Stress can be good for you, says Tony Briscoe, IBEC's assistant director of social policy. It gets things done. However, he concedes that too much stress is counterproductive. He says employers should be aware of it in the workplace, without denying young people the challenges necessary to let them progress.
According to Hilary Maher of Penn Consultants, the workplace has become a faster-moving place where productivity has doubled, while the number doing the work has risen by only 20 per cent, she says.
Last year's Annual Employment Survey, from Forfas, found that part-time, temporary and short-term contract employment rose by 159 per cent between 1989 and 1998. In the financial services sector, the rise of such contract work was a huge 1,353 per cent.
According to Patricia O'Donovan, deputy general secretary of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, such figures - when seen in the light of the long hours that many are expected to work - highlight the need for the swift implementation of the EU's directives on fixed-term contracts and part-time workers.
Though union membership is rising here, a legal mesh of protection against discrimination is necessary, if simply to protect against a culture where insecurity is exploited and discrimination tolerated.
It is becoming increasing important, says Maher, that young people be taught to prioritise and so manage stress from an early age. And management should be "feminised". "It should not be a source of shame to say `I need help with this work'," she says. "It is patently untrue that working 70 hours a week to the point of burn-out makes you more productive. "In young people," she adds. "I would say there's an element of emotional intelligence about this. Maybe they have to go through that stress to learn that it's not what life is all about."