RUNNING TO FATALITY

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Sanyo Moosa is a faculty with Salalah College of Applied Sciences Oman. His research area is
focused on Human Resources. His study on the stress management on the employees of bank in
Kerala is a pioneer work. He was actively involved with Ministry of Manpower Planning in his
previous roles.

ABSTRACT

Stress at work is a relatively new phenomenon of modern lifestyles. The

nature of work has gone through drastic changes over the last century and it
is still changing at whirlwind speed. They have touched almost all
professions, starting from an artist to a surgeon, or a commercial pilot to a
sales executive. With change comes stress, inevitably. Professional stress or
job stress poses a threat to physical health. Work related stress in the life of
organized workers, consequently, affects the health of organizations.

KEY WORDS

Stress Management, Job Stress, Tension, Work Pressure, Work place stress,
Work behavior

INTRODUCTION

Many studies of job stress spotlights on tensions among employees,

emphasizing the detrimental effects of unequal power and control over work
decisions. These effects vary as individuals react to job stress in different
ways, in some cases turning to unhealthy behaviors like alcohol or drug
abuse to cope. (Ragland, D.R. (2002)) Personality and stress may also
interact to change work behaviors, as Ohio State researcher Catherine
Heaney and her colleagues discovered. In that study, introverted students

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under stress used different muscles to lift heavy boxes, straining their backs
more than extroverted students.

CONSEQUENCES OF STRESS AT WORK

The health effects of workplace stress are not fleeting inconveniences,

researchers say. One small study suggests that poor supervisor-employee
relations can raise blood pressure to levels normally linked to a 16 percent
increase in heart disease and a 38 percent increase in stroke, (Wager, N.
(2003)) while a 25-year study of men in stressful jobs found a gradual but
large increase in their blood pressure at home and work.( Landsbergis, P.A.
(2003))
THE FACTS:

• Workplace stresses can double the rate of death from heart disease,
according to a 2002 study of 812 healthy employees. High demands,
low control, low job security and few career opportunities contributed
to the overall stress measured in the study. (Kivimäki, M. et al. (2002))
• One study found that workers who had little control over their jobs
were up to 50 percent more likely to die during a period of five to 10
years than workers who had high-stress jobs but more decision-making
responsibilities. (Amick III, B.C. et al. (2002))
• Office staffs, who are exposed to low-level office noises, including quiet
conversations, have higher levels of the stress hormone epinephrine
than those working in silent offices. (Evans, G.W. and Johnson, D.
(2001))
• Clerical workers show more signs of biological stress during the
workday than those in executive or more senior positions, according to
a British study. (Steptoe, A. et al. (2003))

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 • Stress can thwart the heart-healthy aspects of a physically active job,
according to a study of utility workers. Thicker arteries (a sign of
atherosclerosis) were found among physically active but stressed
workers. Those who were physically active but not stressed had thinner
arteries. (Nordstrom, C.N. et al. (2001))
• Low-income workers who work long hours say that family nutrition is
one of the first things sacrificed to the demands of their job. The
workers say that they skip meals, eat on the run, eat too much junk
food and have trouble preparing healthy meals for their
children.(Devine, C. et al. (in press))
• Work-related stress (including job insecurity) and fatigue may increase
the risk of cold, flu and stomach inflammation. In one study,
employees in demanding jobs developed colds 20 percent more often
than those in less demanding positions. (Mohren, D. (2003))
• Men who work in physically violent or dangerous occupations, as well
as those who work in female-dominated professions, may commit more
domestic violence than men in managerial positions. (Melzer, S.A.
(2002))
• Social support seems to help New York City traffic enforcement agents
keep their blood pressure down: Female agents get the most benefit
from supportive supervisors, while men tend to rely on co-worker
support. (Melzer, S.A. (2002))
• In some cases, work stress can be beneficial to health: A 2001 study
found that the immune system got a boost when faced with the active
stress of meeting a work deadline, while the passive stress of watching
violent scenes on TV can weaken immunity. (Bosch, J.A. et al. (2001))

THE EFFECT OF ECONOMIC RECESSION & STRESS

In the current economic downturn, people worry about the robustness of

stock portfolios and ask if the concerned government is doing enough to

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revive the economy. It is more than a cliché, however, to say that hard times
have physical as well financial consequences for a nation’s health.

Downsizing, long work hours, staff restructuring and job strain can be linked
to chronic disease, injuries and accidents, says Paul Landsbergis, Ph.D., an
assistant professor at Mt. Sinai School of Medicine and research associate at
the Center for Social Epidemiology.

“Psychosocial job conditions do seem to be getting worse,” Landsbergis says,

citing a series of European surveys and one U.S. survey suggesting
“dramatic increases” in work pressures since 1977. And while employees in
Japan and several European countries are working fewer hours than in the
past three decades, the opposite has happened in the United States.

“United States workers’ average weekly work hours are now the longest in
the developed world,” Landsbergis says. “Prime-age working couples are
contributing nearly four additional months of annual work time since the
1970s.”

Landsbergis says that studies of chronic disorders like cardiovascular disease

provide the strongest evidence that recent job trends may be having a
negative impact on workers’ health. Researchers have identified job strain, or
the combination of high demands and little control over one’s work, as a
particular risk factor for high blood pressure and heart disease.

“Since chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease and hypertension

take years to develop, we may be observing only the initial stages,”
Landsbergis says.

Other links between economic uncertainty and health can be unexpected.

For instance, a study of food-processing plant employees suggests that layoff
fears can increase the risk of work injuries and accidents. Employees who

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worried about job loss were less apt to work safely, causing more injuries,
according to psychologist Tahira M. Probst, Ph.D.

CAN WORK-RELATED FITNESS PROBLEMS BE INVERTED?

“I suspect that is the case,” Landsbergis says, although he notes that paucity
of data about health impacts of interventions to reduce job stress. Some
cardiovascular studies, however, suggest that blood pressure does improve
as job strain decreases.

Landsbergis thinks many employers would like to improve work conditions

and employee health, but acknowledges that they face their own workplace
stresses.

“In the global economy, [employers] are under pressure to reduce costs and
get people to work harder and faster,” he says. “Federal, state and local
governments are under similar pressure ... because of budget cuts. So the
issue goes beyond the wishes of individual employers.”

REFERENCES

• Amick III, B.C. et al. (2002) Relationship between all-cause mortality

and cumulative working life course psychosocial and physical
exposures in the United States labor market from 1968 to 1992.
Psychosomatic Medicine,
Medicine, 64, 370-381.
• Bosch, J.A. et al. (2001) Differential effects of active versus passive
coping on secretory immunity. Psychophysiology,
Psychophysiology, 38, 836-846.
• Devine, C. et al. (in press) Sandwiching it in: spillover of work onto food
choices and family roles in low- and moderate-income urban
households. Social Science and Medicine.
Medicine.
• Evans, G.W. and Johnson, D. (2001) Stress and open-office noise.
Journal of Applied Psychology,
Psychology, 85, 779-83.

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 • Karlin, W.A. et al. (2003) Workplace social support and ambulatory
cardiovascular activity in New York City traffic agents. Psychosomatic
Medicine,
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• Kivimäki, M. et al. (2002) Work stress and risk of cardiovascular
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• Landsbergis, P.A. et al. (2003) Life-course exposure to job strain and
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• Melzer, S.A. (2002) Gender, work, and intimate violence: men's
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• Mohren, D. (2003) Stress at work increases the chance of acute
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 • Wager, N. et al. (2003) The effect on ambulatory blood pressure of
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