One of the main conclusions of the “Study on working conditions, professional burnout and well-being of Portuguese public prosecutors”, carried out by the Permanent Observatory for Justice of the Centre for Social Studies (OPJ/CES) of the University of Coimbra, is that Portuguese public prosecutors show signs of professional burnout, with high percentages of burnout risk levels.

In this study, it was already possible to see that public prosecutors show psychosocial risk factors with worrying health risks, such as the “strong cognitive demands”, the high pace of work, the worrying conflict between work and family and the alarming emotional demands. In terms of health indicators, this judiciary shows very worrying values in terms of stress, sleep problems and depressive symptoms.

Among the risk factors specific to the Public Prosecutor’s Office, those who consider the following to be very stressful for their professional practice stand out: the high volume of cases; the lack of support for reconciling work and family; the impact of judicial inspections on professional performance; participation in competitions for promotions; and the lack of bailiffs. With regard to their perception of their state of health, a significant number of magistrates believe they have poor levels of mental and physical health.

The online questionnaire survey, carried out in collaboration with the Attorney General’s Office and the Union of Public Prosecutors, was applied between 1 June 2023 and 15 July 2023. A response rate of 21.4% was obtained from the universe of 1,512 public prosecutors working in the courts on 31 December 2022.

The “Study on working conditions, professional burnout and well-being of Portuguese public prosecutors” resulted from a collaboration agreement between the Centre for Social Studies of the University of Coimbra, under the Permanent Observatory for Justice, the Attorney General’s Office and the Union of Public Prosecutors.

This study aims to assess the working conditions, burnout, health and well-being of public prosecutors in the ordinary jurisdiction and administrative and tax courts in Portugal. In addition to the online questionnaire survey, other methodologies are being applied, such as semi-structured interviews and focus groups, as well as publicly available information and from partner organisations. The Final Report will be produced by the end of April 2024.
 

Coordinators: João Paulo Dias, Paula Casaleiro and Conceição Gomes

Research Team: João Paulo Dias, Paula Casaleiro, Conceição Gomes, Gustavo Veiga and Ana Filipa Neves