[lbo-talk] "We talk of red flags....

[Mike Ballard]

Hi LOBsters,

The same old story seems to be getting some
recognition on the radar.  Proletarians have no
security nor do they have power.  Power goes to those
who reap the social product of the producing (aka
working, employee, wage-slave) class's labour.

Soli,
Mike B)
 
Work Stress Taking Larger Financial Toll
Sat Aug 9,  

By Steve James 

NEW YORK (Reuters) - In the 1999 movie "Office Space,"
stressed-out workers crammed in cubicles and belittled
by incompetent bosses plot to break out of their bored
existence. One smashes the permanently jammed
photocopy machine and another finally loses it and
burns down the office. 
  

Hollywood fantasy? Perhaps, but job stress is a
leading cause of illness, depression and work place
violence in America today and is increasing, experts
say. 


It is estimated to cost U.S. industry a staggering
$300 billion a year in absenteeism, health costs and
programs to help workers manage stress as unemployment
rises and companies cut staff in what is
euphemistically known as "down-sizing." 


Fears of losing jobs as the economy stalls, or not
having a personal life as pagers, cellphones and the
Internet keep employees linked to their work 24 hours
a day, have Americans complaining of muscular pain or
fatigue or even seeking therapy. Surveys show more
people are driven to frustration or physical violence
by the daily demands they face at work. 


"Stress is increasing dramatically," said Dr. Paul
Rosch, president of the American Institute of Stress
(AIS), which estimates 1 million workers are absent
daily due to stress. 


Causes range from the demands of competing in the
global marketplace, the need to keep up with new
equipment and technology and creeping
depersonalization in the work place. 


"VERY FRUSTRATING" 


"People sit 6 feet apart in little cubicles and never
speak with each other except by computer. You never
hear a human voice and it's 'press one' or 'press
three', it's very frustrating," Rosch told Reuters by
telephone from his office in Yonkers, New York. 


The European Agency for Safety and Health at Work
reports that more than half of the 550 million working
days lost annually in the United States from
absenteeism are stress-related and that one-in-five of
all last minute no-shows are due to job stress. 


"We estimate it (stress) costs American industry $300
billion a year in terms of diminished productivity,
employee turnover and insurance," the AIS's Rosch
said. 


His institute cites a 2000 Gallup Poll, "Attitudes in
the American Workplace," sponsored by The Marlin Co.,
a North Haven, Connecticut-based work place
communications firm. 


It found that 80 percent of workers feel stress on the
job and nearly half say they need help coping with it.
Twenty-five percent have felt like screaming or
shouting because of job stress, 14 percent felt like
striking a co-worker and 10 percent are concerned
about a colleague becoming violent. 


According to AIS, an average of 20 workers are
murdered each week in the United States, making
homicide the second leading cause of work place
deaths. 


"Postal workers who work in a safe environment have
experienced so many fatalities due to job stress that
'going postal' has crept into our language," the
Institute's Web site, http://www.stress.org, says. 


"Desk rage" and "phone rage" have also become
increasingly common terms, it said. Adding to the
increasing stress of modern living, Americans work
longer hours and take fewer vacations to unwind, than
people in Europe or elsewhere. 


An International Labor Organization study showed that
Americans worked the equivalent of an extra 40-hour
week in 2000 than 10 years before. Americans work
almost a month longer than the Japanese and three
months more than Germans, it said. 


MORALE CAN SUFFER 


Stress can manifest itself in different ways, from
breaking out in hives to chronic headaches, back pain,
obesity, insomnia and depression, all contriving to
drive up health-care costs. In addition, morale often
suffers. 

Betsy Robinson, director of strategic program
development at Intracorp, a medical and disability
management company, said a recent survey by Mercer
Management Consulting revealed that although muscular
and skeletal problems are the leading cause of
disability in the work place, 70 percent of employers
said stress was the fastest growing cause. 

"It's a strong driver of absence and requires
management," she told Reuters. "It's in a kind of
stealth mode, because although headaches or insomnia
may be the reason for long-term absence, underneath
could be stress." 

Diane Larson, employee assistance consultant at Cigna
Behavioral Health, a subsidiary of health insurer
Cigna Corp. (NYSE:CI - news), said stress covers many
things such as uncertainty over the future, lack of
recognition by employers, a lack of control or unsure
job responsibilities. 

She said she speaks to employers about different ways
to identify stress in workers and institute programs
to prevent or deal with it on an individual basis or
in wellness seminars. 

"We talk of red flags, such as increasing absenteeism,
decreases in job performance, not being able to
complete jobs, or even crying and anger on the job,"
Larson said. "Earlier intervention is better." 


 


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Cognitive dissonance is the inner conflict produced when long-standing beliefs are contradicted by new evidence.

http://profiles.yahoo.com/swillsqueal

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