The number of IT professionals considering leaving their job due to workplace stress has jumped from 69% last year to 73%, underlining the increasingly challenging business landscape in the UK and the growing emphasis being placed on IT to help businesses grow, thrive and compete.

Key findings include:

• 68% of all IT administrators surveyed consider their job stressful.
• 21% of those surveyed work between three and five hours of overtime in order to keep on top of their workload. 12% work eight to 10 hours a week. In total, almost half (49%) are working six or more hours overtime a week.
• Over a third (35%) of respondents have missed social functions due to work issues. A further 30% of those surveyed have missed out on planned family time because of work demands.
• Over 63% of staff surveyed feel they are either as stressed or more stressed at work than their friends and colleagues.
• 28% of IT admins point to a lack of budget and staff needed to get the job done as their primary reasons for job stress.
• Of the 73% of respondents considering changing their role, 36% do so on a regular basis.
• IT staff from companies sized between 100 and 249 employees are most likely to quit their current role due to stress. Staff from the largest firms surveyed (more than 500 employees) are least likely to quit their role due to work stress.
• The top three sources of stress for IT admins are: management (35%), tight deadlines (19%) and lack of budget (17%). Interestingly enough, users dropped from the second biggest stress cause in 2012 (21%) to only the fourth biggest cause (16%).

Although users are not causing IT staff as much stress as they used to, it isn’t stopping them from creating moments that make IT admins want to tear their hair out in frustration. The survey asked IT admins what the most ridiculous thing was they had seen an end user do.

Responses included stories of users complaining their mouse wasn’t working when they were trying to use a foam stress squeezer, a user thinking there was a ghost in her PC when IT support staff remoted into it to deliver support, a user who reported the Windows version as being “Patio Doors”, and stories of users who folded up a 5.25inch floppy disc in order to fit it into a 3.5inch disc drive.

The most common issues were users complaining of hardware not working, only for IT to find the device was either not switched on or not plugged in, along with users spilling tea, coffee and other beverages over their computer or keyboard and then denying they had done it.

Of great concern is the impact that work stress is having on health and relationships. While a total of 80% of participants revealed that their job had negatively impacted their personal life in some way, the survey discovered some significant personal impact:

• 18% have suffered stress-related health issues due to their work, although this is a stark improvement on 2012 (29%).
• Another 18% also revealed they had experienced a strained or failed relationship due to work stress.
• 19% do not feel great physically as a result of stress, up from 16% last year.
• 28% have lost sleep due to work.
• Just over one-quarter (26%) have had to cancel commitments to family and friends due to work.

“The increasing importance of IT in the workplace — and with it, the critical responsibility placed on IT professionals – makes it impossible to overlook in this year’s survey figures,” said Phil Bousfield, GM IT Operations at GFI Software. “Companies are more reliant than ever on IT innovation, uptime and speed of deployment, and thus, IT staff are under extreme pressure to deliver for the benefit of the whole business. We all know that a happy workforce is a productive workforce, so it is concerning that so many of our survey respondents are stressed to the point that they are actively considering leaving their current role in order to achieve a better work/life balance. For SMBs in particular, the research is a stark reminder that IT staff need to be supported and given the right resources – staff, budget and technology – to do their jobs well and that management need to be an enabler, not an obstacle for IT progress.”

A new clinic in the Hollenburg district of Krems has opened up specifically to deal with people suffering from burnout. Patients will be taken from all over the country who are suffering from the effects of stress.

Managers at the new project say that the fact there is an urgent need for their services is not in debate. They said that currently 40% of the people who go into early retirement do so as a result of psychiatric problems.

The owner of the clinic Guenter Nebel from the company Sanlas holding said: “The situation in modern society with the requirements on the individual from work and in the change in partner relationships is a challenge for every individual. The result of such pressure on individuals can lead to a variety of problems from panic attacks through to an inability to function, tiredness and ultimately a nervous breakdown.”

Patients are expected to sign in for a six week course in the 150 bed clinic. Medical director Werner Brosch said: “The main area that we aim to work with is the mental processes through psychotherapy. We are particularly keen on group therapy in which the patients have the chance to go in another direction and come up with solutions that will help their situation.”

But the clinic is also going to be part of an economic impetus for the region.

General director Gabriela Eichhorn said: “The developments in this area in the last 2 to 3 years has showed that there is heavy investment in similar initiatives. And we have seen studies that clearly show every euro invested in rehabilitation is three euros paid back.”

Even local mayor inge Rinke from the People’s party welcomed the new clinic – saying that it would not only help people with a return to health but would also have a positive economic influence on the region.

Original Source:  http://austriantimes.at/news/Business/2012-09-21/44313/Burn_out_clinic_opens_for_business

A survey by Regus,  provider of flexible workplace, shows that over 16,000 professionals across 80 countries have declared that they are more stressed with the disruptive office pressure and working environment.   Madhusudan Thakur tells you how you can make your workplace friendlier and healthier by providing freedom of working hours

According to a survey, workers across the globe are getting more and more stressed.  Instead of regaining their peace of mind and tranquility, these workers  report that, two years after joining a profession, their stress levels were up and rising. How can this possibly be? And what new destabilising forces are at play to cause this increase?

The answer is complex and coloured with a host of local factors that range from eurozone instability, to difficulties in managing the speed of change in economies where obsolete hierarchical structures frustrate the youth and entrepreneurs. There is also the age-old struggle which sees women in emerging economies engaged in reconciling traditional housekeeping roles with the demands of the contemporary workplace.

