Seventy-seven per cent of respondents to a survey of workplace attitudes said the economic boom, known as the Celtic Tiger period, had not improved their quality of life.
According to the "Well-Being and Stress in the Workplace" study, almost half of 344 respondents felt they were caught up in a rat-race, with one-third saying they were tired most of the time, and more than a quarter complaining of excessive stress levels.
The report was launched yesterday at a conference on values and ethics organised by Céifin, an institute that studies societal change. The author, clinical psychologist and organisational consultant Dr Miriam Moore, said the report "offers a valid snapshot of the condition of the workplace in Ireland today".
Céifin director, Father Harry Bohan, said the report was the first carried out by the institute, and would be followed next April with a study of the Irish family.
While 95 per cent of respondents said that what they value most were their family and personal relationships "more than half of the respondents report that they do not have a satisfactory balance between the demands of work and the time they devote to their personal lives".
On employees' physical health, Dr Moore's report found that three-quarters of those who work on personal computers four hours a day or more tended to suffer from a variety of physical ailments. One-third of respondents reported emotional problems. The report found excessive stress to be the main detractor from job satisfaction and the biggest cause of absenteeism.
The study found "some 20 to 24 per cent complain of suffering great stress from bullying, backbiting and other forms of aggressive behaviour and intimidation".
It concluded that feeling undervalued was the principal cause of stress in work relationships and this feeling was experienced by as many as two out of five participants. In the report's recommendations, it says that for employees, "it is precarious to place responsibility for one's happiness in the hands of one organisation, so it is vital, therefore, rather than being mere reactors in their workplace, people become pro-active and take more responsibility for their own lives and well-being".
Earlier, Malkin Professor of Public Policy at Harvard University, Prof Robert Putnam, outlined the decline of community life in the US. The author of Bowling Alone said that in recent decades US citizens had been dropping out in droves, not merely from political life, but from organised life more generally.
Prof Putnam told delegates that on informal social connections, US citizens "spend less time in conversation over meals and exchange visits less often. We know our neighbours less well and see old friends less often".
He added: "The ebbing of community over the last several decades has been silent and deceptive." To facilitate renewed civic engagement, Prof Putnam said "leaders and activists in every sphere of US life must seek innovative ways to respond to the eroding effectiveness of civic institutions and practices we inherited".
