Arthur Cordell wrote,
>Paraphrasing Truman, I guess the message of the New Economy is: if you can't
>take the heat, get out of the office.
Or quoting Marx . . .
"In our day, everything seems pregnant with its contrary. Machinery gifted
with the wonderful power of shortening and fructifying human labour, we
behold starving and overworking it. The new-fangled sources of wealth, by
some weird spell, are turned into sources of want. . . All our invention and
progress seem to result in endowing material forces with intellectual life,
and in stultifying human life into a material force."
>
>==============
>
> 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.
>
>
> New York Post, nypostonline.com,
> nypost.com, and newyorkpost.com
> are registered trademarks of NYP Holdings, Inc.
> Copyright 2000 NYP Holdings, Inc. All rights reserved.
>
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Tom Walker
Sandwichman and Deconsultant
Bowen Island, BC
