Burn-out, or professional exhaustion, "explode" on the eve of a gradual return to the office and the psychological distress of employees remains high, according to a barometer of the psychological health of French employees, produced by OpinionWay and presented Wednesday.

On the eve of a gradual return to the office, the psychological distress of employees remains high, according to a barometer of the psychological health of French employees, produced by OpinionWay and presented on Wednesday.

"The burn-out rate has doubled in one year, peaking at 2 million people with severe burn-out," notes Christophe Nguyen, head of the Franco-Quebec firm Empreinte Humaine, specializing in the prevention of psychosocial risks (burn -out, depressions, suicides ...), by presenting the seventh wave of this barometer since the start of the Covid-19 crisis.

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"Dehumanisation"

Burn-out "concerns 1.5 times more managers", he specifies, estimating that "with such figures, in a context of return in the offices, one can unfortunately expect a new explosion of sick leave in the coming months ".

This "severe professional burnout" translates, says Christophe Nguyen, by a form of "dehumanization" with "people who function like robots to protect themselves from their emotions" and who "self-censor" for fear of speaking about it.

The indicators of the psychological state of employees also remain "very worrying" with 44% of employees in psychological distress (-1 point compared to March 2021) including 17% high (identical), according to the survey which notes that six in ten employees believe that their management "does not realize the psychological state of employees and does not act accordingly".

Psychological distress is an internationally validated indicator of mental health used to diagnose mental disorders.

The rate of depression requiring support among employees remains at 36% (including 21% at risk of severe depression) and 56% of employees on short-time work present a "risk of depression".

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The most exposed managers

At the same time, 15% of employees say they have been absent for psychological health reasons for a year.

The average number of days of absence per employee is 2.83.

A quarter of employees say they are "afraid of losing their job";

this is the case for 39% of those in partial unemployment.

The most exposed function remains that of manager, with 52% of them in psychological distress.

Six out of ten managers say they cannot do their job as they would like, given the "size of the teams" for half of them.

Teleworkers are also more exposed with 46% of them in psychological distress than their face-to-face colleagues (40%) but eight out of 10 want to continue teleworking one to three days a week.

Because if seven out of 10 employees think that a return in person is "necessary for the cohesion of teams", half of the teleworkers do not want "to return to the office as before".

They say in particular that they fear "of not being able to do the same working hours" as during confinement and that they "do not hold" the workload.

After more than a year of health crisis, confinements and upheavals in lifestyles, the physical health of employees is also deteriorating with 40% who say they have sleep problems, 37% musculoskeletal pain and tension, 19% of problems digestive system, 26% of headaches and 10% of nausea.

The seventh wave of the barometer "Impact of the health crisis on the psychological health of employees" was carried out online from April 30 to May 10, 2021 with a representative panel of 2,007 employees according to the quota method. The margin of error is a maximum of 2.2 points.