Not every problem is immediately apparent to outsiders. Especially younger people suffer from something that is virtually everywhere.
The title image is a symbolic representation.
What bothers young people? According to a survey by the leading French financial daily Les Echos, we have a problem with noise in the labor market. Always more than half of the participants report that noise at work affects their lives and health.
It is noticeable that the younger the people are, the higher the percentage. Thus, the younger individuals under 34, mostly belonging to Gen Z, form the most burdened group. 64 percent complain about noise here. The older people get, the lower the percentage, but it remains clearly above 50 percent. Boomers, as members of the 50-plus age cohorts, are also affected, although less severely.
Noise, the hidden scourge
Are all industries equally affected? No, it is easily understandable that complaints from sectors such as construction and industry outweigh those from trade, office, or service. But no matter which industry we look at, more than half are suffering from noise. Even in open-plan offices, conversations, phone ringing, background noise, or the overlapping clicking of keyboards are sufficient.
What are the health effects of noise? There are studies on this as well as data from the survey. The latter are:
- Exhaustion and irritability, 60 percent
- Stress, 50 percent
- Discomfort, 37 percent
- Sleep disorders and tinnitus, about a third each
- Deafness, one in four
Studies from a research institute, which the newspaper cites, also point to a risk from apparently “normal conditions” apart from the danger of loud noises, such as those found in construction or industry. Anyone exposed to a specific distressing noise environment for hours may eventually face the problems mentioned above.
The workplace well-being expert, Romain Bendavid, describes noise in the professional world as follows (via euro.dayfr.com):
It is the hidden scourge of professional life.
Further facets concerning the generation in focus by business and science can also be found here:
Generation Z has a special relationship with the office, fundamentally different from the previous age groups, despite all the problems. Many of them began their professional lives during the pandemic or shortly before and thus did not get to know the normal work routine. Now they celebrate it: Generation Z now finds a new reason to leave home office for the office
