Time pressure, dealing with difficult clientele, hauling heavy loads: around 3.7 million employees were exposed to at least one physical or psychological risk at their workplace in the previous year, which corresponds to 86 percent of employees. This is the result of a survey by Statistics Austria.
Employees in agriculture and forestry were most frequently exposed to physical risks with over 90 percent, closely followed by construction with 89 percent. The most mentally stressed are those employed in health and education. From the second group, 68 percent said they were exposed to corresponding risk factors, from the first it was as much as 74 percent. “Dealing with difficult people and time pressure were mentioned the most, with violence and threats of violence following at a greater distance,” says Barbara Leitner from Statistics Austria.
Accidents at work
The data do not reveal whether the pandemic has worsened the situation for those affected. “Since the 2007 and 2013 surveys, the labor market has changed so much that the results cannot be compared,” says Leitner.
Because of the industries in which they work more often, women are more often exposed to psychological risks, while men are exposed to physical risks. This is also reflected in the number of work accidents: 163,400 employees – 3.5 percent – stated that they had had at least one work accident in the year before the survey. Seven out of ten victims were men.
The stresses in the workplace sometimes have consequences: 13.4 percent of all people who are or were gainfully employed stated that they had work-related health problems, and around a third of them suffered from back problems. The groups most affected were again those employed in agriculture, forestry and healthcare.
Source: Nachrichten
