As many as 90% of employees experience stress at work. Half of them take it home
According to the latest MultiSport Index 2023 report, only one in ten employees in Poland does not experience work-related stress and more than half of them experience it at least once a week. Poor mental condition affects the professional and private lives of employees. This is not only a huge cost for employers but also a disturbing social phenomenon.
The MultiSport Index 2023 report has been carried out on behalf of Benefit Systems every year since 2017 and aims at examining the physical and sports activity of Poles. This year, the survey was expanded to include additional questions about mental health.The results are not optimistic. As much as 28% of employees admit that stress accompanies them at work “every day or almost every day”, and one in five (18%) struggles with it even several times a week. Only one in ten respondents declares that they do not feel stress related to their professional work.
Most often, employees feel overloaded with duties (47%). As a result, they tend to be irritated (35%), unable to concentrate (29%) and lose motivation to perform their duties (27%).Problems at work do not end with the closing of the office door but affect our entire lives. As many as half of the respondents (49%) declare that they take their problems home. One in ten respondents (8%) had to take sick leave for this reason.
Stress costs (also employers)
Dorota Molek-Winiarska, PhD, psychologist, doctor in the field of management sciences and MultiSport Index 2023 expert, points out that long-term stress affects not only our work, but also our health. And she quotes data according to which as much as 40% of all heart disease is the result of chronic tension.
– The most common consequences of stress at work, which employees failed to deal with effectively, also include burnout, mental disorders (e.g. depression or neurosis) and addictions. The latter usually occurs when a person unsuccessfully tries to reduce chronic tension on their own – adds Dr. Molek-Winiarska.
The expert emphasises that employee illnesses caused by stress have a very measurable impact on the functioning of the company. This includes both sick leave and coming to work despite illness, which results in reduced productivity as well as high turnover and the need to train new employees, accidents at work or simply deterioration of company results.
Physical activity as a response to stress
Faced with such a huge exposure to stress, Poles are looking for ways to release it. The best of them is physical activity (including walking), which has already been indicated by more than half of the respondents (56%). Watching TV and VOD platforms (17%) or reading books (14%) are much less popular.
Iwona Piątkowska, doctor of physical culture in the field of biomedical sciences, reminds us that each training oxygenates our body, thanks to which we are able to calm down irritability and anxiety. This is confirmed in the report: 84% of respondents in the MultiSport Index survey agree that regular exercise reduces stress and bad emotions.
– Regular exposure of the body to a stressor, which from a biological point of view training is, causes the body to learn to cope with a stressful situation and the accompanying increased cortisol concentration. As a result, each subsequent situation that increases the cortisol level will be (from the point of view of physiology) a “familiar” state, not causing a paralysing imbalance. And what is equally important, our body will be perfectly able to calm down after exposure to future stressors – says Dr. Iwona Piątkowska.
As Dr. Molek-Winiarska adds, many studies show a relationship between physical activity and a positive attitude to work and satisfaction with its performance. What’s more, according to the MultiSport Index survey, 79% of active Poles believe that regular physical activity increases efficiency and commitment at work.
In this context, benefits supporting the psychophysical condition of employees are becoming increasingly important. According to the MultiSport Index 2023 report, 72% of them believe that after the pandemic sports cards offered by employers have become more important in the context of health. Additionally, 68% of employees claim that the MultiSport card should be included in the basic benefits package at work.
According to the WHO, if incentives to be more active are abandoned, by 2030 half a billion people will suffer from heart disease, obesity, diabetes, or other non-communicable diseases related to physical inactivity. The estimated cost of this lack of activity is USD 27 billion a year.
Survey information
The MultiSport Index is a comprehensive survey of physical activity (exercise undertaken at least once a month) and sports activity (regular physical effort undertaken at least once a week) of Poles. The survey is conducted on behalf of Benefit Systems by the Minds&Roses research agency. The MultiSport Index 2023 survey was carried out on a representative random sample of 1,400 Poles aged 18+ using the computer-assisted telephone interviewing (CATI) technique. The survey was conducted from 30 January to 3 February 2023.
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