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Worker Despair
by Karl Carlile
14 October 2000 05:05 UTC
ireland.com - The Irish Times - WORLD
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You Are Here: HOME > THE IRISH TIMES > WORLD Thursday, October 12, 2000
Thursday, October 12, 2000
One in 10 workers affected by 'despair'
Layoffs, mergers, short-term contracts and high productivity demands have
taken their toll in the last 10 years, writes Andrew Osborn
UN REPORT : The workers of the world, according to a United Nations
report, are united in just one thing these days: stress.
The report warns that anxiety levels are likely to increase dramatically
in coming years as globalisation continues and economic costs for business
increase.
The survey examines stress in the workplace in five countries. The UN's
International Labour Organisation (ILO) found that levels of anxiety,
burnout and depression are spiralling out of control.
The problem is costing employers billions of pounds in sick leave and lost
working time, and often leaves employees grappling with a series of
complex mental disorders for years afterwards.
The study focused on the problems of stress and mental illness at work in
the UK, the US, Germany, Finland and Poland.
It found that despair at work is a growing problem in all five countries,
with as many as one in ten workers affected.
Depression in the workplace is the second most disabling illness for
workers after heart disease, the report warns, and is likely to increase
as new technologies multiply.
Downsizing, layoffs, mergers, short-term contracts and higher productivity
demands have all exacted their toll in the last 10 years, leaving many
workers on the verge of nervous breakdown.
"Workers worldwide confront, as never before, an array of new
organisational structures and processes which can affect their mental
health," the report says.
In the UK as many as three in 10 employees experience mental health
problems and at any given time one in 20 Britons is contending with "major
depression".
"The self-reported occurrence of anxiety and depression [in the UK] ranges
from 15 to 30 per cent of the working population," the report says.
The reasons are twofold: people find it hard to adapt to new technology
and cannot keep up with constantly changing working practices.
In the UK, higher stress levels are estimated to be responsible for the
loss of 80 million working days a year. In financial terms, that leaves
the country seriously out of pocket - about £5.3 billion annually,
according to the Confederation of British Industry.
The British state-funded National Health Service (NHS) is also bearing the
brunt of workrelated anxiety. About 14 per cent of inpatient costs and
almost a quarter of its annual bill for drugs and medication are swallowed
up by stressed-out, sometimes mentally ill, office workers.
"These trends represent a wake-up call for business," the ILO says. "For
employers, the costs are felt in terms of low productivity, reduced
profits, high rates of staff turnover and increased costs of recruiting
and training replacement staff."
In the US the picture is equally bleak. One in 10 workers suffers from
clinical depression and the problem is getting worse. Some 200 million
working days are lost every year because of stress, and the cost of
treating anxiety-ridden workers exceeds $43 billion annually. About 40 per
cent of workers complain that their job is very, or extremely, stressful.
Unrealistic deadlines, poor management and inadequate childcare
arrangements are to blame, the ILO says.
As much as 4 per cent of the European Union's gross national product is
ploughed into treating the stressed and mentally ill.
But it is in Finland that workrelated stress seems to have reached
epidemic proportions. More than half of the workforce is affected by some
kind of stressrelated symptom, and 7 per cent of Finnish workers are
"severely burnt out".
Worn out, increasingly cynical and suffering from insomnia, the average
Finnish worker's performance is badly impaired and the country's suicide
rates are high.
In Germany, 7 per cent of workers opt for early retirement because they
are stressed and depressed, the report says, and Poland's workforce is
increasingly prone to anxiety as joblessness soars in the wake of the
collapse of communism.
The World Federation for Mental Health this week warned that by 2020,
stress and mental disorders will overtake road accidents, AIDS and
violence as the primary cause of lost working time.
Guardian Service
Karl Carlile
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