7 Work Realities That Are Slowly Killing Us

Could work be killing your employees?

Although most of your employees don’t work in harm’s way, many work realities could be killing them on the job.

And HR wants to minimize any risk for employees, colleagues and themselves!

Researchers have found several workplace norms — such as Zoom meetings and after-hours emails — that are harmful to employees’ health. And, unfortunately, there’s proof that too much of these realities can be deadly.

Research Behind Deadly Work Realities

“This is a serious and substantial issue,” says Jeffrey Pfeffer, a Stanford professor and author of the books Dying for a Paycheck and The 7 Rules of Power. “The workplace is, according to our estimates, the sixth leading cause of death in the United States, and unlike other leading causes of death in the United States, is completely preventable.”

More specifically, according to Pfeffer, things such as long hours, job insecurity and lack of work-life balance contribute to at least 120,000 deaths each year and account for up to $190 billion in health care costs.

Stress is the result of most of the realities that are harming employees in ways that are often not obvious to the eye. These stressors increase the nation’s health care costs by 5% to 8%, Pfeffer’s research found.

More specifically, here are seven work realities that — in excess — are harmful to employees’ well-being.

Dangerous Reality 1: Zoom

In a study recently published in MIT’s Sloan Management Review, researchers found Zoom Fatigue is a real thing — not just a buzz phrase that sounded cool in the wake of the pandemic.

The researchers monitored brain and heart functions during video calls and found that those calls drain people more than face-to-face meetings.

Virtual Meeting Fatigue can be serious business because a recent Robert Walters study found a third of professionals still have as many as four virtual meetings a day.

Fixes: The MIT researchers suggested mixing in audio-only meetings when in-person meetings aren’t a possibility. Another solution: Stick to one virtual meeting platform — for instance, just Zoom, Teams or Google Meet. Mixing them up causes extra strain.

Dangerous Reality 2: After-Hour Email

Ever hear that nothing good happens after 2 a.m.? Parents of 20-somethings often tell their children this so they don’t stay out after the bars close.

Something similar could be said about email. Nothing really happens after 5 p.m. But employees increasingly feel compelled to check and respond to email after hours because they think they need to or are expected to.

That “always on” mentality leads to burnout and mental and physical ailments.

Fix: Set the standard. Leaders need to stop sending emails after hours (there are ways to delay the send until morning if you are working when others aren’t) and expecting responses.

Dangerous Reality 3: Work/Life Conflict

We talk about work/life balance all the time. Companies tout it in their recruiting strategy. But people still haven’t achieved it. What happens is that people face family-to-work conflict and work-to-family spillover.

Employees feel pulled heavily in both directions, and while there may never be a perfect balance, they need to feel less conflicted.

Fix: Help employees find the sweet spot between work/life integration and work/life balance. Work with them to understand and accept either a work/life integration, which calls for no distinction between the two, or work/life balance, which separates the two.

Dangerous Reality 4: Hours, Hours and More Hours

Pfeffer’s research found that working long hours increased mortality by almost 20%.

Related: A paper published with authors from several institutions — including the World Health Organization — suggests that three-quarters of a million people die from heart disease and stroke due to working long hours every year.

Long hours were considered 55 or more per week. Research authors believe overwork is the single largest risk factor for occupational disease.

Fix: It’s almost always understandable that people will need to work a little extra once in a while. But it’s critical for HR and front-line managers to ensure employees are not working more than 40 hours week after week.

Dangerous Reality 5: Lack of Control

Autonomy is the name of the healthy game. Employees who don’t have any control over their work environment — as in, they don’t have say in their hours, location, ability to manage their work, etc. — are more stressed than those who can control their environment.

“One crucial element of a healthy workplace that any com­pany, in any industry, can provide without breaking the bank—and therefore ought to offer to enhance employee well-­being: job control and autonomy,” Pfeffer says in a post.

Fix: Give employees as much autonomy as possible. Encourage managers to allow employees to make suggestions on how to work more efficiently and try new things. With increased freedom to try something different and succeed or learn from mistakes, employee satisfaction will increase.

Dangerous Reality 6: Lack of Support

When employees don’t have positive relationships — or even better, friendships — at work, they fail to thrive, researchers have found. Without good relationships with their bosses and/or colleagues, employees don’t have the support they need to do well at work. Relationships help with balance.

Fix: We have several solutions on how to encourage — but not force — positive relationships and friendships at work in our post: 1 Thing Every Employee Needs Today: A Friend.

Dangerous Reality 7: Job Insecurity

Job insecurity comes in many forms, and it increases the odds of someone reporting poor health by 50%.

Employees feel insecure when colleagues are laid off or fired, or they aren’t sure if the company is stable. That often leads to economic insecurity because they’re concerned if they’ll have a paycheck and be able to cover their bills.

Fix: In a word, transparency. Employees need to know how the company is performing, how that affects them and their paychecks and where they stand if there is some uncertainty. While the news may not always be good, understanding what’s going on gives them a larger sense of control.