Stress on the job can sap the life out of workers

A recent study found that construction workers die at a faster rate than office workers, and not just because a crane can fall on them.

Researchers at the Indiana University Kelley School of Business in Bloomington found that workers in high-stress jobs with little control over their workflow die younger or are less healthy than those who have more flexibility and discretion in their jobs and are able to set their own goals as part of their employment.

For the paper "Worked to Death: The Relationships of Job Demands and Job Control With Mortality,” researchers looked at a sample of 2,363 workers in Wisconsin. The participants, all in their 60s, were interviewed over a seven-year period.  

Over time, researchers found a 15.4 % increase in the likelihood of death for individuals in low-control, high-demand jobs. Meanwhile, those who have more control over their workflow and expectations experience a 34 % decrease in the likelihood of death. 

Jobs in manufacturing, construction, and front-line service made up the highest percentages of worker at risk for dying, at 58 %. Researchers found that those with white-collar jobs have the highest chances of survival because they can “craft” their jobs to be more meaningful to them, whereas construction and manufacturing workers have little flexibility in job functions.   

"We explored job demands, or the amount of work, time pressure and concentration demands of a job, and job control, or the amount of discretion one has over making decisions at work, as joint predictors of death," said Erik Gonzalez-Mulé, assistant professor of organizational behavior and human resources at the Kelley School and the paper's lead author.

"These findings suggest that stressful jobs have clear negative consequences for employee health when paired with low freedom in decision-making, while stressful jobs can actually be beneficial to employee health if also paired with freedom in decision-making."