Tweet

Increasing Workplace Stress is Hazardous to Health

Guest post by: Joyce Gioia

Article Overview: Employees are working longer hours and enjoying it less.

Increasing Workplace Stress is Hazardous to Health

Employees are working longer hours and enjoying it less. This increased stress is leading to more grey hair and bad eating habits, even when the company offers healthy food options. Good news for hair color companies, bad news for insurance companies. Experiments, conducted in the United Kingdom published in science journal "Nature", found that chronic pressure can produce chemicals that damage DNA, causing humans to look older over time. The researchers discovered a molecular mechanism through which adrenaline acted to destroy a p53 protein that is useful in preventing cancer.

"This could give us a plausible explanation of how chronic stress may lead to a variety of human conditions and disorders, like greying hair, to life-threatening disorders like malignancies," said prize-winning Professor Robert Lefkowitz of Duke University in Durham, North Carolina.

Another soon to be released research report on workplace health by Aviva UK Health also noted that increased workloads and longer hours have prevented staff from taking adequate breaks.

About a third of the employees said they were "unlikely to take a lunch break". Another quarter of respondents will only take a lunch break, "if they feel their workload allows it" and 13 percent will skip meals in the office altogether.

Do you wonder why there’s so much obesity around? Another 19 percent said they tend to "overeat at work" when they are under stress. Precipitated by longer working hours and their unhealthy eating habits at work, 15 percent of employees felt their health has suffered. Yet 43 percent of those surveyed said their managers encouraged them to take breaks.

Even though 45 percent of companies surveyed offer food in their workplaces, over one-third (38 percent) do not provide healthy options. In spite of these employers, 35 percent of staff try to eat healthy food and 30 percent usually bring their own lunches to work.

Our forecast is that when employers realize the real effects on health insurance utilization, more will take real steps to reduce stress for their employees; unfortunately, they will look for Band-Aids®, instead of addressing the real issues of understaffing and the stress that causes.

Related Articles
  The Effect of the Economic Woes and Wellness in the Workplace
  Stress Management Tips: Managing Stress in the Workplace
  Proper Storage & Stacking Pallets for Hazardous Materials
  3 Tips to Relieving Stress in the Workplace
  The Symptoms of Stress and why you need to know them!
  Three Ways to Reduce Workplace Stress
  STRESS
  Employee Health And Wellness In The Workplace
  How To Stress Less, The Science of the Well Workplace
  Dealing With Stress In The Small Business Workplace, Tips From Your Strategic Thinking Business Coach
  5.10 Social protection: Working Out of Poverty
  Young Men Struggle with WorkLife Balance Too
  2.6 Hazards at work, health and the poverty trap: Working Out of Poverty
  Stress at Work: More Coping Techniques in Your Toolkit
  Imposed Stress at the Workplace
  Sales Tip - Stupendous Sales Results Accent Tremendous Value and Avoid Horrendous and Hazardous Actions
  How The APE Philosophy Can Help Your Organization
  Mental Health and the Workplace: Repetitive Strain Injuries and the Human Brain
  How to recognise stress in the work place…….
  How To Master Stress and Anxiety Part 2

Article Tags: employee engagement, employee motivation, employee productivity, gioia, workplace, workplace stress



Related Forum Posts
Re: Infographic: The 4 Main Stress Factors - I'd like to reference that article in my next blog post as well.. I worked in sales for years and found that days when I was positive, relaxed where days that it was easy to sell. On days that I was stressed I found I would not reach target. Stress is good at times, but it very easily becomes problematic. I do a lot of very physical exercise and work now, to manage it.
Best incentive to offer employees - What's the best incentive to offer employees? Is it more health benefits? More vacation? Health club memberships? Paying for training? Cash / non-cash bonuses & rewards? I'm preparing a new package for my company and would love to get your thoughts! Thank you in advance!
list building - OK.... I think I get it. Reason I'm curious is that I'm working on a Health product site with a friend, it will fit nicely with the client base on arcamax. We're planning to set up an affiliate program to drive sales and looking for low cost alternatives to generate traffic. We will be creating several reports, and a book is already available. We just need to get the puzzle pieces in place for the site - then get the traffic.
Re: Let Your Employees Nap At Work - Hi Evan, Thanks for the post, it makes interesting reading and I must admit a power nap in the afternoon seems very appealing. I know in some countries particularly Spain they have a siesta and close up the shops for a couple of hours then re-open again in the late afternoon, not sure I could do that,LOL There has been some interest in the UK for 'quiet rooms' in some industries but that relates more to Health and Safety and dealing with stress at work by chilling out for a short period but not much has really come of it and certainly not allocated nap times but I like the idea. I think as one comment on the post pointed out, this is a great side benefit of working from home, you can allocate your own nap time. regards, Mal.
Re: Need some information on freelance jobs! - Hi Evan, Thanks for the video, you have made some excellent points there, I especially agree with your suggestion that we should add value wherever possible. Many of the training classes that I run (my day job) are on subjects relating to Health and Safety and First Aid etc and many of these courses are a legal requirement. So to add value, I make a point of writing or calling my clients when their present certification is about to run out. I also send a report from each course advising of who attended or not and when the earliest course is for those who didn’t make it to come back. My clients really appreciate this because quite often in their own busy lives they have forgotten or just don’t know. These are just a couple of ways that I try to add value and stand out from other trainers, as many of them don’t do this. This is easy recurring business for me so I can certainly relate to your video. thanks again, Mal.


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

Ten Reasons to take Notes during Sales Meetings

TOP Level Selling

How to Set Sales Goals that Work

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.