Are our Healthcare Workers Healthy?
In Malaysia, there are questions of whether or not the doctors and nurses who care for patients are healthy themselves. One surgeon, due to stress at work, has gained 23 kg since becoming a doctor and is now borderline hypertensive. Doctors need to put in long hours and have few breaks in their job—breaks in which they could exercise or even rest.
Fighting Workplace Stress
Many people think that people go to work, trudge happily through their day, and come home to rest and relax. In fact, most workplaces are nothing like that. The actual workplace is usually stressful, with deadlines to meet, meetings to go to and interpersonal conflict to go through. And then many people take that stress home with them—worrying about the next day, worried about their paycheck and trying to get enough sleep so they can feel well in the morning.
Workplace Stress
Workplace stress is commonplace. In one study, 41 percent of workers feel stressed by the job. Exactly how employees deal with this stress can make the difference between continued productivity at work and ongoing lack of productivity at work. Workplace stress can cost a business a great amount of money.
Stress on the job costs industries in the US about $300 billion per year due to insurance claims, healthcare costs, accidents, lost productivity, and absenteeism. This exceeds the cost of all strikes in the country and the combined profits of the Fortune 100 corporations.
Stress on the Job means more Doctor Visits
Recent research indicates that those who work in stressful jobs or who work in stressful workplaces visit the doctor for illnesses more often than those in the least stressful jobs. They see general or family practitioners 26 percent more often and see specialists 27 percent more often than those who are not under stress.
Stress on the Job can be Deadly
People who show up to work early, get as much work done as possible, skip lunches and are the last to leave are asking for a possible death sentence. All of this work can increase the amount of stress on the job and can lead to heart disease, heart attacks, strokes and hypertension along with emotional diseases like depression and anxiety.
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Corporate Social Responsibility
MHC Supports Goducate (NPO)
Helping Needy Asians Help Themselves!
