News from November 2003

Reform and demoralization in the US federal public service
(Nov. 24 '03)

Stephen Barr's article, "Report Highlights Risks of 'Reform'", in the Washington Post on November 23 examines the demoralizing impact of downsizing, reinventing, and outsourcing on the US federal public service. "Many federal employees have seen their ranks reduced and operations streamlined," he writes. "Today, they see "competitive sourcing" studies aimed at determining whether federal work should be turned over to the private sector. Such "tides of reform," as public policy expert Paul C. Light calls them, sometimes splash across the federal workforce with troubling results." "A new report on the concerns of federal employees, issued this month by the Merit Systems Protection Board, suggests that workforce reductions during the 1990s placed a number of agencies at risk of being unable to fully deliver services and programs to the public. The report warns that a surge of departures could happen again -- this time because large numbers of federal employees are eligible to retire. ... Pressures from organizational restructuring and outsourcing may abruptly shift the balance from employees staying to employees leaving... Government managers need to be prepared and not caught off-guard by an unexpected loss of critical employees." "The MSPB survey of federal employees turned up substantial frustration. For example, 45 percent of the 6,958 survey respondents cited job stress as a reason for retiring. Forty percent said they would consider retiring because there were too few people in their office to handle the workload."

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Stop bullying bosses
(Nov. 19 '03)

The Workplace Bullying & Trauma Institute reports that one in six American workers is targeted each year by a bullying boss, and wants businesses to do more to confront the problem. According to Ruth and Gary Namie, who run the Institute, those being bullied endure the abuse for an average of 23 months. In 70 percent of cases, the target is fired or quits in frustration. The Namies, of Bellingham, Wash., want California to pass a law to battle what they define as "mistreatment, harassment, psychological violence (that) poses an occupational health hazard." They also are trying to get the state of Washington to pass similar legislation. Currently, there are no legal remedies for bulying because harassment laws don't apply. From talks with more than 4,000 workers, they have come up with four types of bullying bosses, outlined in their book, The Bully at Work. Click here for the Workplace Bullying and Trauma Institute website.

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New Survey Finds Gap Between HR Spending and Priorities
(Nov. 18 '03)

A new report card on Corporate America's human resources departments offers a mixed bag of good and bad news. The HR Scorecard Alliance, a survey established by Watson Wyatt Worldwide, found that HR's allocation of staff time and resources is considerably out of alignment with the priorities of both senior line managers and HR professionals. Only one third of line managers – and less than one half of HR professionals themselves – rate the performance of their companies' human resources departments as good. However, 83 percent of senior line managers, on average, consider HR's major functions critical to their companies' business success. About 1,700 line managers and 550 HR managers and supervisors at 17 large companies participated.

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Vulnerable workers report by Canadian Policy Research Networks
(Nov. 18 '03)

Canadian Policy Research Network has released a new study that describes the working conditions of Canada's most vulnerable workers. Defining Vulnerability in the Labour Market by Ron Saunders describes the conditions of work of about two million Canadian workers who work for less than $10 an hour, many of whom have few benefits and are not protected by employment standards legislation.

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MDs in UK see increase in workplace induced stress
(Nov. 13 '03)

The Guardian reports that the workplace poses one of the biggest threats to our health, according to doctors. The emotional aspects of the working environment were rated more damaging to people's health than unsafe sex, drugs, pollution and a poor emotional environment at home, in a survey for Norwich Union Healthcare. More than two thirds of the panel of GPs participating in the survey said the incidence of depression attributable to the workplace had risen over the last five years. The same number said that in half their patients suffering from stress, the workplace was to blame.

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Australian study finds job strain and job insecurity major health risks
(Nov. 13 '03)

A study of 1,188 employee professionals, aged 40 to 44, in Australia asked them questions about their job conditions as well as depression, anxiety, physical and self-rated health. Adverse working conditions were common among the workers, and 23% reported high job strain (a combination of high work demands and low control). Full-timer workers, those in supervisory positions, and those who worked in large organizations were more likely than others to experience high levels of job strain. Nearly one-third of the workers also worried about the threat of job loss and uncertainty about future employment with 7.3% and 23% reporting high and moderate job insecurity, respectively. Part-time workers, those who were self-employed, nonmanagers, and those working in smaller organizations were more likely to report high job insecurity. Researchers found passive and high-strain jobs were linked to depression, anxiety, and lower self-reported health. Job insecurity was strongly associated with all four mental and physical health measures, regardless of the other risk factors. The effect was most pronounced on depression and self- reported health. For example, workers with high job insecurity were four times as likely to suffer from depression. The findings appear in the November issue of the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health and are summarized on WebMD.

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Study of Australian managers documents email stress
(Nov. 10 '03)

A new study by the Australian Psychological Society, which surveyed 1100 managers, found that email communication is a source of stress for most. Sixty-nine per cent of respondents reported that dealing with a daily avalanche of electronic mail is mildly or moderately stressful. Two per cent said they experienced high levels. Researcher Dr Amanda Gordon said 80 per cent of those surveyed spent more than 20 per cent of their day dealing with e-mails. Most of those surveyed dealt with between 20 and 50 work-related e-mails a day.

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Debate on work hours and stress includes India
(Nov. 8 '03)

The Times of India reports that Indians work fewer hours annually than Germans, and have far more national holidays than any western nation. There are also suggestions that Indians cope with job stress by sleeping at work. This anecdotal discussion adds another perspective to the international debate about work hours and job demands.

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