Nearly 1.3 million workers in Netherlands struggling with burnout

Last year, nearly 1.3 million working people in the Netherlands struggled with burnout symptoms. That is about 17 percent of the population, the same as in 2019, TNO and Statistics Netherlands concluded in the National Working Conditions Survey, NOS reports.

In 2020, when the coronavirus pandemic had a large proportion of the population working from home, the number of burnout complaints was lower, with 1.2 million people reporting symptoms.

According to the researchers, over 40 percent of employees said their employers need to take measures against work stress. 37 percent indicated that work stress and work pressure caused their absenteeism. Last year, employees were absent from work for 11 million days due to work stress.

Occupational health and safety services consider work pressure as one of the biggest risk factors within companies, according to NOS. Absenteeism costs companies about 3 billion euros per year.

The researchers advised companies to set up a point of contact where people can report feeling burned out, offer more customization for employees to work in a way that suits them, and give employees more autonomy.

This week is “work stress week” in the Netherlands. Businesses and organizations will spend the week drawing attention to psychological fatigue among employees.