Finns' wellbeing at work has deteriorated, according to a survey by the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health (TTL).
It said cases of employee burnout are rising, and Finns are increasingly concerned about the future of their jobs.
According to the institute's research professor, Jari Hakanen, working life in Finland is facing challenges posed by four negative trends.
Workloads have increased, resources have declined, expectations for the future have become more uncertain, and at the same time, workers are increasingly getting burnt out.
The survey found a full 40 percent of working-age Finns are worried about what their jobs will be like in the future. Just 16 percent of respondents said they think their working life would improve in the future.
According to Hakanen, these negative sentiments likely stem from Finland's weak economic situation, which reflects the similar uncertain circumstances facing the rest of the world.
He said those uncertainties do not exclusively apply to whether a person has a job, but rather the future of employment in general.
Two sides to remote work
The survey found 79 percent of respondents saying they feel fairly treated at work, which is two percentage points lower than a similar TTL survey found last summer.
Hakanen noted that remote working arrangements are still very common in Finland, well after the Covid pandemic that sparked the decentralisation of many types of jobs.
But remote working has both positive and negative effects on employee wellbeing.
On the one hand, it offers flexibility and reduces stresses like commuting. At the same time, it was found that remote work has the potential weaken people's social networks.
TTL's survey received responses from 2,143 Finns of working age (between 18 and 65 years old). It was carried out at the end of 2025.
The same group of respondents also took part in the institute's employee wellbeing survey last summer. The results were also compared to previous TTL surveys on the topic during the years 2019-2023.
Burnouts rise
A comparison of those surveys found that employees in Finland are increasingly suffering symptoms of workplace burnout.
Around nine percent of respondents in the latest survey reported they suffered from probable burnout, while last summer the proportion was a percentage point lower. At the same time, 16 percent said they were at an increased risk of suffering job burnout.
According to the institute, given these results, about a quarter of working-age people have a concerning level of burnout symptoms.
Such feelings were found to be particularly pronounced among respondents between the ages of 30 and 45. Thirteen percent of this group said they suffered from probable burnout.
Managers and supervisors were also found to increasingly be susceptible to burnout symptoms over the past couple of years.
Hakanen, who had studied the topic of workplace wellbeing for a long time characterised that development as historic.
