Work can be quite stressful these days: Tech workers around the world have had to deal with the impact of the pandemic, adapt to remote work – and deal with all those more recent return mandates – alongside fears of being laid off in an environment that has seen hundreds of thousands of layoffs since mid-2022 have fallen.

Unsurprisingly, employees feel the pressure. Forty-four percent of European workers reported that their work stress had increased as a result of the pandemic, according to one EU-OSHA Employee Survey.

Burnout is commonplace, with a Study from 2021 finding that 66% of Polish workers and 59% of workers in the Czech Republic experienced or were close to burnout. Trends in the workplace such as stopping quietly, rustAnd compassion fatigue are all symptoms of the same thing: employees are overworked, underrecognized and fed up.

Your resilience also depends on your age and level of knowledge. This was revealed by Cigna 360’s Global Well-Being Survey 98% of young adults between the ages of 18 and 24 (also known as Gen-Z) suffer from burnout worldwide.

What doesn’t help workers’ stress or exhaustion levels are sweeping decrees from tech billionaires like Elon Musk. It could be argued that billionaires are by their very nature removed from the cares of the average worker anyway, but Musk goes further.

As CEO of Tesla and SpaceX and former CEO of Twitter, he is hardline about how and where his employees should do their jobs. He recently told CNBC that “It’s not just a matter of productivity, I think it’s morally wrong,” referring to how service workers have no choice but to show up, while Silicon Valley engineers are the home-working “laptop class who are in la-la land to live .”

Musk also said he’s a big believer in people being more productive in person, saying that “people need to get off their goddamn moral high horse with the nonsense of working from home.”

Some are on Elon Musk’s side, with one Forbes survey revealing that 45% of the 65 billionaires surveyed also don’t believe in the work-from-home culture. But to many employees, his comments feel inappropriate, and his statement that he works seven days a week and only takes “two or three” days off a year is even more alienating.

The future of work is changing rapidly

European and global workers have undergone a profound change in the way they work in recent years.

Employees want an external or hybrid model because it eliminates travel time (and cost), can be a much more effective way to do deep work, and it also fosters a culture of flexibility where a set schedule doesn’t matter as long as the work gets done is done – which is especially appealing to working parents.

The emergence of four-day work weeks is another aspect of change. Successfully trialled in the UK by non-profit organization 4 Day Week Global, initial results showed that 91% of participating businesses will definitely continue or plan to continue the format.

Now that the mandate to go back to the office is starting to take effect, almost a third of workers in the eurozone want it work at home more often than their employer allows them, according to a recent survey by the European Central Bank.

The survey found that employees who commute more than an hour each way want 10 home working days per month. Anyone with a travel time of less than 15 minutes wants to be at home six days a month.

Employees vote with their feet if necessary. “Employees are more willing to change jobs if they have remote work preferences that go beyond their employers’ preferences,” the study authors said.

Offering flexibility in the form of work styles is now considered a benefit to employees, and it is one that positively contributes to employee happiness, which rises no less than 20% by having the ability to work 100% remotely.

Work-life balance goes beyond what benefits employees. It’s good for business too, as companies that offer fully remote jobs can now leverage a much larger, global talent pool to drive their success. Plus a survey performed by Airtasker found that remote workers get more done and work 1.4 days per month or 16.8 days per year more than office workers.

For employees (beyond mere luck), the biggest benefit of achieving an optimal work configuration, whether remote, hybrid, or fully flexible, is that it can help reduce chronic stress, prevent burnout, and as a result reduce physical problems. and mental symptoms such as anxiety, hypertension, digestive problems and heart problems. A real win-win.

Check out the House of Talent Job Board today for thousands of positions in the European technology sector.