New video lays out the ‘business case’ for healthy work

Los Angeles — A recently released video from the Healthy Work Campaign explains to business leaders how work stress harms their organization and employees – and what can be done about it.

The Business Case for Healthy Work focuses on issues such as chronic stress caused by greater work demands, time pressures, unreasonable workloads and low job control. That stress can lead to higher blood pressure and greater risk of cardiovascular disease.

The campaign is a public health project sponsored by the Center for Social Epidemiology, a nonprofit foundation.

“Overwork, especially working more than 55 hours per week, is also associated with burnout and depression,” Peter Schnall, CSE director and a professor emeritus of medicine at the University of California, Irvine, says in the video.

The video notes that businesses can lose billions of dollars because of problems such as employee disengagement and burnout, sickness and lost productivity, and increased health care costs. CSE provides three overarching actions employers can take to help mitigate these issues:

• Ramp up employee participation in decision-making and problem-solving
• Increase support and feedback from management
• Improve communication throughout the organization

“Everyone should know that work conditions can lead to ill health,” Schnall says. “Improving working conditions and creating healthier work conditions can lead to improved mental function and increased satisfaction among workers, and it will contribute to workers who are more productive.”