Health Affects Work Affects Health
By
William Atkinson
While it has always been known that
poor health leads to poor job performance, new research
suggests that it may be the job itself that causes,
or at least contributes to, poor health. The new research
is beginning to focus on the psychosomatic impact
of work on employee health. That is, the work-health
issue can be a vicious cycle, in which employee performance
suffers due to illness, but the illness is due to
work!
Contributors
As will subsequently be shown,
stress can be caused by work, and stress can be a
significant contributor to such factors as obesity
and smoking. While some of the research shared here
is, well, stressful, we will also share some important
steps you can take to lessen the impact of the stress
your employees experience.
Stress. Substantial
bodies of research show that a significant percentage
of employees experience a high degree of stress in
the workplace. Additionally, workplaces that trigger
chronic stress responses in employees can also trigger
numerous diseases to crop up over time, such as cardiovascular
disease, stroke, brain atrophy, reduced immunity to
communicable diseases, cancer and diabetes.
What are the results of all this
stress? The American Institute of Stress reports that
stress costs U.S. businesses between $200 and $300
billion a year in lost productivity, increased workers
compensation claims, increased turnover and increased
healthcare costs. Specifically, stress is a contributor
to between 60 percent and 80 percent of all work-related
injuries. ManagedComp (Waltham, Mass.), a workers
compensation insurer, reports that up to one-third
of all workers compensation claims are attributable
to job stress.
The Journal of Occupational &
Environmental Medicine adds that healthcare expenditures
are nearly 50 percent greater for workers who report
high levels of stress.
“We find that most
accidents are caused by things within the employee’s
control, usually because they either take shortcuts
or aren’t paying attention,” says Greg
Daugherty, regional safety and environmental director
for Hanson Pipe & Products Southeast Inc. in Green
Cove Springs, Fla. “For example, if you’re
experiencing stress in your life, you’re going
to be distracted. That’s human nature.”
Depression. Depression
is a very serious problem in the workplace. The American
Psychiatric Association reports that depressed employees
are absent twice as much as employees who are not.
While healthcare costs for employees with physical
illnesses and poor health habits are 15 percent to
25 percent higher than for other employees, healthcare
costs for depressed employees are 70 percent higher.
The National Institute of Mental Health reports that
depression costs U.S. businesses between $30 and $44
billion a year.
One of the major causes of non-chemical
depression is a feeling of helplessness (being in
an environment where a person can exercise little
control over that environment), which describes a
large number of workplaces.
Fatigue. According
to the National Safety Council, the cost of accidents
worldwide in which employee fatigue plays a part exceeds
$80 billion a year. The National Commission on Sleep
Disorders Research estimates that, in the United States
alone, businesses lose more than $150 billion a year
in productivity as a result of employee fatigue. Tired
employees lead to increased workers compensation costs
from accidents and injuries, increased healthcare
costs and absenteeism from increased illnesses, reduced
profits from lower levels of productivity and lost
customers from poor product quality and customer service.
Tired employees are more likely to have accidents
while driving for their employers. They are also more
likely to fall asleep while driving to and from work.
One of the most common causes of
fatigue is requiring or allowing employees to work
excessive amounts of overtime. Another is workplace
stress, which causes employees to want to stay up
late at night to “unwind.” Along the same
lines, when people are stressed from work, they find
it more difficult to fall asleep, which creates a
vicious cycle.
Other causes of fatigue can include
smoking, excessive alcohol consumption, poor diet,
obesity, caffeine, lack of exercise – all of
which can be caused or exacerbated by stress that
employees experience in the workplace.
Obesity. While
obesity can be genetic and have other non-work-related
causes, new research shows that a significant reason
for the increasing obesity of the U.S. population
is higher levels of stress, which cause the adrenal
glands to work overtime and store fat, especially
in the abdominal area.
The U.S. Department of Health and
Human Services reports that 61 percent of adults are
overweight (10 pounds or more over healthy body weight).
An article in the October issue of AMA Journal found
that 31 percent of Americans are currently classified
as obese (30 pounds or more over healthy body weight),
compared to 15 percent in 1980.
