There was a time that admitting to be suffering from stress was almost a status symbol of those who occupied important professional positions like doctors, lawyers and engineers. But it seems that this phenomenon today is affecting most workers in Europe. And the Maltese, despite our proverbial easy-going attitude to life, are just as prone to feeling stressed as other Europeans.

A recent study by Ipsos, the European Agency for Health and Safety at Work, found that the “Maltese employees think that the workplace will become even more stressful over the next five years”. A substantial 74 per cent of us are “expecting higher levels of stress at the workplace in the next five years”. One needs to ask whether this is merely a self pity reaction not completely out of line with our tendency to complain about the quality of our life today when compared to that of a not too well defined past. Or are we really going through a phase where the workplace has indeed become less secure and more demanding?

Malta may not have been so badly affected by the global economic downturn that started in 2008. There are various reasons for this but one of them is certainly the fact that over 27 per cent of workers are employed in the public sector that still offers a job for life – even if it may not guarantee much satisfaction. Perhaps it is exactly because of this lack of job satisfaction that some of our workers feel increasingly stressed.

There are, of course, many public sector workers like nurses, teachers and the police who have to deal with stressful work conditions constantly in their workplace. Undoubtedly more needs to be done to reduce the stress levels in these professions.

Those who work in the private sector are more justified in complaining about increasing levels of stress as their companies, most of which cater for the export market, face the uncertainties that the global economic crisis promotes. The uncertainty about their jobs and their ability to meet their family’s financial commitments if they are made redundant is more than sufficient reason to raise the stress levels of many workers.

An equally important stress trigger affects members of the “sandwich generation” – mainly middle-aged people, especially women, who have to cope with the pressures of raising a family, holding a career and often also care for a sick elderly parent. Such persons often end up suffering from severe forms of stress as often they find little or no support from their employers, family or even the state to alleviate their burdens. With an ageing population this kind of pressure and the resulting stress is bound to increase and our society needs to find ways of ensuring that no one gets crushed as a result of the difficulty of striking a balance between family and work responsibilities.

The Ipsos survey concluded that the large majority of Europeans (86 per cent) believe that “adhering to good occupational health and safety practices was necessary for a country’s economic competitiveness”. This is an encouraging sign as for many years health and safety practices were considered as no more than “nice to have” elements in the workplace.

It is even more encouraging that both workers and employers are today more aware of the consequences of psychological risks like stress that can have devastating effects on workers’ lives, even worse than the effects of physical illnesses.