Negative Mental Impact of Work and its Consequences

The study analyses the type and scope of mental stress situations at work and the resulting consequences on health in Austria. Almost one in three dependently employed individuals in Austria suffer from impaired health, about 13 percent have work-caused problems. One in three dependently employed men and one in four dependently employed women are exposed to mental burdens (time pressure, excessive stress) and thus impaired in their subjective well-being. Mental stress factors increase the risk of illness by about 50 percent. At an average of 2.6 days of absence from work, employees exposed to physical stress loose fewer days per year than employees exposed to mental stress (on average 3 days of lost work). Absences are highest when the two stress factors occur together. An analysis of the group-specific differences shows a higher probability of suffering from subjectively worse health among unskilled sales and services workers, other unskilled workers and employees in non-academic health care jobs. Among the unemployed, the risk of illness is also much higher. Altogether, in its proportion of individuals suffering from work-caused problems Austria ranks among the EU average (15 EU countries participating in the European Working Condition Survey), while its share of back problems, muscle problems and stress is slightly higher than that of comparable countries.