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You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/aug/24/britain-work-makes-you-ill-jobs
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| The stress of low-paid work is making our country sick | The stress of low-paid work is making our country sick |
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| On Tuesday Heather left her desk, locked herself into a toilet cubicle and wept for 30 minutes, covering her mouth with a fistful of toilet paper to avoid being heard by her colleagues. For the last year, the 26-year-old has been having nightmares about her workplace, and has been signed off with depression on and off for the past four months. The Glasgow customer service call centre she works in has a high turnover of staff, who are often signed off with anxiety and depression, and the constant management warnings about being laid off if calls aren’t dealt with in strict timeframes are massively stressful for staff on zero-hours contracts with barely any employment rights. | On Tuesday Heather left her desk, locked herself into a toilet cubicle and wept for 30 minutes, covering her mouth with a fistful of toilet paper to avoid being heard by her colleagues. For the last year, the 26-year-old has been having nightmares about her workplace, and has been signed off with depression on and off for the past four months. The Glasgow customer service call centre she works in has a high turnover of staff, who are often signed off with anxiety and depression, and the constant management warnings about being laid off if calls aren’t dealt with in strict timeframes are massively stressful for staff on zero-hours contracts with barely any employment rights. |
| Heather’s experience isn’t unusual. Researchers from Manchester University this month released research showing poor-quality jobs are actually worse for mental health than unemployment. Adults who transitioned from unemployment into low-paid work had elevated risks for a number of health issues, especially chronic stress. | Heather’s experience isn’t unusual. Researchers from Manchester University this month released research showing poor-quality jobs are actually worse for mental health than unemployment. Adults who transitioned from unemployment into low-paid work had elevated risks for a number of health issues, especially chronic stress. |
| Prior to her call centre job, Heather was unemployed for two years after a slipped disc made her job caring for a disabled couple physically impossible. “I often felt miserable and useless, being unable to find work, endlessly sitting through interviews and never even getting a rejection email, just silence,” she tells me. “But now I honestly think it was preferable to how I feel now.” Speaking on the phone from the bus she takes to work, Heather admits that an anxiety attack before she left the house left her vomiting – an increasingly common occurrence as the pressure of the job weighs ever more heavily on her. | Prior to her call centre job, Heather was unemployed for two years after a slipped disc made her job caring for a disabled couple physically impossible. “I often felt miserable and useless, being unable to find work, endlessly sitting through interviews and never even getting a rejection email, just silence,” she tells me. “But now I honestly think it was preferable to how I feel now.” Speaking on the phone from the bus she takes to work, Heather admits that an anxiety attack before she left the house left her vomiting – an increasingly common occurrence as the pressure of the job weighs ever more heavily on her. |
| The idea that unemployment is more detrimental to long-term health than any kind of work is simply false, the Manchester researchers found. The received wisdom that work is intrinsically beneficial and preferable to worklessness simply does not hold up in today’s employment market. The study focused on 1,000 people between the ages of 35 and 75 who were unemployed in 2009-2010, tracking their self-reported health and chronic stress levels – measured through blood tests examining hormones and markers of stress – in the following years. Chronic stress was clearly higher for adults who moved into poor-quality work than for those who remained unemployed. | The idea that unemployment is more detrimental to long-term health than any kind of work is simply false, the Manchester researchers found. The received wisdom that work is intrinsically beneficial and preferable to worklessness simply does not hold up in today’s employment market. The study focused on 1,000 people between the ages of 35 and 75 who were unemployed in 2009-2010, tracking their self-reported health and chronic stress levels – measured through blood tests examining hormones and markers of stress – in the following years. Chronic stress was clearly higher for adults who moved into poor-quality work than for those who remained unemployed. |
| The UK is facing a crisis of health and quality of work: the decline of industry and casualisation of the workforce has led to a boom in jobs that are high stress, low paid and now, it seems, actively harmful. | The UK is facing a crisis of health and quality of work: the decline of industry and casualisation of the workforce has led to a boom in jobs that are high stress, low paid and now, it seems, actively harmful. |
| For five years Luke worked night shifts in an office job in Bristol while his partner worked during the day. The shift patterns drastically affected his day-to-day life, and the pay was not enough to offset the personal costs of the work. “I lost the ability to sleep at night during my time off, and it became very difficult to live a normal life outside of work. I was generally more ill than I had been before, picking up bugs and the common cold much more often,” Luke says. “In retrospect I realise it affected my mental health: I was moodier, and more prone to depression. I now view it as having lost most of my twenties.” He now cares for his daughter full time while his partner works. | For five years Luke worked night shifts in an office job in Bristol while his partner worked during the day. The shift patterns drastically affected his day-to-day life, and the pay was not enough to offset the personal costs of the work. “I lost the ability to sleep at night during my time off, and it became very difficult to live a normal life outside of work. I was generally more ill than I had been before, picking up bugs and the common cold much more often,” Luke says. “In retrospect I realise it affected my mental health: I was moodier, and more prone to depression. I now view it as having lost most of my twenties.” He now cares for his daughter full time while his partner works. |
| This week NHS England announced a plan for a Healthy Towns scheme to offer residents in several areas of the country incentives to keep fit. Locals who run, walk or use outdoor gyms in certain areas will be able to earn rewards by tracking their activity using downloadable apps. Money off supermarket shopping, free cinema tickets and discounts on sports gear are among the carrots offered to people who opt to up their activity level. The scheme’s architects hope that incentivising exercise will help combat obesity, diabetes and heart disease and illnesses that can be curbed through lifestyle changes. The idea is a commendable one, and aims to make activity easier through design changes in architecture and infrastructure, making towns and housing developments more exercise friendly, with outdoor gyms, running tracks and free bicycles for locals to use. | This week NHS England announced a plan for a Healthy Towns scheme to offer residents in several areas of the country incentives to keep fit. Locals who run, walk or use outdoor gyms in certain areas will be able to earn rewards by tracking their activity using downloadable apps. Money off supermarket shopping, free cinema tickets and discounts on sports gear are among the carrots offered to people who opt to up their activity level. The scheme’s architects hope that incentivising exercise will help combat obesity, diabetes and heart disease and illnesses that can be curbed through lifestyle changes. The idea is a commendable one, and aims to make activity easier through design changes in architecture and infrastructure, making towns and housing developments more exercise friendly, with outdoor gyms, running tracks and free bicycles for locals to use. |
| But reasons for low levels of activity are myriad: for Luke, playing football became impossible because he had to sleep while his friends played after work and at weekends. For Heather, anxiety and feeling emotionally drained means she struggles to find the energy for a jog in the evenings. Having insufficient help when caring for two people led to her back injury, which continues to limit her activity and causes significant flare-ups of pain. For both of them, work barely altered their finances compared with unemployment, yet made them physically ill. | But reasons for low levels of activity are myriad: for Luke, playing football became impossible because he had to sleep while his friends played after work and at weekends. For Heather, anxiety and feeling emotionally drained means she struggles to find the energy for a jog in the evenings. Having insufficient help when caring for two people led to her back injury, which continues to limit her activity and causes significant flare-ups of pain. For both of them, work barely altered their finances compared with unemployment, yet made them physically ill. |
| The Conservative manifesto at the general election repeated the party’s mantra that work is the best route out of poverty. But for millions of people, this simply isn’t true. The majority of households in poverty are in work, and the poor quality and stress of the work they are doing is making the country sick. | The Conservative manifesto at the general election repeated the party’s mantra that work is the best route out of poverty. But for millions of people, this simply isn’t true. The majority of households in poverty are in work, and the poor quality and stress of the work they are doing is making the country sick. |
| The Conservative manifesto repeated that work is the best route out of poverty: this simply isn’t true | The Conservative manifesto repeated that work is the best route out of poverty: this simply isn’t true |
| Moralising over the inherent virtue of work may have held some sway in the past, but with the fragmenting of employment rights, the rise of the precariat, the proliferation of zero-hours contracts and the stagnation of wages since the recession, being in work is often worse for people, in terms of health and quality of life, than unemployment. Most people, given the choice between unemployment and work, would plump for the latter, in the hope of financial reward, escaping poverty, and even gaining status – and because being out of work is teeth-grindingly dull and caustic to individual self-worth. | Moralising over the inherent virtue of work may have held some sway in the past, but with the fragmenting of employment rights, the rise of the precariat, the proliferation of zero-hours contracts and the stagnation of wages since the recession, being in work is often worse for people, in terms of health and quality of life, than unemployment. Most people, given the choice between unemployment and work, would plump for the latter, in the hope of financial reward, escaping poverty, and even gaining status – and because being out of work is teeth-grindingly dull and caustic to individual self-worth. |
| But for Luke and Heather, work created more problems than it solved. When Luke and his partner were expecting their daughter, the pair calculated that when commuting costs, child benefit and childcare costs were taken into account, they would be only £100 a month better off if Luke continued to work instead of staying at home with the baby. It seemed a small price to pay for a much better life; and while childcare is occasionally monotonous and lonely, he gets to spend time with his daughter, and more time with his partner and friends, and is far happier as a result. For their family, more stringent budgeting was preferable to staying in a job: on balance, work didn’t pay. Forfeiting £25 a week is a small price to pay for better mental and physical health. | But for Luke and Heather, work created more problems than it solved. When Luke and his partner were expecting their daughter, the pair calculated that when commuting costs, child benefit and childcare costs were taken into account, they would be only £100 a month better off if Luke continued to work instead of staying at home with the baby. It seemed a small price to pay for a much better life; and while childcare is occasionally monotonous and lonely, he gets to spend time with his daughter, and more time with his partner and friends, and is far happier as a result. For their family, more stringent budgeting was preferable to staying in a job: on balance, work didn’t pay. Forfeiting £25 a week is a small price to pay for better mental and physical health. |
| • Dawn Foster is a Guardian columnist | • Dawn Foster is a Guardian columnist |
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| Work & careers | Work & careers |
| Zero-hours contracts | Zero-hours contracts |
| Work-life balance | Work-life balance |
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