A third of Dutch workers suffer information overload

Last year 28 percent of all employees in the Netherlands often or always received so much information in a working day that they had difficulty processing it quickly enough. In 2014 it was 25 percent, according to a study by Statistics Netherlands and TNO.

Employees who experience information overload are more often dissatisfied with their working conditions and have a stronger desire to leave their current employer and find a new job, according to the study.

The percentage of employees who suffer information overload is almost three times as high among highly educated employees than among less educated employees, 40 percent and 14 percent. Men and women face information overload almost equally often, 28 percent and 29 percent respectively .People in the age group 25 to 65 years struggle with this twice to three times as much as younger or older employees.

Managers most often struggle with too much information - 46 percent say they often or always receive so much information in a working they that they struggled to process it. Among managers in healthcare, education and IT, it was nearly 60 percent. People working in other IT professions, such as database and network specialists, also often experience information overload. This is relatively rare among employees working in service, agricultural and transport professions.