More work-related mental fatigue

© Hollandse Hoogte / Caiaimage
In 2017, 16 percent of employees between the ages of 15 and 75 indicated they experienced work-related mental fatigue at least several times per month. This percentage still stood at 13 percent in 2015. In comparison with the self-employed, the share of employees experiencing such complaints is nearly twice as large. This is reported by Statistics Netherlands (CBS) on the basis of figures from the Netherlands Working Conditions Survey (NEA) and the Self-Employment Survey (ZEA) conducted by CBS and the Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research (TNO).

Self-employed persons are also reporting more mental fatigue due to work (burnout complaints), although the increase is smaller than among employed persons: 9 percent in 2017 versus 8 percent in 2015. Almost all age groups reported more complaints of fatigue, 65 to 74-year-old employees in particular.
At nearly 20 percent, employees between the ages of 25 and 35 were most affected by work-related mental fatigue. Among the self-employed, this applied to 35 to 44-year-olds in particular with a share of just under 11 percent.
Symptoms of mental fatigue were reported based on five specifically work-related questions. Other factors associated with burnout complaints were not measured here.

Feeling drained after work

The most common complaint is feeling drained at the end of a working day: 30 percent of the employed and 20 percent of the self-employed experience this several times per month or more often. In addition, almost 20 percent of the employed and 12 percent of the self-employed feel tired in the morning when they are confronted with work. Other work-related fatigue symptoms are also seen more often among the employed than among the self-employed.

Most fatigue complaints among employees with permanent employment contract

Employees with a permanent employment contract are more likely to experience work-related mental fatigue symptoms than employees with a flexible contract: 17 percent, against 14 percent. Among these flex workers, there are widely diverging levels of mental fatigue. Temporary agency workers are more than twice as often exhausted due to work (20 percent) than stand-by or substitute employees (9 percent).
Fewer self-employed without personnel report fatigue symptoms (8 percent) than self-employed with personnel (11 percent).