Worker Despair

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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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