Slater resignation, soaring use of antidepressants and comprehensive employee wellness programs raise questions about employee health, financial costs
I have been following Steven Slater’s story with great interest — after all, it has all the elements of a good movie: There’s a hero, a villain, a high-stress environment and plenty of drama. The unfortunate part is it actually happened. But the public response to Slater’s unique way of ending his career is both astounding and a telling sign.
Slater, for those living under a rock for the past few months, is the JetBlue flight attendant who pulled off one of the most memorable resignations in history. On an Aug. 9 flight from Pittsburgh to New York, he apparently hit a breaking point. When the plane landed, he told passengers off, announced he was quitting, deployed the emergency chute and ran to freedom.
The groundswell around this event, especially in the immediate aftermath, says a lot about workplaces today. The economy is suffering — those still working are being asked to do more with less and many employees feel trapped in positions with little or no options and long working hours.
The situation is certainly magnified for those dealing with the public and, in Slater’s case, there was a “perfect storm” leading to his actions. Seventy-one per cent of respondents believed Slater was a folk hero, according to a Globe and Mail poll.
Many companies have time-management programs and continuous improvement programs, rewarding higher production and sales. Along with all of this, most companies have downsized or are holding off on hiring additional staff until the economic situation becomes clearer. The battle cry of the day is “maximizing shareholder return.”
It’s not a stretch to suggest workers are paying a mental price for all this. The worldwide market for antidepressant drugs is US$17 billion, according to an article published in Nature Magazine in 2004, and they are the most commonly prescribed drugs in the United States. A study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) looked at 2.4 billion drugs prescribed in visits to doctors and hospitals in 2005 in the U.S. Of those, 118 million were antidepressants. (High blood pressure drugs were the next most common, with 113 million prescriptions.)
Between 1995 and 2004, the use of antidepressants nearly doubled, rising by 48 per cent, according to the CDC. And there’s nothing to suggest use has slowed down in the last six years.
Another sign something is wrong is the need for legislation such as Ontario’s Bill 168, which tackles violence and harassment in the workplace.
Today’s employers of choice have certain things in common: they have excellent health and benefit programs, which often include an on-site gym or gym membership subsidy; a casual atmosphere; and work-life balance programs such as flex time. Some have even gone as far as providing recreation rooms, with pool tables and other activities. They have strong employee assistance programs and social activities designed to help employees blow off steam, they provide lunch-and-learn sessions around healthy eating and dealing with stress — a concept not even applied to humans at work until the 1970s.
Seventy-eight per cent of employers believe work-related stress is one of their top health-risk concerns, according to a 2006 study by Buffett & Company Worksite Wellness.
Other studies estimate, at any one time, up to 10 per cent of the workforce is off on stress leave and about one-third of short-term disability claims are related to stress and mental health.
As the world goes faster and requires more, I can’t help but wonder where the limits are — or if there are any limits at all.
The human condition can only be pushed so far, and we have seen what happens when it is pushed past the brink. Slater’s case is one of the more humorous, but there are others that have resulted in disaster. The Ontario Glove incident in 1992 — where Patrick Dombroskie, a worker who was disciplined, shot and killed three people at a plant in Waterloo, Ont. — comes to mind.
Would we actually need all of these expensive wellness and health plans if we focused more on work-life balance? Could we save not only on the financial costs but the human toll as well?
Rick Filsinger is manager of human resource services at The Walter Fedy Partnership, an architecture, engineering and construction services firm in Kitchener, Ont. He can be reached at (519) 576-2150 ext. 204 or visit www.twfp.com for more information.
