Eurozone central bank officials are battling an accelerating mental health crisis after being forced to tackle historic inflation levels.
The European Central Bank (ECB) has found an internal survey that has seen a sharp increase in the number of workers at risk of burnout and an increase in those reporting suicidal thoughts.
The report, which surveyed 1,602 ECB staff, found that the proportion of staff facing burnout has soared to 38.9% now, up from 33.2% when the survey was last conducted in 2021. The number of people experiencing suicidal thoughts has risen from 6% to 9.1%, equivalent to 146 staff members.
The proportion of employees reporting at least one mental or physical symptom, such as burnout, fatigue, mood disorders or apathy, is now reported to be at 72%.
Why are ECB officials so stressed?
The bank is battling the highest inflation it has experienced in its short 25-year history and increasing workload for staff.
A perfect combination of supply chain disruptions, increased consumer spending and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has caused inflation to peak at 10.6% in October 2022.
The ECB began raising interest rates several months ago to stave off demand, raising the base rate to a record 4.5% by the summer of 2023, but only cut the first rate in June.
The ECB has had few quiet times since it was founded in 1999. Before dealing with the impact of the coronavirus, ECB officials had to deal with the strain of the global financial crisis and the subsequent debt crisis that spread to Europe’s poorer countries.
In a recent survey, seven in 10 employees who reported burnout said they regularly worked late into the night, while six in 10 employees who didn’t experience burnout also said they worked late into the night.
Carlos Bowles, chairman of the ECB’s staff committee, said a “significant increase in suicide rates” could not be verified without questioning the bank’s leadership.
“Burnout is known to lead to poor decision-making and this is something the ECB doesn’t want, where millions of Europeans could be adversely affected by errors in data analysis, macroeconomic forecasts or simply a misjudgment about the reality of the economic situation,” Bowles said. Politico.
While there are certainly parallels between the timing of the report and the ECB’s historic battle with inflation, the cause of the worsening mental illness may lie in more Machiavellian factors.
Politico Nearly all respondents complained about “power struggles” at their banks, nine in 10 complained about favouritism and some said promotion opportunities were not based on merit.
Representatives for the ECB did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The investigation also uncovered instances of threats of physical and verbal violence, as well as allegations of sexual harassment.
The ECB has been embroiled in several public battles with its staff, most recently over a pay dispute last year, when the head of the ECB staff union filed a formal complaint in 2023 after the bank passed a 4% pay increase, less than half the inflation rate of 8.3% at the time.