Well-being at work no longer in decline

Finnish Institute of Occupational Health media release, 11 March 2025

According to the How is Finland doing? follow-up study by the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, Finns’ well-being at work has not deteriorated over the past six months.

""The decline in well-being at work that began during the pandemic has stopped at the population level, and the positive change seems to affect especially upper white-collar employees. They have more positive resources in their work compared with others," says Jari Hakanen, Research Professor at the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health.

Job burnout has remained unchanged over the past six months, and it is still more prevalent than before COVID-19. Currently, one in four people face an increased risk of job burnout, compared to one in five before COVID-19.

On average, positive resources, such as fair treatment, independence and a sense of capability, are still more common at work compared with stressful requirements. The resources and requirements are mostly the same as six months ago. That is why well-being at work has also remained unchanged.

"Unfortunately, there has been a slight decrease in opportunities of learning at work, which is one of the key resources promoting work engagement. If such a trend continues, it will pose challenges to work engagement over time," says Janne Kaltiainen, Specialist Researcher at the Finnish Institute of Health.

One in three young adults experience symptoms of job burnout

Well-being at work among young adults is weaker than in older age groups, measured by any indicator. At least 30 per cent of young people have an increased risk of job burnout. For older people, the corresponding figure is 23.

"Young people experience less work engagement and more severe job burnout, boredom at work and loneliness. Workplaces need to take measures in order to better consider the situation of young employees. Promoting the resources and well-being of young people of studying and working age must also be immediately taken into account in national decision-making. In addition to being our future, young people also have many strengths that should be expressed better in work life and our society," says Jari Hakanen.

Prevalence of burnout symptoms and plans to resign among supervisors have grown

In six months, the incidence of likely job burnout among supervisors has increased from eight per cent to 11 per cent.

"With the increase in job burnout, one in four of all supervisors and managers is considering resigning. It is difficult to lead others when stressed. Workplaces need to stop and consider ways to promote the smoothness of work and manage the workload of both employees and managers," says Jari Hakanen.

However, nearly 60 per cent of supervisors experience high work engagement and only a few (12%) get bored at work.

Have good new practices been identified for remote work?

Remote work was linked to positive assessments of work, such as the appropriate amount of work and fair treatment. The potential negative effects of remote work, which were previously consistently reported in a variety of research data, were not observed this time.

"According to our research data, remote work was no longer associated with, for example, greater boredom or loneliness at work. Could this be an indication of adapting to remote work and finding new working practices? More research on the potential longer-term effects of remote work is still needed," says Janne Kaltiainen.

Research project: How is Finland doing?

• The research project produces information on how well-being at work and different attitudes towards work have developed among Finnish employees over recent years.
• The respondents consisted of working Finns aged 18–65.
• This time, the focus is on changes in Finns’ well-being at work between late 2019 (n=1,567), summer 2024 and late 2024 (n=933).
• Currently, How is Finland doing? is being implemented in the The Mental Health Toolkit project, which is part of Finland's Sustainable Growth Programme. The project is funded by the European Union’s one-time recovery tool (Next Generation EU) via the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health.
• Read the previous results of the project on the project page: ttl.fi/en/research/projects/how-is-finland-doing
• Learn more about the study (research results attached).
  
  

Further information

• Jari Hakanen, Research Professor, jari.hakanen@ttl.fi, +358 40 562 5433
• Janne Kaltiainen, Specialist Researcher, janne.kaltiainen@ttl.fi, +358 50 476 5980