While Company Profits Soar, Employee Stress Climbs

The mood on Wall Street is soaring along with company profits.  But nearly one-in-four employees are feeling the stress according to a recent workplace survey. 

 

Many companies are focusing on cost-cutting to keep profits growing. “Because of high unemployment, management is using its leverage to get more hours out of workers,” said Robert C. Pozen, a senior lecturer at Harvard Business School and the former president of Fidelity Investments. “What’s worrisome is that American business has gotten used to being a lot leaner, and it could take a while before they start hiring again.”

 

That strategy may be beginning to take its toll on workers. Thirty-eight percent of respondents in “The Marlin Company Workplace Survey 2010reported an increase in stress at work. While reporting an increase is not surprising, it does manifest itself in distracted workers who are more likely to sustain injuries or make errors, not to mention the toll that stress has on their health. Forced to do more with less, workers are cutting corners and taking shortcuts that have a direct impact on quality, safety, and ultimately the bottom line,” said Frank Kenna III, President of the Marlin Company.

 

The Marlin Company, a Connecticut-based workplace communications publisher, conducted its annual Gallup survey in May 2010. The complete study, is available to view on the company’s website. 

 

While the majority (58 percent) of workers polled in the survey feel the economy is getting worse or is about the same, forty-nine percent of participants felt either very or somewhat optimistic about their workplace, 27 percent felt pessimistic and the rest had no comment. The survey’s analysts believe that the majority of optimistic survey takers compared with the majority (58%) who felt the economy was getting worse shows a certain hope among our nation’s workers.

 

 

Read the complete analysis of the study here: http://www.themarlincompany.com/blog/article/171.


Share:

Ira S Wolfe