Nearly half (41%) of Swiss workers say they end their day exhausted, according to the latest “Working Conditions Barometer”, published by the union federation Travail.Suisse. The study suggests that although overall job satisfaction remains high, the strain of long hours, blurred boundaries and rising workloads is taking a toll.
The 2025 edition of the survey reports that 82.6% of respondents are satisfied with their jobs—a slight increase on last year. Yet four in ten (41%) say they regularly feel worn out by the end of the day. More than a quarter are expected to remain reachable outside working hours, hampering recovery. One-third say they lack enough time to rest, and 42.4% report frequent or very frequent stress. A fifth consider it nearly impossible to balance work and private life.
Travail.Suisse argues that emotional exhaustion has become a serious workplace risk, exacerbated by weak separation between work and home and by inadequate rest periods.
Overtime remains widespread: half of respondents log extra hours, and nearly a quarter work more than ten hours a day—a figure up by about 2.5 percentage points from last year. Presenteeism, which briefly dipped during the pandemic, has returned to pre-Covid levels. Stress-related workload effects continue to rise, signalling growing health risks.
Remote work is deepening divides. Some 42% of respondents worked from home at least part-time and tend to be more satisfied, thanks to greater autonomy and flexibility. Jobs that cannot be done remotely are associated with harsher conditions. Teleworking, however, complicates the separation of professional and private life.
The barometer has been conducted annually since 2015 by Travail.Suisse and the Bern University of Applied Sciences. The 2025 edition surveyed 1,422 people across Switzerland.
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Travail.Suisse article (in French) – Take a 5 minute French test now
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