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Stress Costs U.S. $300 Billion a Year
jburroug writes "A new study, as reported in the New York Times claims that the stress of the modern always-on work environment is taking a far greater toll on the health of workers than previously believed, to the tune of $300 billion in lost productivity and increased health care costs in the U.S. alone."
Isn't that the same amount that people spend on porn? Hmmm.......
It's either on the beat or off the beat, it's that easy.
I moderate therefore I rule!
--
Just today there was an article about hypertasking.
Folks, shut off the cellphone, log out of the internet and leave work at work because you're slowly killing yourself with stress.
just make XanaxOTC!!
... now the fear of losing money @ the workplace due to stress will cause more stress, causing more money loss, and thereby creating a feedback loop that will kill us all.
Geez, what a depressing and stressful article.
That's because people in the US tend to work to much (sometimes for less money). Hope this shows the rest of the world not to follow that trend in favor of some inexistent productivity benefit.
Seriously.
However, I have to wonder what a high GDP growth and near-full employment are worth if you are dead.
Obviously there is a problem with ANY form of social engineering - it's untested, and has unpredictable results on society. We conservatives say this in response to welfare programs and affirmative action. Modern capitalism and the downsizing trend have social effects. That's not subject to argument. Instead of a knee-jerk conservative 'but it could damage productivity' response, how about taking a look at the problems instead?
HBI's Law: Frequency of calling others Nazis is directly correlated with the likelihood of the accuser being Communist.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
....with their 4-6 weeks of vacations and holidays each year. We work about 25% more per year than do most Europeans.
I really do not understand why we Americans have let ourselves be brainwashed into SweatShopAmerica.
See my sig for links on how the social democracies of Europe fought and are still fighting for a better , less stressful workplace, for universal healthcare, and for a social welfare state/safety net that lets them less afraid of losing their jobs.
eat shiat and bark at the moon
The problem about anything that surveys the economic losses caused by productivity losses is that they're all vague measurements of approxiamate things that are then multiplied by a huge group of people. Really, what this means is that while there might be truth in the idea these statistics try to show, the numbers are almost completely bullshit. For example, let's suppose 100 million workers in the united states have air blowing hand dryers instead of paper towels in their restrooms. These dryers take longer than paper towels, let's say maybe a minute instead of 10 seconds. I would think it's fair to say that on average a worker makes 1.5 trips to the bathroom per day. So if the average hourly wage of these employees is something like 15 bucks, 10 seconds of paper towels is worth $0.0417, one minute of air drying is worth $0.25. That means that we're wasting ~$31 Million per day! That's billions per year! My God! Something has to be done!
How can I do all that, I'm too busy working.
Fortunately, stress is proving a boon to the health care industry, motivating $600M in additional revenue!
How can a country lose $300 billion in productivity and still be the most productive country in the world? Americans work longer hours, spend less time on vacation, work harder, and as a result your economy outpaces countries like Japan, whom you used to believe were insanely overworked.
This is another one of those monetary statistics that we can file under "overblown."
"No problem. I have the capacity to do infinite work so long as you don't mind that my quality approaches zero."-Dilbert
At my workplace, it is widely accepted to use a day of sick leave and call it a "mental health" day.
We all need to step away from the everyday crap and let our brain rest. Sometimes you need it and you usually come back to work energized and ready to finish the rest of the week.
Decent companies are forced to drug test their employees for harmless substances like THC.
.AU for good this time. My advice to americans... hmmm, get the fuck out of that madhouse now.
I tried my best to work in the u.s., but I couldn't hack it, just couldn't do it. Even the innocuous suggestion that we go down the pub for an ale during lunch raised some eyebrows and instilled fear in my coworkers. Why do the people working in corporate america have this attitude ? Is it just plain fear? Are you all so desperate to climb the corporate ladder that _living_ takes a backseat to it? Then the 60 and 70 hour workweeks, people taking work home with them for at least another dozen hours of unpaid work...
Absolutely ridiculous... I'm glad to be back in
The Buddists have one thing right - there is a Yin and a Yang to everything. Call it a dual edged sword, whetever - in our world, there is an upside and a downside to everything.
There will enevitably be many +5 (Insightful) comments about how we're being mowed down by "the Man, squeezing more blood out of us to make more money", but when you think about it, the reason for that is we all, in reality, want to be "the Man". We want the things they dangle in front of us, that require disposable income to acquire. "Ooooh, Shiny iPod/Beemer/Opteron" crosses our lips and we've bought into this system. Work more to get more things for our "leisure time", which ends up being non-existant. "If work hard, I'll get promoted and get that raise - then I'll get a life" used to be my mantra. Now, after my good paying job was killed and in essence just moved out of province in the name of profits, I'm fed up enough to say "Fuck you - as long as my family is warm, healthy, clothed and fed I'm happy".
