The sixth Quality of Work Index Luxembourg, published (in French and German) on 27 November and conducted by the Chamber of Employees (Chambre des Salariés) and the University of Luxembourg, polled employees in Luxembourg, be they resident or cross-border workers.

Psychosocial issues were found to be the main problem in the workplace. Stress levels continue to rise as “workers are more and more confronted by situations marked by heavy psychological demands (information and emotional overload, lack of time, frequent shift changes, moral harassment), while having little control over their situation (lack of autonomy, little freedom to decide on their activities, few opportunities to develop skills),” the report concludes. Satisfaction with earnings fell, but there was an uptick among respondents in the possibility for promotion or career progression and employees were more positive about job security.

Work and home life

Around 4 out of 10 workers polled said they had difficulty balancing work and home life. Respondents said that to benefit from time outside of work, they would need to have a de facto volume of working time that does not consume the time and energy of employees, but which leaves them sufficient possibilities to get involved in daily activities.

Reduction of working hours

The survey found that full-time workers worked on average 43.7 hours (men) and 42.4 hours (women). Respondents said they’d like to work fewer hours, just 38.7 hours and 36.3, respectively. Among part-time workers, men wanted to increase their paid hours (for 27.3 hours paid, they worked on average 30) to 29.3 hours. Women working part-time suggested increasing their hours from 26 to 27.

The right to switch off

Around one in 10 respondents said they were not able to forget work or distance themselves from it upon logging off. Two out of 10 respondents said this was slightly the case. Yet, the report found around 8 out of 10 workers polled had received work calls or emails at home. A fifth will regularly respond to work emails at home.

Workers who were less able to switch off in their free time were less happy in their work (56.7 compared with 64.5 out of 100). Their sense of well-being was also low. Furthermore, the feeling of being at risk of burnout was higher and health problem outlooks were more pessimistic among this group.

Take the Equilibre survey

Gender complementarity organisation Equilibre is encouraging the public to participate in its survey about work motivation.

The survey asks about the elements of work which serve to motivate and demotivate staff to better understand tensions in the workplace. The online survey takes eight minutes to complete and is available in French and English.