Impacts of Poor Work Environments

Why in news?

Recent studies has revealed that depression and stress are increasing among employees in private sector.

What are the findings of the study?

• Two recent studies have found that depression, anxiety and stress prevail among 43-46 per cent of employees in India’s private sector.
• The harmful side effects of “management toxicity” are affecting more and more Indians.
• Some one-eighth of the 800,000 suicides across the world annually are literate Indians potentially employed or employable.
• India is the world capital for diabetes, and cardio ailments are affecting more and more Indians in their thirties.

What are the reasons behind these issues?

• Demanding work schedules, high pressure on Key Performance Indicators linked to higher perquisites, and the always-on mobile phone syndrome are the top three culprits.
• Improper sleep, relationship issues, poor eating habits, lack of exercise, lifestyle issues such as EMI troubles and peer pressure to maintain luxurious lifestyles complete the list.
• Unhealthy workplaces diminish employee engagement, increase turnover, and reduce job performance, while driving up health insurance and health­care costs.

How work environments contribute to these factors?

• For white collar workers the stress at work is intangible and doesn’t get measured which results in an ever-higher physical and psychological toll.
• An empirical studies found that long work hours are associated with adverse health including cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and disability.
• Working overtime was associated with a 61 per cent higher injury rate.
• There are also various evidence which shows significant positive mean correlations between overall health symptoms and hours of work.

What measures needs to be taken?

• Employees must comprehend what constitutes health risks in their work environments and choose their employers based on the stress-related dimensions of work.
• Employees need to learn how to say “No” when it is right to say so and to adhere to time management principles.
• Employers will need to determine the costs of their toxic management practices in terms of both direct medical costs and indirect costs.
• Respective governments’ needs to take action on the externalities created when enterprises retrench people who were physically and psychologically damaged at work.
• Societies also need social movements to advocate human sustainability and better work environments are as important as environmental sustainability.

Source: Business Standard