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Expansion in Workforce Associated with Increase in Employee Sick Days

While there are many benefits to be reaped by the worker who is employed during the current economic recovery, a recent study published in The Lancet warns of significant health risks associated with employment in a fast-growing company. 

By: Michael Long

April 13, 2004

In the beginning of the 1990’s, the Swedish economy experienced a sharp increase in unemployment and downsizing.  At the end of the decade, the economy recovered, and many businesses expanded rapidly.  At the same time, long-term sickness and hospitalization increased. 

To reconcile these facts with the belief that a reduction in unemployment and an increase in job security would lead to increased well-being among the workforce, investigators from the Swedish National Institute for Psychosocial Medicine, led by Dr. Hugo Westerlund, analyzed medical and employment records from 24,000 participants of the Swedish work environment study, which collected data from 1989 to 1999.  The study, published in the April 10 edition of The Lancet, measured incidence of long-term sickness, defined as medically certified absence from work for 90 days or longer in a given year. 

If the individual’s workforce expanded by 18% or more, the individual was considered to have experienced a large expansion, with more than 8% increase but less than 18% considered a moderate expansion.  Downsizing was defined similarly, with a reduction in workforce size from 8% to 18% considered a moderate downsizing and more than 18% reduction a large downsizing.  The study measured cumulative experience of workplace expansion or downsizing from 1990 to 1996, controlling for age and social class. 

The analysis found that large expansion of an individual’s workplace was equally associated with the amount of long-term sickness as moderate downsizing.  Moderate expansion, with increased job security and possibly less stress, was associated with a reduction in sickness. 

Study authors reported, “That the effects of rapid expansion on health are negative is somewhat surprising, since expansion is usually thought to imply high job security and a positive, successful context, which should promote good health.”

In a related editorial, Lancet editors comments on the human toll of corporate expansion, “This re-engineering of corporations may sound progressive, especially to shareholders, but the apparent price workers pay is an undercurrent of anxiety and diminished loyalty and commitment, their morale eroded by a chaotic and often dysfunctional work environment in which individuals are devalued or discounted altogether.”

While the study was quick to point out that Sweden’s workforce is unique and that the results of the study should not be extended to other countries, one has to wonder what effect an improving American economy will have on the health of our workforce.  In a recent opinion-editorial, New York Times columnist Bob Herbert commented on a report from the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University that found, for the first time since World War II, a higher percentage of the increase in national income during the recent recovery from recession has gone to corporate profits than to labor.

While an expanding company and improving economy will most likely lead to greater opportunity for individuals and for companies, corporations should be aware of the risk to their profits in the form of possible increasing sick-leave time due to poorly managed expansion.  Workers should also be aware that the opportunities presented by rapid expansion may pose serious health risks.  Get the promotion, but make sure that you are taking care of your health in the meantime.

Reference:

“Workplace expansion, long-term sickness absence, and hospital admission,” The Lancet: Volume 363, Number 9416. April 10, 2004.