Staff in the Netherlands and Spain were less stressed than Britons
UK workers are among the least stressed in Europe, a survey has suggested.
Just 20% of British workers found their workplace "too stressful" compared with an average of 27% across Europe.
Switzerland and Sweden suffered the highest levels of anxiety in their job (33%), the survey by global recruitment agency Kelly Services found.
The poll of 19,000 people across 12 countries also found that male workers, older staff and those in steady jobs were under the greatest pressure.
"A certain amount of stress is inevitable and can be a good thing when it pushes people beyond their comfort zone to work harder and smarter," said Steve Girdler, marketing director of Kelly Services UK.
"But high levels of prolonged stress are not good because they impact on productivity and are associated with physical and emotional illness," he warned.
The group also found stress increased significantly with age - rising from 19% in the 15-24 age bracket to 23% for those aged 45 and above.
The report suggested these workers could also be suffering from added stress at home and increased responsibility.
Those working the longest hours found their job the most stressful - 18% for those working 30 hours or less, 34% for those clocking on for 41-50 hours, and 50% for those working longer than 51 hours.
Kelly Services also uncovered a close link between stress and job satisfaction.
For those workers who said they faced too much stress, just 28% were happy in their jobs, while for those with "just the right amount of stress" happiness levels jumped to 65%.
The findings suggest staff enjoy jobs where they face challenges that push them to "learn new skills".
最近一項調查結果顯示，英國員工面臨的工作壓力在整個歐洲屬於最小之列。
27%的歐洲人認為工作壓力很大，和這個平均資料相比，只有20%的英國人覺得自己的工作壓力大。
全球人力顧問公司Kelly Services的調查發現，瑞士和瑞典員工在工作中感受到焦慮不安的比例最多，達到33%。
這項對12個國家的`1.9萬人次進行的調查還顯示男員工、老員工和工作穩定的員工通常面臨的工作壓力最大。
“工作有一定壓力是不可避免的，如果壓力能夠讓員工在習以為常的舒適環境中更加努力工作、工作得更漂亮的話，有壓力就是件好事。”Kelly Services英國市場行銷經理史蒂夫·格德勒說。
“不過，如果長期壓力過大，反而會適得其反，因為這樣難免會影響生產效率，導致生理和心理方面的疾病。”他提醒說。
調查小組同時還發現，壓力隨著年齡的增長而顯著增加。在15到24歲的員工中，只有19%的員工感到工作壓力大，而45歲和45歲以上的員工中則有23%的人有這樣的感覺。
報告指出，這些員工同時面臨來自家庭的壓力，肩上的責任也越來越大。
工作時間最長的人覺得他們的工作壓力最大，每週工作30個小時或不到30個小時的員工，只有18%感到工作壓力大，而每週工作41到50小時的員工中有34%有這樣的感覺，每週工作時間超過51小時的員工中這個數字達到50%。
Kelly Services還揭示了壓力和工作滿意度之間有著密切聯絡。
那些認為自己工作壓力太大的員工中，只有28%的人認為自己的工作很快樂，而在那些"工作壓力適度"的員工中，快樂指數一下子升高到65%。
調查發現員工喜歡那些具有挑戰性、能促進自己“學到新技術”的工作。
Vocabulary:
age bracket :(年齡組)
clock on : (打卡以記錄上班時間) (：夏根建)
