A recent Gallup report announced that 70 percent of Americans are either disengaged or miserable in their workplace. As the North American job industry remains governed by uncertainty its employees remain highly stressed…which explains Gallup’s findings.
Employees find themselves in work overload with stagnant salaries, increasing bills and a lack of career advancement. While 70 percent of America’s employees are unhappy with their workplace, 65 percent admit their jobs are a significant source of stress, one third of which, are chronically stressed.
This coincides with numerous studies that have repeatedly found that job stress — as in occupational pressures and fears — is the major source of stress for American adults; a level of pressure that continues to escalate progressively. This level of job stress has been linked with increased rates of hypertension, heart attacks and other health disorders.
A NIOSH Report shows that three quarters of workers believe that today’s employees have more on-the-job stress than the generation of workers before them. As a matter of fact, job stress is associated with health complaints more frequently than family or financial problems. A startling finding revealed that 42 percent of America’s stressed workers admit they are in the dark when it comes to dealing with the stress, in that they need help learning how to manage their workplace pressures.
Occupational tensions are also affecting the mental capacities of many workers. According to the American Institute of Stress, 25 percent of employees say they have felt like shouting or screaming at a coworker, while 14 percent admit they wanted to strike a fellow coworker. Another 10 percent say they are aware of violence or an assault that has occurred in the workplace and that 18 of workers fell victim to some type of threat or verbal abuse over the last 12 months.
Workplace stress has become a significant concern as more than 62 percent of workers experience neck pain; 44 percent have stressed-out eyes; 38 percent deal with aching hands; 34 percent experience insomnia due workplace stress. More than 12 percent of employees call in sick because of job pressures while overall, more than half of workers say they often spend 12 or more hours completing work-related duties and skip lunch because of job demands.
When considering a new career, it’s important to choose an employer that offers employee programs such as stress management, work-life initiatives, career advancement programs, tele-communicating and flexibility, all of which are proven to contribute to the well-being of workers. Remember that career success is not only defined by the metrics of power and money, but also — and perhaps even more importantly — by employee happiness and performance.
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