The Romanian employees’ mental health
The two cases of workplace deaths in 2024 have drawn the attention of specialists.
Iulia Hau, 12.03.2025, 14:00
The two cases of workplace deaths in 2024 have drawn the attention of specialists.
Moreover, in February 2025, a Romanian company was convicted in court for the first time for the professional burnout of an employee, and the company must pay her moral and material damages. And the data confirms that the level of stress related to the workplace does not only affect isolated cases. A recent study that analyzed the responses provided by 3,500 employees in Romania shows that 48% of them experience, often and very often, symptoms of anxiety at work, while 43% allocate at most three hours a week for relaxation.
Corina Neagu has over 20 years of experience in the field of human resources and is the founder of a consulting company that helps organizations cultivate the potential of their employees, which, in turn, discover their talents. She believes that the low level of education in Romania over the last 35 years and the lack of emotional education are determining factors of mental health problems related to the workplace.
Corina Neagu believes that Romanian schools still have a lot to improve in order to learn to provide students with the skills they need in the future: “School in Romania has brought us to a situation where we do not prepare skills at all, we do not take care of the emotional well-being of our children. Parents who are either abroad for work, or are not emotionally available, or there are dysfunctional relationships in the families, or poverty – when we are talking about the rural environment, or abuse of all kinds. Not even parents know how to be good to themselves, so that they can manage their relationship with their children. And then, all these things have led to our state, as a people, from an emotional and mental point of view, not being exactly as it should be. Yes, in a civilized, healthy, normal country there are prevention policies, there are strategies at the national level, there are programs at the organizational level, prevention and wellbeing — to encourage well-being and psychological safety at work.”
The expert believes that in the past of our people, patterns of behavior were formed that it is time to break. In this sense, fear, as the main instrument of control during communism, still makes its presence felt in the way we relate to each other hierarchically. The lack of a culture, of teamwork, a misunderstood individualism and shame as a component of the way we relate to each other are other inherited cultural aspects: “Another cultural model is that we did not have the right to an opinion. We did not know what feedback meant. If we opened our mouths, we were told “go to your room, now the adults are talking”. I am not talking about the instruments of coercion that existed at home and at school. Again, this is a model that has been perpetuated.”
Many important voices in the field of human resources increasingly say that organizations play an essential role in the well-being of employees and, therefore, of society in general. Corina Neagu: “Companies are not third parties, they are run by people who have to make decisions. The decision to take care of your employees must be a priority for any kind of organization and for any kind of leaders of that organization. Why do you take care of your people? Do your people take care of your customers? It’s very simple. Yes, both internal and external customers. That’s what Richard Branson said, it is not I who said it, but he said it very well. I mean, this is extremely important —not just in the sense that you give a salary at the end of the month, but be careful to create the space, the culture, and the environment where they feel authentic and can come and express themselves authentically. Conscious authenticity. I mean, we don’t expose everything about us in public, but we come without any kind of sword over our head and without any kind of repercussion — if I give feedback, without any kind of associated trauma, if during a discussion I don’t agree with you and we have divergent opinions and I feel comfortable expressing my point of view the way I think. So I express what I think without being penalized, harassed, abused, marginalized or fired. ”
A survey conducted by the BestJobs platform last year revealed that Romanian employee satisfaction at work was at its lowest level in three years, with only three in ten respondents saying they were satisfied with their jobs. In the same study, six out of ten employees said their job negatively affected their personal lives. At the same time, there are a growing number of NGOs and trained people helping companies and employees develop healthier work environments, where healthy communication and empathy guide interpersonal relationships. (EE)
