Statistics on Workplace Stress

• “The cost of work time lost to stress in Canada is $12 billion
  
• From 1992 to 1998, the proportion of Canadian women who felt "severe stress" rose 23%,
• while for men it climbed 25%
• Stress as a reason for absence has increased 316 percent since 1995
• A 2003 survey on work-life conflict, which surveyed more than 31,000 workers, found more than half felt stressed, one-third felt burned out or depressed, one-quarter thought of quitting their jobs at least once a week or more, and one in 10 reported high absenteeism due to emotional, physical or mental fatigue. The direct cost of absenteeism totals $4.5 billion each year. “  Statistics Canada
• “Stress has overtaken traditional workplace illnesses and injuries to become the biggest cause of sickness absence in Britain. Stress, and common stress-related complaints such as depression and anxiety, accounted for 36% of days lost through workplace injury and ill-health in 2004/05. “  Health and Safety Executive, Quoted in the Financial Times, January 18, 2004
• “47% of employed Canadians reported "a great deal of stress at work"      Ipsos-Reid Survey 2000
• “Nearly 10% of the gross national product of the UK is lost due to work-related stress, through sickness absence, high labour turnover, lost productivity value, increased recruitment and selection costs, and medical costs.”Stress and Mental Health in the Workplace Mind, May 2005
• “Stress claims rose 30% between 1996 and 1998
• Most companies spend 2% to 3% of their payroll on short-term disability claims, half of which might be stress-related.”   Watson Wyatt
• “25% of white-collar workers and 40% of blue-collar workers in Canada have had a stress-related absence in the past year”    Homewood Health Centre, Guelph, Ontario
• “Work hours increased 8% in one generation and averages 47 hours per week.
• One worker in 5 works 49 hours per week
• Workers fearful of losing their jobs more than doubled over the past decade”    National Institutes for Occupational Safety and Health/National Institute of Health/99
• “Employees under sustained stress are more likely to suffer: *  2x more heart problems, back problems * 5 x more of certain cancers * 2-3 x more conflicts, mental health problems, infections, injuries * 2 x more substance abuse”      Health Canada Website
• “26% of employees report that they are "often" or "very often" burned  out  or severely stressed at their work “The Families and Work Institute
• “29% of workers complain that they are "quite a bit" or "extremely stressed" at work “   Yale University
• Three-quarters of employees believe that workers have much more on-the-job stress than a generation ago”   Princeton Survey Research Associates
• “80% of workers feel stress on-the-job
• Nearly half say they need help in learning how to manage stress
• 14% felt like striking a co-worker in the past year but didn't”  Gallop Poll, 2001
• 65% of workers said that workplace stress had caused them difficulties and 10% described these as "major"
• Nearly one in four reported being driven to tears because of workplace stress
• Half of all workers frequently skip lunch because of the stress of job demands
• Over 50% say they often spend 12 hours a day on work-related duties
• One in five have quit a previous position because of job stress
• 62% routinely end the day with work-related neck pain
• 34% reported sleeping problems because they were too stressed out” 2000 Integra Realty Resources Survey
• The number of people absent from work due to stress tripled since 1995   CCH Unscheduled Absence Survey of 800,000 Workers in 300 Co's, 199
• 20% of the direct costs associated high turnover, strikes, work stoppages and absenteeism were due to stress   1996 Marketdata Enterprises Survey
• It is estimated that 10% of working Canadians, about 1.4 million people, suffer from depression, which is often caused by stress.  The Business and Economic Roundtable on Mental Health
• Mental health claims are the fastest growing category of disability costs in Canada    Manulife Financial Group
• Emotional distress and mental illness account for 20-30% of all employee absenteeism and industrial accidents, and mental or emotional problems at work exceeded physical causes as the primary reason for worker absenteeism for the first time ever in 1998.    The Canadian Mental Health Association

Mental Health and The Workplace

Mental health disorders have now replaced musculoskeletal conditions as the top condition causing long term disabilities. According to the World Health Organization, stress, anxiety and depression will become the leading cause of disability in the next 20 years.

