Occupational stress

Occupational stress is the collection of physical, biological, psychological, and chemical stressors that originate from the workplace. With technological advances making employees work beyond the office and the 9-to-5 hours of the past, workers in the twenty-first century have stated that they find their jobs to be extremely stressful. Occupational stress is felt in developed and underdeveloped countries in various degrees and is linked to chronic health problems and mental disorders.

Background

While more American workers have reported feeling overworked in their occupations in the early twenty-first century, their work hours were far less than what they were two generations ago. According to research by the University of California, Davis and the University of Groningen, American workers averaged about 1,765 work hours per year in 2014 versus 1,984 work hours per year in 1950. Statistics have shown a gradual decline in work hours in a seven-decade span, peaking at 2,024 hours in 1951 and hitting its lowest point at 1,729 hours in 2009. However, by 2022 this figure had increased to nearly 1,800 hours.

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in 2015 ranked the United States sixteenth out of thirty-six nations in terms of average workweek hours with 34.4 hours. Mexico ranked first with an average of 42.85 work hours per week. Compared to other first world countries, the United States outranked neighboring Canada (twenty-second with 32.77 hours), the United Kingdom (twenty-fourth with 32.25 hours), France (thirty-second with 28.33 hours), and bottom-ranked Germany (thirty-sixth with 26.37 hours). OECD statistics demonstrated that workers in developing countries, in addition to Mexico, logged in the most work hours. Costa Rica and Korea averaged more than 40 hours per week.

However, full-time American workers disagreed with these statistics. In a 2014 Gallup poll, workers said they performed an average of 47 hours per week, the equivalent of a six-day workweek in five days. The poll also showed that nearly 40 percent of respondents reported working at least 50 hours per week.

Nevertheless, Americans were generally satisfied with their jobs in most areas. According to an August 2016 Gallup poll, laborers were particularly pleased with physical safety conditions, relations with their coworkers, and hour flexibility. However, ranked low on the list of conditions was on-the-job stress. About 34 percent of workers were satisfied with the amount of work-related stress, compared to 61 percent of workers who were happy with their boss.

Overview

A 2014 report by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) showed that 40 percent of Americans felt very or extremely stressed in their positions, and 75 percent of respondents said their levels of stress were worse than that of a previous generation. While the amount of work hours have dropped among generations, workers in the twenty-first century have reported more on-the-job tension. Part of this thinking and the dropped hours coincide with the Great Recession of the late 2000s. Starting at the end of 2007 and finishing in mid-2009, work hours dropped by an average of about 43 hours per year. Those who were fortunate enough to keep their jobs encountered smaller staffs and heavier workloads. Work hours steadily increased by about 40 hours per year between 2009 and 2014 as the economy recovered.

Also contributing to higher stress levels are advancements in technology. Innovation, invention, and technology have improved work environments overall with machines and computers making fields such as manufacturing, medicine, and communications easier and trimming the number of human hours needed to perform a task. However, technology and electronic devices have tightened the connection between the job and employees. A worker can check into the company through e-mail or text message in the middle of dinner, interrupting the life-work balance.

Socioeconomic status may also influence the level of occupational stress. According to two studies by social epidemiologist Michael Marmot in 1997 and 2004, having more flexibility in one's position allows for better health and longevity. Those more likely to be in this position are individuals who have higher career status compared to rank-and-file employees. Chief executive officers (CEOs) and corporate titans are more likely to have control over their professional lives as they can determine their level of responsibilities, whereas the administrative assistants at their companies do not have such freedom.

Occupational stress has been associated with physical and behavioral health problems but understanding the links between them has varied. Workplace stress has been linked to digestive and musculoskeletal problems, sleep disorders, and fatigue. Stressed workers are less productive and are more likely to be absent or leave a company. However, studies on work stress's connection to cardiovascular diseases and obesity have differed. A 2010 study published by the International Journal of Occupational Medicine and Environmental Health in 2016 analyzed 224 Iranian drivers, an occupation considered to be high in work-related stress, and measured them for risk factors of cardiovascular diseases. Researchers found that those who reported suffering from "average to acute stress" and "acute stress," about 75 percent of those in the study, showed an increase in blood glucose levels compared to those who experienced "average stress." Yet, there was no correlation between cardiovascular health and work stress as there was little change between the two groups. A 2015 meta-analysis and review published by the International Journal of Obesity of multiple studies involving occupational stress and obesity showed no link between the two.

As a way to combat occupational stress, companies and organizations have begun creating a work culture that is conducive to flexibility and resources. Human resource managers and occupational experts have begun suggesting shrinking the dependency on smartphones and e-mails outside of normal office hours and insisting that employees take their allotted vacation time. Companies can also establish a stress policy that allows employees to seek help dealing with work-related stress through stress-management activities, promote regular checks into the stress levels of employees, and develop teams and groups composed of experts in stress-management and self-care. For example, the US Navy developed Special Psychiatric Rapid Intervention Teams (SPRINT) to assist units that have witnessed traumatic events through psychological first aid (a way to reduce the effects of the trauma), voluntary counseling that is unique to the military experience, and training that encourages resiliency self-care that sailors can apply in stressful situations.

The COVID-19 pandemic that began in March 2020 greatly impacted longstanding traditions in the workplace. Many companies adopted a method of remote work, in which employees work from home due to quarantine and social distancing measures, while others, particularly those employed in fields deemed essential, remained in-person. Nevertheless, the COVID-19 pandemic greatly impacted how many around the world worked, and in 2023 Gallup reported that a record-high 44 percent of polled workers stated that they had experienced high levels of work-related stress the previous day. Although Gallup attributed some of this stress to the challenges of the pandemic, the organization also stated that employee stress has been rising for more than a decade.

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