French workers are so underworked they are becoming clinically depressed, according to one academic, reports The Independent.
Christian Bourion, professor of social economics at Nancy Metz ICN Business School, believes French workers are getting “destructured personalities” and suffering from psychological trauma as a result of boredom.
The professor developed a programme that detected certain phrases, related to workplace boredom, in France’s online chat rooms, according to The Times.
His results demonstrated a dramatic escalation of workers complaining about their boring days: in 2011 the words “bored at work” appeared 184,000 times – in 2015 the same words appeared 542,000 times.
Professor Bourion believes France’s tough employment laws are partially to blame. Excellent worker rights make it extremely difficult to fire employees, even when they have nothing to do.