New York Stress and the Workplace

Stress is additive and cumulative in its negative effects on individuals, organizations and societies. And workplace stress has grown continuously for years. Stress experts at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) have found:

• Stress is linked to physical and mental health, as well as decreased willingness to take on new and creative endeavors.
• Job burnout experienced by 25 to 40 percent of U.S. workers is blamed on stress.
• More than ever before, employee stress is being recognized as a major drain on corporate productivity and competitiveness.
• Depression, only one type of stress reaction, is predicted to be the leading occupational disease of the 21st century, responsible for more days lost than any other single factor.
• $300 billion, or $7,500 per employee, is spent annually in the United States on stress-related compensation claims, reduced productivity, absenteeism, health insurance costs, direct medical expenses (nearly 50 percent higher for workers who report stress), and employee turnover.

What’s so different about today’s workplace? Studies from organizations such as NIOSH and the American Psychological Association show the following changes in working conditions have overburdened our traditional coping mechanisms:

• Growing psychological demands as we increase productivity demands and work longer hours.
• The need to gather and apply growing amounts of information.
• Job insecurity.
• Demographic changes such as aging workers, female participation in the workforce, and the integration of a growing, more educated population into the workplace.
• The need for men and women to balance obligations between work and family as women enter the workforce worldwide.

Statistics from a recent global stress research study show that increased stress is felt worldwide. And stress affects women differently than men: A recent Roper Starch Worldwide survey of 30,000 people between the ages of 13 and 65 in 30 countries showed:

• Women who work full-time and have children under the age of 13 report the greatest stress worldwide.
• Nearly one in four mothers who work full-time and have children under 13 feel stress almost every day.
• Globally, 23 percent of women executives and professionals, and 19 percent of their male peers, say they feel "super-stressed."

Numerous health problems are linked to stress:

• The leading six causes of death in the United States: heart disease, cancer, lung ailments, accidents, cirrhosis of the liver, and suicide.
• Immune response deficiency.
• Memory loss.
• Obesity.