For Your Health,

Odd Health Risk If You're NOT Laid Off
If you're one of the survivors of a corporate downsizing who gets to keep his or her job, you may not be the lucky one after all. New research from Finland shows that the employees who are not laid off have double the risk of death from cardiovascular disease, reports New Scientist. The cause? Stress.

If you think your boss treats you unfairly, look out. A mean boss could be killing you. Really.

The study: Researchers from the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health studied the employer and death records of 22,430 government employees from 1991 to 2000. Between 1991 and 1993, unemployment in Finland nearly tripled to 16.6 percent before a national recession ended in 1996, notes New Scientist.


The results: Employees whose companies laid off more than 18 percent of the staff were five times as likely to die of cardiovascular disease in the next four years as employees whose companies had no layoffs. In addition, those who survived the most severe corporate downsizing had more health-related absences than workers whose companies didn't reduce staff.


"We should take work stress seriously," study leader Jussi Vahtera told New Scientist. Skeleton crews left behind after massive layoffs have "more work, less control over the work, and more job insecurity." The study findings were published in the British Medical Journal.


courtesy wmconnect news