The ‘Millennial Disease’: Study into predictors contributing to work-stress among Millennials.

Abstract

Work-stress is increasing, especially among Millennials of which one out of seven in the Netherlands experiences this. Concerning, since the generation (born between 1980 to 2000) makes up the largest part of the job market. It is still unclear why work-stress for this generation is so common. To find out what factors are contributing to the work-stress of Millennials, Michie’s (2002) causes of work-stress model was used as a theoretical framework to test the following factors on their predictability of work-stress: fixed salary, fixed hours, career prospect, permanent contract, support by boss, number of subordinates, financial security, and work-life balance. Using data from European Work Condition Survey (N=15902), the multiple regression results found fixed salary, fixed hours, number of subordinates, career prospect, permanent contract, support by boss, financial security, work-life balance to be significant predictors of work-stress, after controlling for the influence of age, gender, self-employment and education. Meanwhile, Financial security and age were not significant. Education, fixed salary, number of subordinates and permanent contract had a positive relation with stress, while fixed hours, self-employment, career prospect, support by boss, work-life balance, gender and education had a negative correlation with stress. Millennials experience less stress among flexible work conditions and jobs offering career development. Millennials seem eager to achieve greatness, as long as it is not in the way of their (family)lives, thus keeping their work-life balance. Future research should focus on work-stress reduction to create a better work environment and prevent stress from becoming the ‘Millennial disease’.