Worse to be “Job Insecure” Than Unemployed
In an article I read on LiveScience yesterday, an interesting point was made. Namely, that insecurity regarding one’s employment situation is worse for one’s health than actual unemployment. From the study:
Based on how participants rated their own physical and mental health, we found that people who were persistently concerned about losing their jobs reported significantly worse overall health in both studies and were more depressed in one of the studies than those who had actually lost and regained their jobs recently
Upon reading this I found myself thinking…”you know, that actually makes sense.” You see, the sense of impending doom that goes along with job insecurity is highly stressful. Being unemployed, on the other hand, is stressful, but one is concerned more with having to take a particular action (getting a job) than trying to *avoid* a particular action (and one that cannot be controlled).
I think it speaks to our nature as humans to want to have control over a situation. The study went on to note that something referred to as “chronic job insecurity” (which sounds like a health problem itself), is a better predictor of poor health than hypertension or smoking.
That’s right – being insecure about one’s job could be worse for you than smoking, drinking, overeating and the accompanying hypertension that results. Of course, if you’re dealing with job-related stress by drinking or smoking, that’s a hell of a “double whammy.”
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