Stressful and Insecure
Jobs Take a Toll on Health

The fear of losing your job can do a number on your nerves, and new research shows it can have negative effects on your overall physical and mental health, as well.

Australian researchers found that managers and other professionals who were under a strong threat of being laid off were more than three times as likely to report depression, anxiety or being in poor health than people in more secure positions.

And people who said they worked in highly stressful jobs with little control over how and when they work were also more likely than others to have depression or anxiety.

An increasing number of people are working in high-stress and insecure jobs, according to the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health report. As a result, study authors, lead by Dr. Rennie M. D'Souza of the Australian National University in Canberra, said that health problems among workers could be on the rise.

Individual companies that are under financial strain and need to lay off a significant portion of workers may show higher rates of employee health problems than more secure companies, D'Souza predicted.

"If individuals (at these struggling companies) are constantly under threat of being laid off, I would expect that they would have a higher rate of mental health problems," the researcher stated.

To obtain their findings, D'Souza and colleagues asked 1188 people in their early 40s to complete questionnaires about their job conditions and mental and physical health.

Nearly one quarter of study participants said they had job strain, described as high-stress jobs in which they had little control over their work, and nearly one quarter reported moderate levels of job insecurity.

D'Souza explained that the burden of job insecurity may be higher in the study participants and other people in their early 40s, who often have families to support.

The researcher added that it is impossible to determine whether poor health was the cause or effect of a negative work environment, and the researchers plan to follow study participants over time to determine whether workplace changes improve their health.

D'Souza recommended that people working under strain or insecurity seek support from family and friends, and that companies try to keep their workers healthy by providing them with resources to cope with stress and improving the work environment, perhaps reducing stress and increasing workers' autonomy.

"If individuals have some latitude in decisions over when and how they do their work, they will be much happier and would probably not feel so stressed," the researcher said.

SOURCE: Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, November 2003.

Reference Source 89

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