Stress in the Workplace
The European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA) has published the results of its 2nd European Opinion Poll on Occupational Safety and Health, which concludes that job-related stress is a concern for the large majority of the European workforce and that 80% of the working population think that stress in the workplace will rise.
The survey, conducted by Ipsos MORI on behalf of EU-OSHA, measured the opinions of over 35,000 members of the general public in 36 European countries on contemporary workplace issues including job-related stress and the importance of occupational safety and health for economic competitiveness and in the context of longer working lives.
Of those 80% who think that the number of people suffering from job-related stress over the next five years will increase, as many as 52% expect this to “increase a lot”.
This echoes the findings of another EU-OSHA survey on new and emerging workplace risks which found that 79% of managers think that stress is an issue in their companies, making stress at work as important as workplace accidents for companies.
The 2nd European Opinion Poll additionally found that the large majority of Europeans (86%) agree that following good occupational safety and health practices is necessary for a country’s economic competitiveness, with 56% strongly agreeing.
Commenting on the issue, a source at the Agency said: “Work-related stress is one of the biggest health and safety challenges faced in Europe, representing a huge cost in terms of human distress and economic performance.”