Survey conducted by Eurofound on life and work in the EU in 2022 has shown that half of the workers across the European Union want to work less, and some complain that the interaction between robots and people in the workplace is not properly designed, leading to injuries and accidents, the Croatian Vecernji List daily reported on Wednesday.

“It is time for Europe to think about its future. The pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine have brought profound changes to the EU, with workers reporting dissatisfaction with the rising costs of living, 8-hour working days, the lack of work-life balance, as well as negative impacts of war and the pandemic to their health,” the daily reported.

Nearly half of EU citizens want to work less than the standard 35-40 hours a week, while a third of workers describe their jobs as low quality because they experience more negative than positive sides. The service sector in particular has a problem with retaining workers.

Employers will not be helped by robots either, because they cannot work without people working alongside them for example in warehouses and on assembly lines. Several accidents have already been recorded, caused by robots working alongside people, because the interaction was not properly designed. These are some of the results of a survey conducted by the respected Eurofound on life and work in the EU in 2022.

In a study on the working and living conditions of citizens, and in light of the results of research on a long list of negative things that drag workers to the bottom, such as long working hours, an imbalance between private and business life, making ends meet… Eurofound notes that they have long warned that one of the ways to prevent the consequences of the labor shortage in the EU is to create working conditions that protect the mental and physical health of workers and enable them to advance.

After the pandemic, workers made it clear that they no longer wanted to work in companies 24/7 while their private lives suffered, which led to the phenomenon of “numerous resignations” or at least thinking about stopping performing lower-quality jobs. Some sectors – especially those with a reputation for poor working conditions – have problems recruiting and retaining staff, Vecernji List cited Eurofound as saying.