The Hindu Business Line : Distress from stress

SURPRISINGLY, automated, touch-screen lifestyle and paperless offices have been of no help in guaranteeing a stress-free existence. Mobile phones, the ubiquitous Internet and wireless application protocols seem to be robbing an average householder's peace of mind, and forcing him to be on the ball all the time. In fact, stress management is now the staple of every training course on management and physical fitness.

As is only to be expected, Americans are far ahead of others in quantifying the effect of stress on quotidian life. There is even an American Institute of Stress in New York, and a stress-reduction industry has grown up round the phenomenon. Japan too has been catching up with the US in terms of ravages of stress and techniques of fighting them. The Japanese have even a special word "karoshi" to denote "death from overwork" in recognition of its becoming a contagion.

Those very technological advances that were meant to facilitate a laid-back existence have also become instrumental in making life fast and hectic. Trillions of transactions circling round the world eight times a single second give no scope or chance for errors. Decisions have to be taken with lightning speed. You have to be right the first time, or you are swept away without trace.

The velocity and volume of transactions have also resulted in an inordinate rise in the workload. A survey of American workers has found that more than 30 per cent of them are "always" or "often" under stress at work, aggravated by the lack of enough co-workers to get the job done. A preponderant number (62 per cent) complained that they could not use their allotted vacation. Families too have been made to suffer in tandem.

Individual health is affected by nation's economic health, — layoffs, unemployment, rising cost of living and the like taking their toll. Most Americans are said to change jobs at least 11 times before retirement. It has been estimated that in the US, workplace stress costs more than $300 billion each year in health care, with the increased burden of 46 per cent per year on each worker on medical expenses on account of stress alone. No wonder, in such exacting circumstances, tension, and not tranquillity, has become the order of the day.

Is India any different? The Indian work ethic being what it is, it will not be surprising if employers, more than the employees, are victims of stress here!

B. S. Raghavan

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