United Nations calls job stress a global problem
Stress related to jobs and the loss of them is an increasingly recognized problem as globalization threatens job security and makes ever-growing demands to improve results, according to a United Nations study released recently.
One in 10 adults in the United States suffers from a depressive disorder every year, a problem that "significantly impacts the bottom line’’ of business, the International Labor Organization (ILO) study said.
"The incidence of mental health problems and the costs related to them have risen during the past decade,’’ said the 235-page report, titled "Mental Health in the Workplace" and comprising separate studies on the United States, Britain, Germany, Finland, and Poland. Although the studies gave no overall comparison to back up the assertion that the percentage of affected workers is growing, they did note how different countries were increasingly recognizing the problem.
"As the United States evolves toward a more information-based economy, increased pressure is placed on a company’s employees to supply a competitive edge,’’ the report said. But, it added, employers of all sizes are improving their approach as they realize the importance of the problem. The World Health Organization (WHO), which worked with the ILO on the study, called for greater efforts to remove the stigma from work-related depression, noting that only half of those who suffer from it are believed to seek help.
Benedetto Saraceno, WHO’s director of mental health, insists that "The key problem is not absenteeism." When people with depression or other mental problems go to work, "they require much more effort to function as required."
American workers’ counterparts in Europe faced more direct threats from unemployment, above all those in Poland, where the transition to a market economy turned many out of work, but also in Germany and Finland, hit by recession in the 1990s. More than half the Finnish work force experiences stress-related symptoms ranging from physical pain to sleep disorders, the study found. It added that 7% of the country’s workers suffer from "severe burnout."
Three out of 10 British employees suffer mental health problems each year, while at any given time one in 20 working-age Britons suffers major depression, the report said. In Germany, depressive disorders account for nearly 7% of premature retirements.
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