The questions used for measuring occupational burnout are based on scientific research. The four key symptoms of occupational burnout are chronic fatigue, mental distancing from work, impairment of cognitive function and difficulties in emotional control. The Working Life Barometer includes a question on how often the respondent experiences these feelings. The results reported here concern the year pairs 2019–2020 and 2021–2022.

Women experience occupational burnout more often than men

Of the entire employee population, approximately 5% of men and 8% of women had an heightened risk of occupational burnout in 2019–2020. In 2021–2022, of the entire employee population, approximately every tenth man and over 15% of women had an heightened risk of occupational burnout. Highly educated people experience occupational burnout more often than people with a lower educational level. Differences between age groups are small, but the occupational burnout of young people seems to have increased between year pairs 2019–2020 and 2021-2022.

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Experiencing harmful stress is more common than occupational burnout

In addition to occupational burnout, the Working Life Barometer also includes questions regarding experiences of harmful stress. It is defined as follows: “Stress refers to a situation in which a person feels tense, restless, nervous or anxious, or is unable to sleep because his or her mind is troubled all the time.” The question concerns all experiences of harmful stress, not only work-related stress.

One in ten male employees and 15% of female employees experienced quite a lot or very much harmful stress in 2019–2020. In 2021–2022, 13% of male employees and more than one in five female employees experienced quite a lot or very much harmful stress. Similar to occupational burnout, experiences of harmful stress are also more common among highly educated people. The most recent data, covering the years 2021–2022, shows an increase in experiences of stress particularly among age groups 18–29 and 30–44.

What do trends look like?

Data from the Working Life Barometer can only be compared separately between 2019 and 2020 and between 2021 and 2022. This break in the time series is due to changes in research methods.

There were very few changes in the experiences of occupational burnout and harmful stress between the years 2019 and 2020. On the other hand, experiences of occupational burnout and harmful stress have been on the rise during 2021 and 2022.

The increase in the psychological stressfulness of work has been evident also in other studies. According to a 2021 study by Statistics Finland, feelings of fatigue and lack of motivation and vigour have grown during COVID-19 compared with the year 2018. An increasing number of people also felt a lack of motivation and psychological fatigue when going to work or when starting remote work.

The follow-up study “How is Finland doing?” by the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health demonstrates a slight increase in occupational burnout and a decrease in work ability between summer 2021 and winter 2023.

There is a need for supporting well-being at work

The psychological and social stress factors of work are key to the management of occupational burnout and harmful stress. Increased stress can relate to factors such as the content and organization of work, work arrangements or the functionality of supervisory work and the social relationships within the work community.