Work can make you sick
Overwork and stress at work can make you ill – a medical phenomenon that, according to information available to the experts from “Neurologists and Psychiatrists on the Net”, has been known since 1974 and was first described by psychotherapist Herbert J. Freudenberger. It is not uncommon for people who are exposed to both high pressure and constant tension to feel burned out sooner or later. The physical and psychological symptoms are summarized under the term “burnout syndrome”.
In particularly severe cases, excessive stress at work can even lead to death. According to a Stanford study, over 120,000 people die each year in the United States, either directly or indirectly, from work-related stress. In Germany, workers are at least partially protected by the Occupational Health and Safety Act. However, according to the Stanford study, workers in Germany do more than 800 million paid overtime hours. Since overtime is one of the greatest stress factors in everyday work, the legislation leaves a lot to be desired, explains the Arbeits-ABC platform.
The study by Stanford University was able to identify which factors in the workplace most frequently lead to stress.
Eleven stressors can be identified
The factors recorded by the study authors can be traced back to eleven stressors. Although the analysis refers to the American labor market, the findings resulting from the study can also be applied to a large extent to Germany and Europe, since the stress factors here can also be projected onto everyday digital work and the associated meritocracy.
The factors that can probably be neglected for Germany would be the stress caused by a lack of health insurance and the physical damage caused by passive smoking in the workplace.
The situation is different for the remaining nine identified stressors. These are defined by the authors as follows:
These factors affect health
Pressure to perform, overtime, unemployment, job insecurity, lack of social support at work, injustice at work, shift work, poor work-life balance and loss of control at work.
These are the factors that 90 percent of respondents cite when it comes to the circumstances that keep them from spending time with family. In addition, there is not enough time for exercise. Job insecurity increases the risk of illness by 50 percent.
Associated with these stressors are physical ailments such as strokes, heart attacks and susceptibility to influenza. In addition, the risk of accidents in road traffic and in the household increases for those affected due to the lack of concentration associated with overwork.
On the side of the psychological consequences of stress, depression, dementia and anxiety disorders were identified.
In extreme cases, these health consequences can lead to death. “These deaths are comparable to the fourth and fifth leading causes of death in the country – heart disease and accidents. More people are dying [an Arbeitsstress] than diabetes, Alzheimer’s or the flu,” comments Stefanos A. Zenios, Stanford professor, in the study.
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