Stress, anxiety, depressive tendencies... One in four employees declares themselves to be in poor mental health, according to an Ipsos study published on Thursday.
Conducted for the Qualisocial firm specializing in mental health and well-being at work, the barometer shows that 4% of employees questioned on how they assess their mental health consider it “very bad” and 2% “rather bad”.
This deteriorating mental health situation among employees is stable compared to last year, the study indicates.
Conversely, 59% consider their mental health to be “rather good” and 14% “very good”, with 2% of the employees surveyed not wishing to answer.
Prime Minister François Bayrou confirmed in mid-January that mental health will be “the great national cause of 2025”, as decided by his predecessor Michel Barnier.
A welcome decision according to the specialist firms brought together within the Federation of Psychosocial Risk Interveners (Firps), including Qualisocial, who this week highlighted "a worrying deterioration in the mental health of French employees", judging it "urgent" to strengthen prevention.
For Camy Puech, founder of the Qualisocial firm, "2025 is a year of tension at work which is conducive to the deterioration of mental health" for various reasons (political and economic context, uncertainties surrounding the transition with AI, the ecological transition, etc.).
By sector, the Ipsos study indicates that the proportion of employees reporting poor mental health is higher in medical-social accommodation, social action (34%), accommodation and catering (30%), public administration (30%), commerce (29%) and information and communication (28%).
The construction sector is less affected (19%), ahead of industry (21%) and business services (21%) or transport (23%).
Women under 40, single people with children, chronically ill people and people working part-time are the most vulnerable populations.
Lack of confidence in the future appears to be "the main factor degrading the level of mental health", according to the study: an employee who has confidence is 4.3 times more likely to feel in good mental health than an employee who does not have confidence.
Poor mental health has "a strong impact on the ability to concentrate, commitment and energy at work", continues the study, which highlights that more than one in three employees has no access to any preventive action.
The survey was conducted online from December 3 to 9 among a representative sample of 3,000 employees, using the quota method.
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