Invested workers at risk for job stress: study

Toronto – The workers who are most dedicated to their jobs may have the greatest risk of high job stress, indicates new research from the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health. In a survey of 2,737 workers in Alberta, Canada, 18 percent said their job was “highly stressful.” 

Stress was more common among managers and professionals. Employees who believed their job performance could result in physical injury, damage to the company’s reputation or equipment, or financial loss were twice as likely to report high stress, said a CAMH press release. Likewise, workers who perceived their actions having an effect on those around them or had jobs requiring additional or variable hours were more likely to report high stress.

“Employers should be asking, ‘What am I doing to reduce stress in my most valuable people?’” Dr. Carolyn Dewa, senior scientist and head of CAMH’s Work and Well-being Research and Evaluation Program, said in the release.

Workers in the 82 percent who reported low or no stress were more likely to be male, single, younger than 25 and satisfied with their jobs.

The study appeared in the International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine (Vol. 2, No. 1).