$300 Billion Profit Killer

What’s stunning are the costs of stress. It’s now estimated to be up to a $300 billion profit killer in American business. Costs per employee range from $2,700 to $7,500 per year. Industry experts agree that workplace stress is an increasingly important issue.

Carole Spiers, former Chairperson of the International Stress Management Association believes that companies have a massive problem on their hands. Unless they act to reduce stress, it will have a strong impact on their bottom line and in achieving long-term success.

According to Roger Herman, Senior Fellow at the Workplace Stability Institute, 40% of employees feel that their job is very stressful or extremely stressful. The major concern is not just that employees are reporting job stress but that it’s strongly impacting profitability.

A Million Absent Workers Daily

Workplace stress overload results in one million absent American workers each day. Stress results in mistakes and accidents, declining productivity and burnout, low morale and lost employees, increases in alcoholism and drug use, as well as workplace violence and harassment.

In 1992, a well respected Northwestern Life Insurance Study reported that seven in ten American workers indicated that job stress caused frequent health problems and made workers less productive. 46 percent of employees reported their job was very stressful, 34 percent thought of quitting their jobs, and 14 percent actually left because of stress.

More recently, the 2000 annual Attitudes In the American Workplace VI Gallup Poll, sponsored by the Marlin Company, found that 80% of workers feel stress on the job. Nearly half of the employees said. that they needed help in learning how to manage stress. 42% said their coworkers needed stress management help.