UNAM: Mexicans are the most stressed people in the world: UNAM

The Catholic holiday of Holy Week arrived and with it, the days of rest, however, Mexico is one of the countries with the least vacations per year. On average, there are 14 days, including those of benefits and official days marked by the calendar.

Erika Villavicencio from the Faculty of Psychology (FP) of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), said that this period is very short, especially if they take into account the days that workers continue to attend to matters of their work, rather than taking the necessary breaks to clear their minds.

Since 2017, the World Health Organization (WHO) has classified Mexicans as the most stressed people in the world for work-related reasons. This has given our country, specifically the first place in workplace stress, even above China and the United States, the two largest economies on the planet.

In addition, in 2019, according to the Mexican Job Exchange OCC World, chronic stress in the workplace affected more than 40% of its employees and in 2021 it increased to 63%.

The work culture in the country, caused by the way in which children are educated to commit themselves unconditionally to work, is the reason that employees feel blame for leaving the office on time or disconnecting during your moments of rest or vacation:

An example of this is the exhaustion or burnout caused by people pretending to be extremely busy in order to project the image of someone very busy to others. It is for this reason that companies or organizations have poor quality results, an increase in occupational accidents or poor customer service, emphasizes Villavicencio

The Covid-19 pandemic also increased the idea of the “always available worker”, which in turn increases mental disorders such as stress at work, as well as gastrointestinal problems, sleep disturbances, headache, behavioral reactions and fears, said the coordinator of Organizational Psychology of the VET.

The academic asserted that a vacation period of more than three days is the time in which people can have a full rest, this ensuring that they do not understand full of job responsibilities.

“By having a real rest, our attention processes are optimized when we return to developing an activity that requires concentration, otherwise we get blocked and the delivery of good results becomes complicated. It is about complying with the times and deliverables that are requested from us at work, but doing it in an orchestrated way and with that there is not only prompt delivery of results or reduction of conflicts, but we produce a better working environment,” he said.

For the psychologist at UNAM, the balance between work and personal life is essential to enjoy vacation time and be able to return to work with a good performance.

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