Capitalism is good, it's the best system we've got, but like all things it can go too far. Don't forget why your toiling away - it's to make a life, not make money. Remember, there is a downside to everything - no exceptions.
Meh. Just Crown Royal influenced ramblings from a slightly bitter old man. On to our regularily scheduled bashing of "the man"...
Soko
"Depression is merely anger without enthusiasm." - Anonymous
France and most other European countries will give you far more unemployment benefits than American workers gets. In many EU countries, one could drawa years of unemployment if laid off. Try that here.
Plus, welfare is far more generous there.
eat shiat and bark at the moon
Mod me down if you want. I'll use my karma bonus this time to fend off your savage attacks. Ha ha! Take that.
Anyways...
What I find interesting is that if this were about another country, such as Germany, people would be speaking highly of the German people's work ethic, their productivity and their strength. When it's about America though, it's because we're greedy and don't know how to enjoy life (regardless of the fact that for some, work is enjoyable).
Now what if this article stated that the U.S. had the least stressful workers with the most leisure time? There would be endless comments citing this as evidence of American laziness and preoccupation with entertainment. No matter what, it is possible to interpret the data however one desires, to fit any man's personal slant.
"Looks like a great time to be a stress-balls manufacturer."
Trust me. They're already stressed enough.
It seems quite evident that stress is a result of stronger pressure regarding performance, and this is again a result of tougher competition between companies. So naturally the employers try to squeeze out as much as possible out of their employees as they see it most beneficial. But what I cannot grasp is why they continue to do se even when it has been demonstrated again and again that having overworked and stressed employees doesn't improve efficiency! It may look like it in the short run, but at a point it turns, drastically.
If a company needs more work done, why not hire more qualified people and keep the working hours down? Overtime is compensated quite heavily and by hiring an extra person instead of all the compensation the company will not spend more money on the work force, more people will be working, and there would be less stress. Can it be this simple, or is there something that I am completely missing? If this had been the most efficient solution one would think it had been adopted as a standard in the constant fight in our capitalistic environment.
... cool, refreshing marijuana?
Fact. Google it. In 2002 (or was it 2003?), about 30% of all tax return had a gross income of less than $20K. And about 50% of all tax returns had a gross income of less than $35K. That is counting BOTH single and joint filers. Those people are working the longer hours with little vacation just like the rest of America, but it is a little hard to get all those SUVs on that pay. Let's fact it: we Americans do not make as much money as we like to pretend we do.
eat shiat and bark at the moon
Alcoholics Anonymous
See, that's at least two times you've done this now. Yesterday sometime
Of course, there is the chance that you are joking. I doubt anyone could type that bad and still be close enough for me to rad it intentionally.
And yes, this is way offtopic. I better post something related, insightfully if possible
See, this is the kind of thing that is a result of stress. 300 Billion a year is hard to imagine. This guy posting drunk to slashdot, cause he (maybe) drinks away the stress on weekends, that's something we can relate to. All that money is just speculation, but see what a little stress and a lot of alcohol will do to you? This is what's runing america.
SAILING MISHAP
" US are very too dumb, they will elect Bush and they stress, it's very funny!"
."
.they will elect Bush and they stress , , ,"
.it's very funny!"
The word you're looking for is "ironic", perhaps "sardonic". George W. Bush being president has been anything but funny.
" US are very too dumb . .
This part of your sentence does not translate well. The flaw in your grammar could, with a little allusion, be extended so that YOU (plural) are ignorant also.
" . .
The 'each and several states' send delegates to the appropriate state capitols in the second week of December. These electors will cast their votes for President and Vice President. http://www.fec.gov/pages/ecworks.htm
Individual citizens will vote of course, but the popular vote in a presidential election is only a barometer for the electors to gauge the political atmosphere. Additionally, many/most of us will not vote for Bush.
" . .
Maybe you'd like us to vote for isolationist Pat Buchanan?
See: https://www.cato.org/dailys/12-22-99a.html
Stuff that matters.
Outsource our stress to India! They'd be glad to stress out at 1/3 the cost.
- Primary numbers are out to kill me
-- Mace only makes me hornier.
Out of touch executives are running the country (US) into the ground from within. They percieve a need to squeeze every penny into their quarterly EPS reports. CxOs will stop at nothing to look good on paper. Their shortsighted strategies combined with an out-of-touch lifestyle make life a living hell for a vast majority of their collective underlings. Their only concerns in life are:
1. Where do I park my boat? What? No valet service?!?
2. ???
