Long, inflexible working hours and stressful conditions are driving more and more Germans to burnout. The federal republic’s burnout rate is now close to that of workers in the United States.

Germans are getting burnt out at work

At the end of 2022, 37 percent of Germans reported feeling burnout at work, that is according to US-based work organisation Future Forum. The figure is up from 29 percent in May 2021.

Of the 10.000 employees asked in a representative survey, 42 percent of international respondents said that they felt burnt out at the end of 2022. From country to country, Japan had the lowest number of workers who said they felt burnt out, at 27 percent. 

The US came in just below the international average at 41 percent, while the United Kingdom and France were equal at 48 percent. Australia followed, with half of workers saying they felt burnt out at the end of 2022 - the worst burnout rate in the world.

According to the WHO definition, burnout is a syndrome resulting in chronic workplace stress and can be characterised by three elements: feeling exhausted, having mental distance from or despondency towards your job and being less efficient at work.

Flexibility at work is linked to burnout rates

The survey findings also unsurprisingly revealed that the amount of flexibility people have at work is linked to how likely they are to feel burnt out.

Internationally, 53 percent of respondents who said they were dissatisfied with the amount of work flexibility they have also said they were burnt out, compared to the 37 percent who were happy with how flexible their job is.

Age and gender also played a role in how likely workers were to feel burnt out. According to the findings, women and younger people were more likely to be burnt out than other groups. Among the under 30s a whopping 48 percent of respondents said they were burnt out at work at the end of 2022.

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