Irish workers are the most stress free in Europe. Not only that, but the most probable reason for their blissful state is that they work some of the longest hours in the EU.
These are among the more surprising findings of the Third European Survey of Working Conditions in the European Union carried out last year. The survey takes place once every five years and covers 21,500 workers in the 15 member-states of the EU. It has found that only 12 per cent of Irish workers suffer from stress, compared with 53 per cent of Greeks, 38 per cent of Luxembourgers, 37 per cent of Swedes and 35 per cent of Finns.
Not surprisingly the EU "stress" average is 28 per cent of the workforce and the only country where workers are remotely as laid back as in Ireland is Portugal, where 18 per cent of workers report feeling stressed at work. Like their Irish counterparts, the Portuguese enjoy some of the longest working hours in the EU.
The survey was carried out by the Dublin-based European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions. Its research manager, Mr Pascal Paoli, believes shorter working weeks are not necessarily a good thing. The extra stress is caused by factors as varied as flexi-working, job insecurity and increasing levels of harassment and violence in the workplace. Last year more than 15 million, 9 per cent of the EU workforce, reported experiencing some form of harassment and around nine million reported violent incidents.
Underlying it all is the increasing pace of life. "One of the most striking results of the survey is the intensification of work," Mr Paoli says. "It has risen sharply during the past 10 years and shows no signs of slowing down. People might work shorter hours but they work faster.
"Over half the workers in Europe are exposed to working at high speed and to tight deadlines during at least a quarter of their working time. We also know that this type of intensity is strongly linked to health disorders and accidents."
However, Mr Paoli accepts Irish statistics may have something to do with our apparently stress-free state. Medical conditions attributed to stress in EU states more attuned to the problems of modern living are simply listed as high blood pressure or migraine on Irish doctors' sick certs.