3. PROFIT!!!!!
If executives were more entrenched and had more at stake there would be more coherent operations at work. CxOs need to have their livelyhood at stake in the same way the rest of us do in order to make the right decision. Nothing trickles down to the underlings. You might survive in this corporate culture by sucking up. 1 minute of "face time" has become much more important than fixing a problem or making an improvement. God help us all.
Want to avoid stress while on the job?
Just don't care!
Yea... that deadline is coming quick, but who cares? Which is more important? Some product getting out the door or your sanity and full head of hair?
Help Brendan pay off his student loans
Once upon a time, I worked for the Company Formerly Known as USWorst. That experience left me with more knowledge of both their database and their employee benefits program than I ever wanted to know. The stress of that position also left me with carpal tunnel syndrome, the beginnings of a whopping good ulcer, and stress-related dissociative attacks. (Literally, my brain was going on mini-vacations, and neglecting to take me along with it.)
Now, I own my own business. The pay isn't as regular, but my schedule is my own, and the unreasonable request list is pretty minimal. The carpal tunnel still flares up form time to time, but it's in remission without surgery. (Since I use my hands a lot, this is a critical point.) The other problems started to heal as soon as I escaped the toxic work environment. I'm not spending as much time sitting in a doctor's office, and nowhere near as much money on things like Pepto and pain relief nostrums.
So, yeah; not exactly news, but it's nice to see that somebody has quantified the impact that work-related stress has on people's lives.
Doing my level best to piss off the religious right wing...
You only have one life. Do you want to spend it working overtime, putting cover sheets on TPS reports and dealing with control freaks in management? Working excessive hours will not make your penis/boobs larger or make you a better person.
Mea navis aericumbens anguillis abundat
Just think of the long-term benefits if we all just follow the trend and work ourselves to death.
Fewer people on the highways
Fewer elders collecting retirement
No need to raise taxes on the beleagured wealthy to prop up social security
Cheers!
Wherever You Go, There You Are
for one thing: I'll take the 35 hour work week.
Also, they did NOT have negative GDP in 2003. It's close to zero, but it's not negative. Don't believe me? ask the spooks:
http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/ fr.html
thirdly, their unemployment rate, while high, is not 15%. In 2003 it was 9.6%, again per the spooks.
Parent is a TROLL.
RS
Shoes for Industry. Shoes for the Dead.
Those people living like moles in the New York subways sure as hell aren't counted in the unemployment statistics, but equally they sure as hell aren't "gainfully employed" by anyone. That's a few million, right there.
The European Union may not have the perfect system (and most of Europe holds to the 35-hour week) but they do seem to be more honest about the real cost of their system.
If we're spending 300 billion dollars from overwork - money we're no longer earning, because a certain US President just eliminated overtime rules - then we're just burning money we don't have. We'd be better off banning the overtime and putting the money into better healthcare. We'd be paying the same, it's just that we'd be in better physical shape when we do fall ill, and the health system would be in better shape to take care of us.
Of course, you could argue that the country is overcrowded anyway. True enough, but I'm not sure that involuntary euthanasia by excessive workloads is really the way to deal with the problem.
I guess this could be taken by a cynic as confirming previous Slashdot articles which claimed that Republicans were mentally ill and had deficient brain activity.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
That's me, the reporter who wrote the story. What fascinated me about this is that everybody knows that workplace stress is a problem, but you rarely see the dots connected. There's a lot of fascinating research out there -- especially the Scandinavian studies showing links between change in the workplace and illness. Anyway, I didn't mean to stress y'all out. But I have to say that I did think of slashdotters often while I was writing it...
"speaking only for myself since 1957"
Sure stress may cost $300 billion per year in related costs, but the absence of stress would eliminate at least half of the remaining $11,000 billion in U.S. GDP.
I survived the Dick Cheney Presidency 7 to 9 AM 7-21-07
Unfortunately, the US is rated 38th in business efficiency among the 188 nations recognized by the UN. Several countries with features like 35 hour work weeks, twice our number of government recognized holidays, Manditory minima of 2 weeks vacation/year, and so on are doing about as well as us
... more economic stats, instead of the main menu. Nationmaster gets its numbers from multiple sources, including the UN councel on economic development, but also the CIA's world factbook.
(England, Scotland, Ireland, Denmark)
or actually better
(Australia, Holland, Germany, Sweden, and some smaller nations such as Iceland).
We rank 7th in average prices, while France, for all the problems you point out is at least 15th, partially though not completly offsetting that high unemployment. France has a much higher average income tax rate (They're 5th, with an average of 50.5%, while the US is 26th, with an average of 30.5%), and I'd argue that that extra 20% is quite enough to give them their unemployment rate.
