The Trouble with Stress

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Article Title:

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The Trouble with Stress

Article Description:

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Stress is part and parcel of life. However, just as

distress can cause disease, it seems plausible that there

are good stresses that promote wellness. Stress is not

always necessarily harmful.

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592 Words; formatted to 60 Characters per Line

Distribution Date and Time: Wed Apr 13 22:32:42 EDT 2005

Written By: Leveda Steinin

Copyright: 2005

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The Trouble with Stress

Copyright © 2005 Leveda Steinin

Fisio Stress

http://www.fisiostress.com/

Stress is part and parcel of life. However, just as

distress can cause disease, it seems plausible that there

are good stresses that promote wellness. Stress is not

always necessarily harmful. Getting a new job can be just

stressful as losing it, or more so, but may trigger very

different biological responses.

Increased stress results in increased productivity -- up to

a point. However, this level differs for each of us.

Numerous surveys and studies confirm that occupational

pressures and fears are far and away the leading source of

stress for American adults and that these have steadily

increased over the past few decades.

The American Institute of Stress offers some findings that

underscore the growing stressfulness of the working

environment. For example, a 1999 government report found

that the number of hours worked increased 8% in one

generation to an average 47 hrs/week with 20% working

49 hrs/week.

U.S. workers put in more hours on the job than the labor

force of any other industrial nation, where the trend has

been just the opposite.

According to an International Labor Organization study,

Americans put in the equivalent of an extra 40-hour work

week in 2000 compared to ten years previously. Japan had

the record until around 1995 but Americans now work almost

a month more than the Japanese and three months more than

Germans.

We are also working harder. In a 2001 survey, nearly 40% of

workers described their office environment as " most like a

real life survivor program. "

According to a survey of 800,000 workers in over 300

companies, the number of employees calling in sick because

of stress tripled from 1996 to 2000. An estimated 1

million workers are absent every day due to stress. The

European Agency for Safety and Health at Work reported that

over half of the 550 million working days lost annually in

the U.S. from absenteeism are stress related and that one

in five of all last minute no-shows are due to job stress.

If this occurs in key employees it can have a domino effect

that spreads down the line to disrupt scheduled operations.

Unanticipated absenteeism is estimated to cost American

companies $602.00/worker/year and the price tag for large

employers could approach $3.5 million annually. A 1997

three year study conducted by one large corporation found

that 60% of employee absences could be traced to

psychological problems that were due to job stress.

A 1999 government study reported that more jobs had been

lost in the previous year than any other year in the last

half century, and that the number of workers fearful of

losing their jobs had more than doubled over the past

decade.

That was several years ago and the problem has worsened

considerably since then. A February 2000 poll found that

almost 50 percent of employees were concerned about

retaining their job and with good reason.

There were massive layoffs due to down-sizing and

bankruptcies including the collapse of over 200 dot.com

companies. The unemployment rate by the end of that year

was the highest it had been in 16 months.

This, in a nutshell, is the stress situation in the

American job scene. Eliminating the causes of stress will

prove to be an impossible dream. The only real solution is

changing the attitude of the workforce towards most

stressful situations and this will require an army of

on-the-job counselors. This will admittedly entail a

gargantuan amount of funding from employers concerned, but

with the support of government it is not impossible to

achieve. After all, it’s the only way!

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Leveda Steinin is the owner of <a href= " http://www.fisiostress.com " >Fisio

Stress</a> which is

the premier resource for stress information. For more

information go to: http://www.fisiostress.com