Stress is body’s response to anything that requires attention or action. Working or doing a job also causes stress. No work or job is stress-free. All occupations create health issues, stress being one of them.

There is no occupation which is absolutely safe for health and wellbeing. Also, lack of occupation (unemployment) is equally unsafe for health and wellbeing; for the individual as well as for the society.

One should be careful while choosing a job based on one’s temperament, aptitude and ability to handle stress.

Some statistics from CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention):

  • 29% of workers report being little stressed at work
  • 40% of workers found their jobs to be extremely stressful
  • 25% of workers experience frequent burnout due to jobs they do
  • 25% of workers mention that their job is number one source of stress
  • 75% believe that work stress has increased than in the past

The key is striking a balance by making work, workplace and working conditions safe which in the absence of professional advice from a doctor expert in ‘diseases of occupations’ comes from employers’ awareness about unsafe works, compassion towards worker health and taking logical actions. Most of the time this works.   

I am often reminded of Ratan Tata who in my opinion, demonstrated awareness to unsafe situations around, compassion towards worker health and acted by taking logical actions, which help workers conserve their health. On one such early visit to the Indica car manufacturing facility, he noticed operators fixing the rear strut of the car manually. The operator would have to bend down 600 times to complete this operation on 300 cars each day. Ratan Tata called his managers immediately. ‘How can we expect our men to do this throughout their lives? Surely it will damage their health. We must provide an automation solution on priority.’ The engineering department rose to the occasion and quickly developed a fixture to semi-automate the operation.

Managers should not be a source of stress to the employees and there must be a way to deal with errant managers.

Similarly, business owners or CEOs should be able to sense the level of stress amongst the employees in the organizations via various methods, and if found to be real and unreasonable, take necessary actions urgently.

The Occupational Health (OH) physician should be alert to stress levels in employees as some of them could mention that an unsafe machine is causing stress as an accident could happen leading to loss of life. The OH physician should highlight this to Safety Officers who could audit the ‘unsafe’ machine for its safety. Having done that, it should be announced to the employees that all machines have been audited and are safe to work with. Such actions instil confidence among workers leading to cordial rapport with the management.

Stress is one of big risk to health faced by workers. It comes in various forms – intimidating line manager, bullying, unsafe machines, unsafe work practices, job insecurity, low salary, too many meetings, long working hours, email overload, unrealistic job demands and performance expectations etc.   

Being in an unsuitable job is in itself the biggest stressor; the sooner one can realize this and change the job the better.

Employers or business owners should realise that stress due to occupations is real. It can affect them as well, though in lesser degree as they have some control over the stress while the employees do not. The employees have to be empowered and the employers need to know more about managing stress in themselves as well as how to reduce stress in their employees.

Managers should be trained in recognizing stress among workers and how to address them. Managers should not be a source of stress to the employees and there must be a way to deal with errant managers.

Stress can be fun too, especially if it short-term, such as when you are running a race or chasing a reasonable sales target. In fact, some people strive on stress.

Some jobs are more stressful than others. Example – Military personnel, police officer, firefighter, healthcare worker, airline pilot, Air Traffic Controller, drivers (truck, train), construction worker, teacher, telephone operator, social worker, paramedic, IT manager, surgeon, lawyer, taxi driver etc.

One should be careful while choosing a job based on one’s temperament, aptitude and ability to handle stress. For example, someone who faints seeing the sight of blood possibly shouldn’t be a healthcare worker (doctor, nurse, paramedic etc.). A fear of heights or flying cannot possibly be an airline pilot.

Being in an unsuitable job is in itself the biggest stressor; the sooner one can realize this and change the job the better.

If you happen to be in a large corporation doing an unsuitable job there are opportunities wherein you could move into less stressful job. The Line Manager, HR and the OH physician can assess suitability of a new role for a stressed employee.  

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Dr Ajay Sati is an Occupational Health physician who prefers to describe himself as an Occupationist, to denote, ‘an expert in diseases and other concerns of occupations.’ Dr Sati has managed health and wellness programs in industries he worked, like the atomic energy, and energy (oil & gas) in India and overseas. An experienced virtual consultation expert he was involved in many greenfield and brownfield projects providing inputs from health point of view.