Re: Worker Despair

Here is another article on this.

Sabri
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IT revolution adds to workplace stress - survey
By Elif Kaban
  
GENEVA, Oct 10 (Reuters) - One in 10 office workers in Britain, the United 
States, Germany, Finland and Poland suffers from depression, anxiety, stress 
or burnout, an International Labour Organisation survey showed on Tuesday. 

Information glut resulting from technological advances, the pace of 
globalisation, dysfunctional office politics, overwork and job insecurity 
after a decade of downsizing are the main contributors to workplace stress, 
the survey found. 

Depression in the workplace is now the second most disabling illness for 
workers after heart disease, said the survey, whose release was timed to mark 
World Mental Health Day on Tuesday at a conference hosted by ILO on despair 
at the workplace. 

Mental, neurological and behavioral disorders are rising so fast that they 
will outrank road accidents, AIDS and violence by 2020 as a primary cause of 
work years lost from early death and disability if nothing is done, said a 
report released at the conference by the World Federation for Mental Health 
(WFMH). 

Women are twice as likely as men to suffer from depression, said the report 
by the Netherlands-based WFMH. 

Lack of clear instructions, unrealistic deadlines, lack of decision-making, 
isolated working conditions, workplace surveillance and inadequate childcare 
arrangements also contributed to stress at work, the U.N. labour agency said. 

While one in five people suffer a mental disorder in their lifetime, just six 
percent seek or receive treatment, the ILO said. 

WAKE-UP CALL FOR BUSINESSES 

In pure business terms, despair costs companies more than plant shutdowns or 
strikes, said the ILO. 

``These trends represent a wake-up call for business,'' it said. 

The ILO said that many companies were trying to improve their management 
strategies by putting greater emphasis on family and life issues and by 
introducing stress reduction programmes. 

Bad management costs companies not only in loss of productivity from a less 
healthy and motivated workforce but also through higher staff turnover with 
the associated costs of recruitment and training replacement staff, the ILO 
said. 

Depression costs the United States $44 billion each year in direct costs for 
treatment of illness, lost earnings and lower productivity at the workplace 
and it costs four percent of the European Union's Gross National Product, the 
survey said. 

In the United States, clinical depression has become one of the most common 
illnesses, affecting one in ten working age adults at a cost of 200 million 
working days lost each year, the survey said. 

MENTAL ILLNESS AFFECTS ONE IN FIVE U.S. FAMILIES 

One in five American families is affected by severe mental illness and some 
80 million people in the United States are estimated to have a psychiatric 
impairment, the survey said. 

Mental health disorders are the leading cause of disability pensions in 
Finland, where over 50 percent of the workforce has some kind of 
stress-related symptom and seven percent suffer from severe burnout leading 
to exhaustion, cynicism and sleep disorders, the ILO said. 

In Germany, depressive disorders accounted for almost seven percent of 
premature retirements while depression-related work incapacity lasts two and 
a half times longer than incapacity due to other illnesses, the survey found.