Those who are overweight and obese
are significantly more prone to hypertension, diabetes,
coronary artery disease and heart attacks, stroke,
osteoarthritis and certain cancers.
An article in the September 1998
issue of “Journal of Occupational and Environmental
Medicine” found that obese adults had twice
as many sick days as other employees and had average
annual healthcare costs of $7,000,
compared to $4,500 for the non-obese.
Obesity is reaching such epidemic
proportions that the Surgeon General considers it
the nation’s No. 1 health crisis.
Smoking. As
with obesity, the desire to smoke can be caused by
a number of factors. One of them can be stress, which
can be generated on the job, off the job or both.
A study conducted by the Uniformed
Services University of the Health Sciences (Bethesda,
Md.) found that, among approximately 2,000 recruits,
those who smoked were 1.5 times more likely to be
injured that nonsmokers. And in a recent study on
back belts conducted by NIOSH, the agency found that
nonsmokers had a 2.40 incidence rate of workers compensation-reported
back injuries, while smokers had almost a 4.00 (3.96)
incidence rate.
Solutions
In sum, the less healthy your
employees are, the more it costs you in terms of accidents,
lost productivity, poor quality and increased healthcare
costs.
The good news is that you have
some control in terms of helping them improve their
health.
There are a number of ways to do
this. Three of the most useful are effective management
practices, wellness programs and Employee Assistance
Programs (EAPs).
Effective Management.
A high percentage of employees
in companies today tend to be “job hoppers”
– moving from one job or career to another.
Often, these are people who remain content in a job
for a period of time, experience some discontent or
see better opportunities elsewhere, and move on to
“greener pastures.” Most of these employees
tend to be younger. As such, they are not much of
a drain on productivity in general (because they have
high levels of energy when they are working), and
they are not much of a drain on your health insurance
plan, because they don’t stay around long enough
to develop any long-term illnesses.
The real area of concern in the
“work affects health” paradigm relates
to “lifers.” These are employees who begin
work for an employer with every intention of staying
there until they retire. They consider work to be
their “home away from home,” consider
the employer to be “parents” (in terms
of taking care of them financially and otherwise),
and settle into a pattern of work that will stay with
them throughout their careers.
The challenge here is to keep these
employees satisfied. If you ignore these people, chances
are strong that they will begin building resentment
toward your organization. There is enough medical
research out today to suggest that negative psychological
attitudes are strong triggers for illness. As such,
employees who have negative attitudes toward their
jobs are prime candidates for long-term illnesses.
Over the years, these employees will tax your healthcare
plan, not only as employees, but as retirees.
You can create programs designed
to build and maintain positive attitudes among “lifers,”
so that, over the years, they will be able to maintain
their health, instead of gradually becoming ill and
spending more time recovering from illnesses than
working at their jobs. Such employees will also end
up remaining happy and healthy in retirement, further
keeping your healthcare costs down.
“We encourage supervisors
to look for signs that employees are under stress
or have other problems that could cause their minds
to wander away from the tasks at hand,” states
Daugherty. “Even if we find that we need to
give them a day or two off work to get back on track,
we do so.”
Joan Shirikian, regional safety
manager for Old Castle Precast in South Bethlehem,
N.Y., adds, “We train the supervisors to get
to know their employees well, so that, if they do
notice changes, they can talk privately with the employee
to see if something is going on and help them work
through it. It may also involve reassigning the employee
to a less stressful task for a few days.”
The most significant issue related
to workplace stress at any time is the level of control
employees have. When employees feel helpless, it sets
up conditions for chronic stress. Provide employees
with as much latitude as possible in terms of gaining
control over their jobs, and emphasize the meaning
and purpose of their work as much as possible.
Listen to employees. An open communication
environment is crucial to helping employees release
stress.
Cut overtime as much as possible.
If you find you don’t have enough people to
“pull the wagon,” consider hiring more
or seek the services of a temporary employment agency.
Introduce vending machines that
provide fruit juices, fruit and other healthy snacks.
Wellness Programs.
Introduce a wellness program.
A comprehensive wellness program has three components:
