This news aggregator site highlights South African labour news from a wide range of internet and print sources. Each posting has a synopsis of the source article, together with a link or reference to the original. Postings cover the range of labour related matters from industrial relations to generalist human resources.
BusinessLive reports that three-quarters of workers surveyed by the SA Depression and Anxiety Group (Sadag) say they think about work constantly and cannot “switch off” in their free time.
The findings highlight the immense stress that work generates for many of the respondents who were drawn from Sadag’s online community. The survey was not nationally representative, but nevertheless offered useful insight into the work-related stressors confronting participants, said the study’s author, Bronwyn Dworzanowski-Venter, a senior research associate at the University of Johannesburg. The majority (83%) of the 963 respondents were women and more than half (54%) of the participants lived in Gauteng. Sadag’s survey found 61% of people would quit their job if they could afford to do so, and though half (47%) had workplace assistance programmes only 28% of respondents had used them. A total of 38% said they were afraid of losing their jobs. “Work is a constant stressor, across all sectors. This is a global phenomenon, but in SA there is a sense you are lucky to be employed, and if you don’t like the conditions, there’s the door,” Dworzanowski-Venter pointed out. More than half (52%) of respondents said they had been diagnosed with a mental health condition, namely, 32% had been diagnosed with depression, 25% with stress, 18% with generalised anxiety disorder, 13% with burnout and 10% with trauma. Yet relatively few respondents said they had been able to take time off for mental health. The survey findings were released ahead of World Mental Health Day on 10 October, which this year focuses on mental health at work.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Tamar Kahn at BusinessLive
Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page