After two years of Covid, the mental health of employees under 30 is particularly worrying, according to a study.
- In 2019, some 970 million human beings, with a small majority of women (52.4%), suffered from a mental disorder, according to the WHO. A proportion that represents 13% of the world’s population, or nearly one person in eight.
- Nearly half of young people (44%) who judge their mental health negatively attribute it solely to the professional context (compared to 35% of employees).
Anxiety, exhaustion, medication… These last two years, marked by the health crisis, the war in Ukraine and record inflation, seem to have had a negative impact on the well-being of young workers.
According to one study of the social protection group Malakoff Humanis, published on Wednesday July 6, employees under 30 have a more fragile mental health than all workers.
The work in question
Among them, 23% judge their mental health negatively (compared to 16% for all employees) and 42% say they are stressed (compared to 28%). Nearly half of them (48%) say they sleep poorly (compared to 32%), and a large third (34%) say they are emotionally exhausted (compared to 22%), or even downright exhausted (29% compared to 19 % of total employees).
And it is often the work itself that is responsible for this state of psychic exhaustion: 44% of young people who have a low opinion of their mental health attribute it solely to the professional context (compared to 35% of employees). In question, according to them: the intensity and working time (67%) and the deterioration of social relations at work (47%). So much so that those under 30 take sick leave more than others: for example, 36% in March 2022 (compared to 18% for all employees), whereas they were only 21% in March 2021.
[#Etude] 43% of employees who consider their mental health poor ???? were terminated in March 2022 (vs. 18% for all employees).
This figure reaches 51% among those under 30 years old. #CounterMH https://t.co/EB9INef8un #RPS pic.twitter.com/bCRSzNCGFh— Malakoff Humanis (@MalakoffHumanis) July 6, 2022
Reluctant to consult
Unsurprisingly, the pandemic and its restrictive measures have also had a negative impact on the psyche of young workers, as the WHO recently announced in its report on mental health across the world. This year, 56% of French people under 30 say they are tired or exhausted (compared to 49% in 2019), and 22% say they consume sleeping pills, anxiolytics or antidepressants (11% in 2019). Even in terms of physical health, young working people seem less fit than their elders, while 18% of them consider it to be poor compared to “only” 14% of all employees.
Problem: young people are also less inclined to consult a doctor. In the first quarter of 2022, the renunciation or postponement of care concerned nearly a quarter of employees in total, but rose to 37% among those under 30 years old. The reasons ? In the first place the lack of time, the difficulties in obtaining an appointment and the dry wallet. As a reminder, according to a 2019 BVA surveymore than six out of ten French people (63%) have already had to give up seeking treatment, in particular because of excessively long waiting times or excessively high costs.
