Paraphrasing Truman, I guess the message of the New Economy is: if you can't
take the heat, get out of the office.
==============
DESK RAGE SPURS
STRESSED-OUT WORKERS
TO VIOLENCE IN OFFICE
Thursday,November 16,2000
New York Post
By DENISE BUFFA
First road rage. Now desk rage.
Stress and long hours are driving American
workers nuts in the office, a new survey
shows.
One in 10 workers say employees have come
to blows because of stress at work. And 42
percent say there's yelling and verbal abuse
in their offices, the survey of 1,305 U.S.
workers shows.
Pressure to produce - along with unrealistic
goals and rude clients and colleagues - also
is causing tears, insomnia and illness among
workers, the survey also found.
"Productivity in America is soaring - but at a
price of a growing 'desk rage,'" says Sean
Hutchinson, president of Integra Realty
Resources, the New York real-estate
advisory and appraisal firm that released the
survey yesterday.
"As employee shortages continue to boost
individual workloads in many sectors,
employers need to take steps to alleviate
America's growing workplace stress."
Integra launched the study after noticing
people were getting "Dilbertized" - crammed
into cubicles - while evaluating offices in
New York, Philadelphia and San Francisco.
Hutchinson said the firm wondered whether
cramped quarters affected productivity and
morale.
The survey, conducted Nov. 3 to Nov. 6 with
the help of Opinion Research Corp.
International of Princeton, N.J., found 12
percent of Americans say they now work in a
cubicle "like the cartoon character Dilbert."
Nearly 30 percent of those surveyed
admitted they themselves have yelled at
co-workers because of stress. But only 2
percent say they've gotten so wigged out
they've struck a co-worker.
The survey also found that:
* 23 percent of American workers say they
have been driven to tears because of
workplace stress;
* 14 percent say they work where machinery
or equipment has been damaged as a result of
workplace rage;
* One in eight say they've called in sick
because of stress at work; and
* One in five has quit a job because of stress.
What's driving everyone around the bend?
More than half of those surveyed cited
having to work more than 12 hours a day to
get the job done.
Besides outbursts, the survey found that
stress has caused 34 percent of American
workers to lose sleep, 11 percent to drink
heavily, and 16 percent to smoke
excessively.
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Copyright 2000 NYP Holdings, Inc. All rights reserved.
