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American workers say they're stressed
Study cites long hours, result-driven work culture
In short, you are stressed out and overwhelmed.
Well, you probably work in a "toxic office."
Most Americans do - especially compared with workers in the United Kingdom, Italy, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands, according to David Lewis, a workplace psychologist and author of "One-Minute Stress Management."
Lewis bases his conclusion on results of an online survey last summer of 2,544 office workers 18 and older in the United States and five other countries. He says long office hours and a "result-driven" working culture are causing stress, anxiety and depression at more severe levels for Americans than for their foreign counterparts, increasing the risk of ulcers, high blood pressure, heart attacks and strokes.
The U.S. workers reported an overly heavy workload (52 percent); disorganization (43 percent); bosses who expected them to work when ill (37 percent) and to meet unrealistic expectations (32 percent); and too little time to complete tasks (31 percent).
U.S. workers were significantly more likely to report more stress than a year ago, while British, Dutch and, to a lesser degree, Belgian workers said stress decreased.
Forty-eight percent of the 504 U.S. survey respondents reported high stress.
U.S. workers were most likely to be concerned with keeping the boss happy. This was the lowest priority in Italy.
After making the boss happy, meeting targets and deadlines and crossing items off a "to-do" list were of highest importance for U.S. workers.
Overall, younger workers tended to let things "get to them" and were significantly more likely to attribute their stress to workload, lack of organization and their boss or colleagues.
Research suggests younger workers may have heavier workloads because of shorter tenure. They also may be less decisive on the job because of their lack of experience. In the six countries surveyed, at least one in three workers said they work late on a weekly basis, with late hours most common in Germany and the United States.
Workers in all six countries agreed the top three short-term effects of stress were increased irritability, undermining of work performance and increased mistakes. Women crave "order" more than men do, according to the survey.
Lewis, who completed his latest research for global office products company Esselte, says high levels of activity are not usually the cause of stress on the job.
More often, he says, it is caused by a lack of control over one's working environment. Unfortunately for workers, only one of the five major causes of stress in a "toxic" office - disorganization - is within the typical worker's control, he concluded.
