Better Life Lab: American Karoshi — the Problem with Work Stress

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3.9 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 29 March 2022

⏱️ 34 minutes

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Summary

In Japan, generations of workers have given their all to the code of Karoshi. It’s a word that literally means, “Work til you die." Few Americans know the word “Karoshi.” We don’t think it happens here. But the workplace now actually ranks as the fifth leading cause of death in America. To help us understand work stress better, we’re joined by the co-directors of the Healthy Work Campaign. Marnie Dobson and Peter Schnall. How do we shift from work being something that can make your life miserable, to something that can enhance the quality of your life? It comes down to how much power, control and autonomy you have at work. Guests: Cate Lindemann, a lawyer in Illinois who suffered a stress-induced heart attack Cherri Murphy, a pastor and former Lyft driver in California Marnie Dobson and Peter Schnall, co-directors of the Healthy Work Campaign Resources: The Relationship Between Workplace Stressors and Mortality and Health Costs in the United States, Joel Goh, Jeffrey Pfeffer, Stefanos A. Zenios Global, regional, and national burdens of ischemic heart disease and stroke attributable to exposure to long working hours for 194 countries, 2000–2016: A systematic analysis from the WHO/ILO Joint Estimates of the Work-related Burden of Disease and Injury, Pega et al, May 2021 Bad Jobs, Bad Health? How Work and Working Conditions Contribute to Health Disparities Burgard & Yin 2013 Psychosocial Factors at Work: Recognition and Control, a report of the Joint International Labour Office and World Health Organization Committee on Occupational Health (1985) Employee Control and Occupational Stress, Paul Spector, 2002 “Evidence is growing that enhanced control at work can be an important element in employees' health and well–being.” Healthy Work Campaign fact sheet Work, Stress and Health and Socio-Economic Status, American Psychological Association Workplace Stress, ILO, 2016 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	In Japan, generations of workers have given their all to the code of Kadochi,
0:06.0	putting work before all else, family, health, even life itself.
0:12.0	Kadochi means work till you die.
0:17.0	Here in the United States, we don't even have a word for it.
0:21.0	We don't even think it happens here, but the statistics are shockingly clear.
0:26.0	The way we work causes so much stress and illness
0:30.0	that the workplace now actually ranks as the fifth leading cause of death in America.
0:37.0	This is American Kadochi.
0:42.0	I'm Brigitte Cholte, you're listening to Better Life Lab.
0:49.0	The American workplace is changing in radical new ways.
0:53.0	Workers at every level have more and more job demands and less and less job control.
0:58.0	Epidemiologists say that adds up to more chronic stress and illness and death.
1:05.0	A lack of job security is associated with a higher risk of heart disease, heart attack, stroke, also depression.
1:14.0	We like to think of work as benign.
1:17.0	And when Americans do talk about occupational safety and health,
1:20.0	the images that come to mind are traditionally dangerous jobs, working in a coal mine maybe.
1:25.0	And yet the real problem is stress, or what experts call psychosocial stress.
1:31.0	To help us understand this better, I'm joined this episode by the co-directors of the Healthy Work campaign,
1:37.0	Marny Dobson and Peter Schnell.
1:40.0	We can have healthy work.
1:42.0	We can have working conditions which are healthy, which are also productive.
1:47.0	And in fact, there's a lot of good evidence that healthy working conditions are more productive.
	...

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