You don’t need to be out of work to feel the stress of high unemployment.
Sure you might be working longer hours, taking on more responsibilities, maybe putting off vacation time. But hey! You’re lucky to even have a job. right?
Maybe not.
Here you can listen to the podcast: Jobless not the only ones hit by downturn
“That’s exactly what your boss tells you when your raise is one percent,” Janice Howell told KUT. “At the same time your insurance went up two percent, you know your gas that you use to get to work has gone up. Your food has gone up. So you really are reversing.”
Howell is an accountant. She’s been at the same company for 27 years and her experience working through the economic downturn might sound familiar to some.
“A lady retired a couple years ago” Howell said, “and they said they were not going to back-fill the position so they distributed the work. Then a situation came up. Someone had to be on medical leave for a while so they did fill that position but that person was brought in at a lower rate.”
Now Howell says, it’s not uncommon for her to leave work at 7 AM and not be home until 7 PM. Experts say Howell’s story is all too common.
“The pressure and the tensions for people are enormous,” said Professor Dawna Ballard.
Ballard researches work-life balance at UT-Austin. She says more work for less money has become the “new normal” for many Americans.
“Not using vacation time, not using sick time, coming to work when you’re sick, all sorts of personal quality of life needs that they might have, they tend to subjugate them during these times because of fear that there’s a hundred people in line ready to take this job,” said Ballard.
Ballard says that’s only exacerbated when employees are told they should feel lucky to have a job in the first place.
And a heavier work load isn’t the only thing that’s begun weighing down many workers.
“One of the issues that we see is pretty common after layoffs with people that remain, is a survivors syndrome. They feel guilt that they are still there with a job,” Donna Galatas,CEO of a Dallas-based Human Resources consultancy, told KUT.
All of the varied pressures on America’s workforce have led Galatas to a frightening conclusion.
“We expect that we’ll see a lot of increase in things like workplace violence. Because when the stress levels get so high. It’s really hard to remain objective in the decision making processes,” said Galatas.
Even with that dire prediction aside, Dawna Ballad at UT says piling more and more work on an already overburden workforce makes little sense financially.
“The research shows that actually well rested mentally clear employees are more productive. What’s good for your employees is typically good for you,” said Ballard.
It’s a sentiment shared by Accountant Janice Howell.
“I’m a very good worker,” said Howell. “I multi-task, I can do almost everything in the office. But it would be nice to say ‘hey, you’ve done a great job. We’re gonna give you a five percent raise now!”
She laughed at the thought of it.
Jobless not the only ones hit by downturn by Mose Buchele
