Job Stress Affects Your Bottom Line
| Everyone faces stress in their life. Some stress is even good. It motivates us to get things done and actually improves productivity as long as it is within manageable limits. Stress becomes a problem, though, when it seems excessive or insurmountable.
Working conditions – such as excessive workload demands and conflicting expectations – play a primary role in causing job stress, according to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH).
Over-stressed employees affect your company's bottom line. Stressful working conditions are associated with increased tardiness, absenteeism, presenteeism, illness, injury, and disability. Healthcare expenditures are nearly 50 percent greater for workers who report high levels of stress.1
According to the Northwestern National Life, a fourth of all U.S. employees view their jobs as the number one stressor in their lives. Princeton Survey Research Associates report that three-fourths of employees believe the worker has more on-the-job stress than a generation ago.
Swedish researchers studied 3,500 people to find the relationship, if any, between stress and first heart attack.2 They found that the most dangerous stressors for men were: tight deadlines, conflict, and high competition. Conflict at work increased the risk of a heart attack by 80 percent over the next 12 months.
The most dangerous stressor for women was a significant change in their financial situation. This stressor caused their risk of a heart attack to increase by 3 times!
What about the stress attributed specifically to work? A 2009 study of Swedish women3 found the highest perceived work-related stress was due to lack of organization and conflicts at work, having little influence at work, and work interference with home life. High perceived stressors were significantly associated with the number of days of reported sick-leave.
Exposure to stressful working conditions can have a direct influence on worker safety and health. Interventions are available to strengthen or weaken this influence. NIOSH research has identified organizational characteristics associated with both healthy, low-stress work and high levels of productivity. Examples of these characteristics include the following:
- Recognition of employees for good work performance
- Opportunities for career development
- An organizational culture that values the individual worker
- Management actions that are consistent with organizational values
Learn more at: www.cdc.gov/niosh/docs/99-101/
It's important that you as a manager or business owner keep alert to excessive stress in your own life. Symptoms include headache, sleep disturbance, concentration problems, short temper, upset stomach, and job dissatisfaction. Work to find balance and keep your priorities straight. It may save your life.
Resources:
1.Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine. 42:1060-1069.
2. Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. Stress …At Work. Publication 99-101.
3. Journal of the American Medical Association. 293:43-53. |
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