The psychological health of employees has deteriorated sharply after nine months of health crisis which "
impacted all dimensions of their lives
", according to a barometer carried out by Opinionway just before the reconfinement for the French-Canadian firm Empreinte Humaine, published on Wednesday .
Read also: The health crisis has amplified the level of stress at work which remains "high"
Psychological distress is an indicator of mental health used to diagnose mental disorders.
It brings together manifestations of despair, nervousness, restlessness and depression.
It promotes anxiety disorders and addiction and can lead to physical consequences such as stroke or hypertension.
Psychological distress on the rise
If the deconfinement had allowed a drop in this rate of psychological distress, it "
started to rise again
" with 49% of employees (+7 compared to May 2020) in psychological distress, including 18% in high psychological distress ( +1), details the survey, the fourth of its kind since the start of the health crisis, carried out from October 19 to 28.
The rate of psychological distress is also "
up sharply for the hierarchy
" with 58% psychological distress for managers (+10) including 25% high distress (+4) and 72% (+6) for managers of managers, are alarmed Christophe Nguyen and Jean-Pierre Brun, co-founders of the firm specializing in the prevention of psychosocial risks.
It peaks at 35% of employees in a state of severe emotional exhaustion and around a million in severe burn-out (or 5%).
24% of employees surveyed said they had already been on sick leave because of stress or anxiety (74% psychological distress) or about 5.5 million, even Advises Opinionway from its projections.
Telework, an aggravating factor?
Teleworking seems to be an aggravating factor, since 58% of full-time teleworking employees are in psychological distress against 53% of employees in a hybrid situation (combining distance and face-to-face).
41% of teleworkers also feel isolated and 55% believe that this form of work harms the collective feeling of teams.
One in two teleworkers struggles to forget the work after the day and find respite and 50% consider that webcams are a form of intrusion into their personal life.
“
A third of teleworkers say they are saturated.
Isolation is not only geographical distance, it is also the feeling of being nothing more than a production machine and a lack of consideration, which weigh heavily on the mental state
, ”underlines Christophe Nguyen.
Read also: Telecommuting: five things that have changed since spring
“
Many adjustments were adopted during the first confinement but it is as if with the deconfinement it was a given that people no longer lived in distress while they remained marked.
In the face of shock, a crisis line is not enough.
We have to adapt the work and the company to the state of the people, it is a real issue of continuity,
”he warns.
The barometer was carried out on a representative sample of 2004 private and public employees, using the quota method.
