Employees in Switzerland feel exhausted and often work overtime

A Travail.Suisse survey has found that employees in Switzerland are generally satisfied with their jobs but are increasingly exhausted, find it hard to balance work and home life and often work overtime.

Half of workers in Switzerland feel exhausted by the end of the day

Travail.Suisse, an independent organisation for workers, has published the latest “Working Conditions Barometer” in collaboration with the Bern University of Applied Sciences. The study surveyed 1.422 employees about what it’s like to work in Switzerland.

According to the survey results, 82,6 percent of workers are satisfied with their jobs. However, the survey also found several challenges that employees are struggling with.

Almost half of employees (41,1 percent) feel emotionally exhausted by the end of their workday. Many are also struggling with the pressures of work, with 42,4 percent reporting feeling stressed often or very often.

Working overtime is becoming more common

Travail.Suisse attributes the feelings of exhaustion and stress to people increasingly working overtime, resulting in not enough downtime and difficulty separating work and home life.

Half of the survey respondents reported working outside of their contracted working hours and 27,8 percent said they are expected to be reachable outside of work hours. “These figures clearly show that excessive workload is no longer an exception, but a daily reality," said Adrian Wüthrich, president of Travail.Suisse.

Furthermore, 32,5 percent of workers said that they do not have enough time to rest and recover from work during the week, and a fifth find it hard to balance work and personal life.

Travail.Suisse also reported an increasing divide between remote and office-based employees. 42 percent of respondents said that they had worked partially from home, and these workers tended to be more satisfied with work due to “increased autonomy and flexibility,” reports RTS. 

As a result of the survey, Travail.Suisse called for “limits on overtime and excessively long and fragmented working days, as well as improved access to continuing education.”