent of European workers say they have experienced sexual harassment, with three times as many female workers as males reporting such harassment. Women in Croatia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Lithuania, Norway, Sweden, Turkey, and the United Kingdom report the most sexual harassment, while women in Italy and Spain report the least.
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5 percent of European workers claim to have experienced bullying at work. However, there are wide variations among countries, ranging from 2 percent in Italy and Bulgaria to 12 percent in the Netherlands and 17 percent in Finland. Finnish and Dutch workers reported the highest levels of bullying in the last survey as well.
Workplace bullying in the United States, by comparison, appears to be around 25 percent, a National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health survey revealed (Psychiatric News, July 21, 2006).
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Five percent of European workers say they have been victims of violence in the workplace. The types of workers most susceptible to violence are health professionals, personal and protective-service workers, drivers and mobile plant operators, customer-service clerks, and teachers.
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Although levels of discrimination, bullying, and violence in the European workplace have remained stable over the past decade, violence does seem to be increasing somewhat.
“The Fourth European Working Conditions Survey” is posted at<www.eurofound.europa.eu/pubdocs/2006/98/en/2/ef0698en.pdf>.▪

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Psychiatric News
Volume 42 • Number 20 • October 19, 2007
Pages: 20

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Published online: 19 October 2007
Published in print: October 19, 2007

Notes

Over 20 percent of Europeans report that they feel stressed by their work, with discrimination, sexual harassment, bullying, and physical violence all taking their toll on psychological well-being.

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