Are the French, over all, doing worse than us? Probably yes. Are we doing the best? Probably not.
Where did I get these numbers?
http://www.nationmaster.com/
(On the economic menu, several of these are in the section under
Who is John Cabal?
When I am not working I relish the fact that I am saving thousands ($USD) per month in taxes, so the lack of income really isn't that bad, since I don't aquire every "Ooooh, Shiny iPod/Beemer/Opteron" piece of crap that passes in front of me.
When I am working, I can easily take in $10 - $12K per month. Taxes eat almost half of it, but I always stash plenty away as a "stress reducer", for later.
There would be a lot less stress in the world if people didn't buy more than they could afford. I have zero credit card debt, and own my cars. I could have bought beemers, but paying cash for Toyotas is so much less stress. Plan to live on a "flippin burgers" income and just think of all the stess-reducing beer money you will have when you earn more!
This issue is a bit more complicated than you think.
In another example, let's say I spill a tanker of oil off the New England coast. Damage to the economy and value of lost oil will be arbitrarily set at $50 billion dollars. If, however, the cleanup costs are $60 billion dollars paid out to various workers to clean up the mess, then the GDP will actually increase by $10 billion dollars, despite the fact that nothing actually got produced - some idiot just made a big mess and then someone cleaned it up.
GDP is big fat lie.
real unemployment 9.6%
I've recently been stressing out myself due to stress of trying to hide myself from stressing. It didn't work. I am still stressed out of stress! Say, anyone here invest STRS?
But what about Europe: they are less stressed, but the Industrial Revolution started there!
The reason they are less stressed is because their governments have restrained the amount of leverage that employers may apply to the employee.
eat shiat and bark at the moon
Since I relieve my stress by chilling out, listening to the $20 million worth of CDs I ripped onto my computer.
There was an interesting article about the different mentality regarding work hours in Europe in the August issue of Business 2.0 entitled All Work, No Play? It Doesn't Pay. (hope this link works for everyone)
I think the subtitle speaks for it self : "European companies get it, but when will their workaholic American counterparts? Longer hours don't always add up to better work."
Workplace stress costs the nation more than $300 billion each year in health care, missed work and the stress-reduction industry that has grown up to soothe workers and keep production high, according to estimates by the American Institute of Stress in New York
Seems kind of useless to know that stress costs $300 billion per year without knowing the benefits of that stress. Surely some of this stress results in increased productivity. (I know I never get work done unless I have a deadline.)
Also, how much of this stress is preventable? Surely every culture has some degree of stress. How much would it cost to treat this baseline level of stress in the current American medical system? Without knowing that, it's impossible to tell to what extent this means Americans are really stressed out, or whether this is just another indication that we're relatively well-off and consume lots of expensive health care.
Workers who report that they are stressed, said Steven L. Sauter, chief of the Organizational Science and Human Factors Branch of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, incur health care costs that are 46 percent higher, or an average of $600 more per person, than other employees
Similarly, this could just reflect that those who have stressful jobs also have excellent health plans and thus consume more health care.
Business gets a $2 trillion (number pulled from nether regions) boost in profits by applying stress. $.3 trillion is a small price to pay, and it's not even business' burden to foot the bill.
Get real. Stress motivates, and it's an integral part of business strategy.
Saying stress cost us $300 billion a year assumes our economy exists to maximize overall wealth and happiness. In point of fact, our economy is built around making a select few staggeringly wealthy. All enonomies throughout history have been. Right now we're not really noticing this because Globalization has allowed most people in developed countries to be comfortable w/o having that 1% of the populace who won't settle for less than their every desire compromise a few of the more extravagant ones.
But as the rest of the world developes, we're running into serious resource shortages. As these shortages start to be felt, the greedy won't scale back their extravagance, so the rest will be made to suffer. The stress will be increased, your health will go to hell. But it won't matter, since there are plenty of fresh bodies to replace you, just waiting to be used up. Right now this is an issue because society can afford to coddle it's workers while letting that 1% live like they always have (the phrase 'live like a king' didn't just come out of nowhere). Wait and see. The response to a study like this won't be treating workers better, it'll be discarding them faster.
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
sleep nearly halves the world economy!
all those man hours lost; for what?
just so some fat cats can make money selling pajamas and pillows?!
so come on people, pop those caffeine pills and stop hindering the economy!
-judging another only defines yourself
The whole idea of "the money going back into the economy" is an oft-repeated fallacy.