Stress and the Workplace

Stress related disorders are costing Canadian business $12 billion annually. Research indicates a causal relationship between heart disease and: Job stress, Effort-Reward, Imbalance, Long working hours, Shift work, Physical/chemical hazards Excessive stress is produced when work is organized and designed in ways that ignore or devalue certain basic human needs, particularly those related to our mental or emotional health and well-being. Thus, the working environment, or what is now known as psychosocial hazards or organizational actors, can threaten the mental and physical health of employees.

Stress and Ethics

Stress is often the product of choices that people make about how they will treat one another. Employers know, or ought to know, that when they impose excessive and unnecessary stress on employees they place them in harm’s way. Employers have a responsibility to avoid the imposition of excessive and unnecessary stress. Foreseeing and being able to avoid harm attracts responsibility for it. This ethical responsibility extends outside the walls of the workplace to embrace the community at large as well. This responsibility is fundamentally to do no harm. It is a “floor” standard for workplace health and safety.

Emotional and Physical Costs of a Stressful Working Environment

There are decades of research showing that many of the factors above lead to a two to three times greater risk of injuries, workplace conflict and violence, back pain, and mental illness, to name only a few. injuries will never be eliminated or adequately controlled in a workplace where there is little respect for workers, where workload and pace are unreasonable, deadlines unachievable, where workers have little or no control over the way they do their jobs, and where worker-supervisor, or worker co-worker relationships are hostile. (The Healthy Workplace by Joan Burton, in Accident Prevention, November, 2004).

It is said that the mark of a GREAT Chief Executive Officer is how they cope with STRESS and how they introduce and implement appropriate policies within their organization to enable the workforce to do the same.

A caring and credible CEO and Management Team results in a happier and more productive workforce — it just makes sense!

As a Stress Consultant and Relaxation Therapist, trained to educate your Managers, Supervisors and Occupational Health and Safety staff, I am available to offer Stress Management Workshops as well as guidance for the development of Corporate Wellness Programs through Stress Audits, Risk Assessments and Corporate Wellness Policies.    

• Check your employee manual (if you have one) to see if there are guidelines you can follow here.
• Try to find out if anyone else in your workplace has had a similar experience. There might be a precedent that helps guide the employer on how to accommodate you.
• If there's a Human Resources department at work, and you know someone there who you can trust to maintain confidentiality, seek them out and ask for their advice. Use your Employee Assistance Program (EAP) if you have one.
• Consult with your personal physician to make sure they'll support your diagnosis in writing if necessary. And if they can honestly say that you have good prospects of getting better quickly, ask for this in writing as well.
• Make an effort to document your performance levels before and after your diagnosis, should this be needed as support. This applies if you are seeing a Doctor.
• If you are part of a union or collective bargaining team, read over your rights and obligations in this matter. Seek out a union rep who might be able to advocate on your behalf.

Benefits of Stress Management Training

Employees will learn how to work more effectively with difficult situations, face change with greater confidence, put aside worries and fears

about things out of their control and learn how to take responsibility for their own mental health.

Training Workshops will enable your Business to achieve objectives more successfully, reduce and prevent STRESS in the Workplace, save money on the indirect effects of STRESS, reduce absenteeism, raise morale, increase productivity and effectiveness, reduce accidents, avoid burnout, demonstrate a duty of care for the workforce and lower staff turnover and retraining costs!

Please free to call or email me with your questions or to arrange a time for an introductory meeting concerning the Wellness of Your Workplace.

Being Proactive and Preventative will reduce the impact of STRESS in your Workplace and bring many benefits to you and your employees.

Improve your organization's health and unlock the solutions to workplace stress.

get s.m.a.r.t.  about your work !

get-smart0203@live.com / 705-875-8856

"If we don't change directions, we will end up where we began!"

"The task of a great leader is to get his people from where they are, to where

they have not been".      Henry Kissinger