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Morale is at half mast in the world of work: 20% of employees were prescribed a work stoppage for psychological reasons in 2022, according to the latest annual barometer from Malakoff Humanis. However, Dutch researchers have found that entrepreneurs seem less exposed to burnout than their corporate counterparts.
Burn out: entrepreneurs are less exposed than employees
Martin Obschonka, professor of entrepreneurship at the University of Amsterdam, and his colleagues came to this conclusion by following 348 entrepreneurs and 1,002 employees for nearly six months. To carry out their studythey asked them to answer several questionnaires in order to know their state of mind vis-à-vis their professional life.
Entrepreneurs are often portrayed as “workaholics” who fail to maintain a good balance between their personal life and their work. They are very demanding with themselves, which prevents them from imposing limits on themselves. And for good reason, entrepreneurs often take big risks to set up their business: they invest their time, their money and their hopes. Difficult to manage in the face of the possibility of failure.
This over-investment should make entrepreneurs, and especially first-time business creators, more vulnerable to stress and burn-out. Except that’s not the case. Researchers at the University of Amsterdam found that they were, on average, less likely to develop a psychological disorder than employees. This is what they call the paradox of “positive workaholism”.
“Entrepreneurial work actually seems to involve fewer day-to-day stressors—such as work pressure, lack of time, and administrative tasks—compared to salaried work,” said Martin Obschonka in a communicated.
“Furthermore, entrepreneurship provides a significant degree of professional autonomy. All of this leads to a positive psychological return on the substantial investment that entrepreneurs make due to their high involvement in work,” added Martin Obschonka.
Covid or not, entrepreneurship continues to seduce
The result: entrepreneurs have more energy and a better mindset than their corporate counterparts. They are also happier and more satisfied with their work. Scientists have noticed that this is particularly the case for entrepreneurs working alone. However, the risk of burnout increases as they grow their business and hire. The proof, according to the researchers, that entrepreneurship brings a certain professional serenity.
“If we can maximize the psychological utility of working as an entrepreneur, it promises not only personal benefits in the business creation sector, but also, more broadly, the development of healthy, motivated and well-rounded entrepreneurs. remunerated who will lead [bien] their businesses, and will collectively generate greater social and economic benefits.”underlined Martin Obschonka.
L’study that researchers from the University of Amsterdam recently published in the Journal of Business Venturing has a methodological bias. Indeed, it was carried out before the Covid-19 pandemic—a period that many entrepreneurs apprehended with difficulty. But it did not prevent some from getting started: 996,000 new companies were born in France in 2021, according to INSEE. An absolute record.