It's a good idea to avoid confusing "money" with economic wealth. They are actually only very loosely linked, and the fact that money continues to circulate is largely irrelevant to whether the economy does better or worse.
As an example, let's say a falling tree crushed your car and you buy a new one for £20,000 (no insurance - damn). You are worse off by £20,000. Other people (car dealer, company, suppliers etc.) are on aggregate better off by £20,000 minus the full cost of making and selling one car.
Money supply hasn't changed for the economy as a whole - the £20,000 just changed hands. But the economy as a whole is worse off by the cost of making and selling one additional car.
In the same way, money spent on medical expenses casued by stress absolutely does represent a real loss to the economy as a whole. The size of the loss here is the cost of providing those medical services.
Whether this loss is worth it or not due to other benefits of a stressful work environment is, of course, a separate question.
Interesting interpretation, but I think you kinda missed the whole point of the GP.
The idea is not that you reduce stress by stockpiling money instead of spending it, which may be a general difference between europeans and americans as pointed by a previous poster. In no way does that correlate to the amount of stress these people submit themselves to when acquiring said amounts of money.
No, friends, what the Buddhists along with several other less-respected-in-the-eyes-of-capitalism movements have figured out lies on a deeper level, and without going into detail, it involves realising that excessive greed for whatever reason is a serious hindrance on the path to true happiness.
Lookup the Broken window fallacy
Working for necessity's mother.
'Economic Security for a Better World' (ILO -International Labour Organization)
(5.49MB PDF)
password: universe
I guess I am lucky to have had a few good role models growing up and early in my career. You should pick the 1 or 2 most important things that need to be done, knock them out, and then move on to the next 1 or 2. Concentrating your effort and attention gives much better results. You get more done in less time and you make fewer mistakes. It is much more effective and a lot less stressful.
One of my first bosses is like that. The "fire fighters" as we called them would be running around frantically all stressed out about every problem. They always looked really busy and really stressed. He, on the other hand, would sit down and make a list of the problems and figure out how best to tackle the situation and then concentrate on one item at a time. He would get that one highest priority item done properly and then move on to the next. Sometimes people would get pissed at him for not working on 10 other things but he would stick with it and get them all done. The fire fighters would always look more busy and frantic but in the end they would accomplish very little and much of that would have to be redone.
Never mistake activity for work. You have to be deliberate and figure out how to get the highest value out of your time. Work less, be more effective, make more money. That's my motto. Everybody gets the same 24 hours in a day. Its how you use them that counts.
Why wouldn't this be an optimum level?
Just some random musings, don't try to find a coherent train of thought...
:-)
Some research suggests that people can't really concentrate well more than 6 hours a day (three hours in the morning, and three hours in the afternoon after a lunch break), if even that. Even so, try getting companies to let their employees off that easy.
Among my friends are some people who work or worked for international companies such as Ericsson, Volvo or Saab-Scania. They said when they came to the US they thought it striking how most companies either didn't allow proper lunch breaks, or had employess who were eager to show how efficient they were. Instead of 40min-1 hour time to go to a resturant, most of the employees remained in their cubicles and ate some sandwiches while continuing their work.
Also, while American workers stayed long, perhaps until 5-6 pm, there was a noticing slacking of pace in the afternoon. People pent more time talking around the water cooler, killing time by surfing or just staring into space. They were just mentally exhausted and couldn't do much efficient work, but they were still required to stay for several hours.
One of my friends held a presentation about Swedish working conditions. When he talked about the generous working laws and vacations, such as 4-6 hours paid vacation per year minimum (even with "vacation bonus" to your salary, since you spend more when you are on vacation), the workers were amazed and the managers started to fidget and make unhappy faces. He wasn't allowed to do that presentation ever again.
I really liked a recent article in the Economist, that suggested that European and American productivity was about equal, Europeans just choose to sacrifice income in favour of more free times, and Americans were willing to sacrifice free time in favour of more money. Perhaps the old joke that Europeans work to live, and Americans live to work has some truth in it. I'm not looking down on people in the US, but I think I prefer our system.
Being bitter is drinking poison and hoping someone else will die
So in our hypothetical oil spill, the GDP measures the entire process as a positive effect, when in reality it is simply correcting a disaster. Do you really think it helps the economy to go around creating natural disasters and then spending vast sums of money cleaning them up?
By the same argument, littering is good for the economy, because someone has to be hired to clean up the mess. Vandalism is good for the economy. Perceptions of a lack of security are good for the economy - guards must be hired to create "security."
GDP fails to take into account if work is being put towards a useful goal. $10 billion net GDP gain from cleaning up spilled oil is not the same as $10 billion net GDP gain from employing engineers to design more effecient car engines.