And stress is an insidious enemy affecting sufferers with a range of problems — sleepless nights to more serious conditions such as high blood pressure, heart conditions, diabetes, asthma and skin ailments. But ultimately, stress can also affect a company’s bottom line. As stress related conditions, reportedly accounting for between 75 and 90 per cent of doctor’s visits, turn into sick days or, worse, into chronic conditions, businesses are likely to see their productivity drop. Employers also risk losing some of their best staff to burnout as the demands on these high achievers grow unchecked and long periods of constant stress deplete them of motivation and interest.

The latest research by Regus surveying over 16,000 professionals across more than 80 countries came out with its findings recently. According to which a number of triggers are driving up stress globally, with the result that half of the workers declare that they are more stressed than last year. Any escalation in stress should be regarded as highly negative and dangerous, particularly as the global economy is indeed emerging from a difficult patch. Over the past four years many workers will have experienced forced changes in career, personal financial difficulties and second-hand stress from the tense surrounding environment. Any more stress could be the straw that breaks the camel’s back.

The research highlights that in India, 51 per cent of the respondents have experienced rising stress levels and are close to snapping point. The number is particularly worrisome. In western economies the future of the euro and dangerously high level of Government debt have been a huge cause of concern for most countries. A slight slowdown in China dampened spirits further abroad, affecting Germany for example, and India has suffered from lack of foreign investment as a result of the difficulties in Europe. All these are examples of local reasons that combined with international economic issues can drive stress up for workers.

In order to tackle stress at the root, the main triggers need to be identified. Interestingly, Indian respondents revealed that main sources of stress were work (51per cent), personal finances (50 per cent) and customer/clients (41 per cent).

Jobs are getting workers down in Mexico and China where over 70 per cent of respondents reported that their job was a major stress trigger. In Europe, French and German workers were most likely to report that their job was a cause of anxiety, and even in Australia almost half agreed that they suffered from job related stress.

Without a doubt, stressed-out workers are unhappy and unhealthy workers too, so businesses that want to help their staff lead more rewarding lives cannot fail to analyse and tackle levels of stress within their organisation. Yet the heavy toll of stress falls not only on workers, but also on businesses as they find their staff is unable to perform as required, needs more sick leave and is less efficient.

Relationships with customers were also an important stress-trigger. It is likely that in an unstable economy currency fluctuation and late payment, reportedly representing 30 per cent of all invoices in 2011 according to Atradius (the world’s largest trade credit insurers), increased tensions in customer relationships, affecting both the workers directly involved in chasing payments and managing cash-flow and others who simply perceived instability in their work environment. Problems with customers were particularly important to workers in emerging economies where exponential growth requires rapid and continued injection of funds.

But there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Although the workplace is the main source of stress it is also the place where important stress-busting changes can be made. 72 per cent of Indian respondents report ed that flexible working practices are a stress-reducer, highlighting that businesses that wish to position themselves at the forefront of improving workers’ lives have a simple solution ready at hand.

By allowing workers the freedom to manage their own working hours or location, businesses can relieve worker stress but also take an active part in making the working environment more family friendly. More than half of respondents (58 per cent) confirm that flexible working is more family friendly and the benefits go hand-in-hand with stress reduction; working parents who are able to choose when and where they work can reduce the strain of reconciling work and family life, cutting stress and spending more time with their loved ones.

With two fifth respondents reporting that flexible working is cheaper than fixed office working and the vast majority confirming that it improves productivity (77 per cent), businesses cannot fail to take note of the win-win solution offered by flexible working, healthier more productive staff at a lower cost.

The writer is regional Vice-President,South Asia, Regus

By:  MICHAEL WASILEWSKI AND ALTHEA OLSON

Ambitious business owners face a delicate balancing act. You want your team (and yourself) to work as hard as possible, but you want to avoid the serious long-term decline in productivity and employee turnover that burnout brings. How hard should you push? What measures should you take to prevent getting burned out?

These are questions former Google [GOOG 727.55    9.27  (+1.29%)   ] exec and much chattered about new Yahoo! [YHOO  15.915    0.01  (+0.06%)   ] CEO Marissa Mayer has an interesting perspective on. Mayer—who clearly must know a thing or two about extreme hours—believes burnout is a myth. It simply doesn’t exist, in her opinion.

So what is this thing we perceive as burnout? Not the fall-out from working too much, she says, but another subtler problem we mistake for burnout. Speaking at the 92nd Street Y in New York she explained her views, Fins.com reports:

“I don’t really believe in burnout. A lot of people work really hard for decades and decades, like Winston Churchill and Einstein,” says Mayer, a former Google  engineer and one of Google’s earliest employees.

Avoiding burnout has nothing to do with making sure you eat three square meals a day or get eight hours of sleep a night. “Burnout is about resentment,” she said. “It’s about knowing what matters to you so much that if you don’t get it that you’re resentful.”

If burnout isn’t about long hours (Mayer reportedly spent 130 of the available 168 hours a week at work in the early days of Google, a feat, she said, that required strategic showering), how can bosses put this insight to use? Mayer recently elaborated on the practicalities of her philosophy on burnout to author Hanna Rosin for her new book, “The End of Men: And the Rise of Women.”

(Read more: Mayer Gets $70 Million Pay Package to Lead Yahoo)

Mayer reiterated to Rosin that people “‘can work arbitrarily hard for an arbitrary amount of time,’ but they will become resentful if work makes them miss things that are really important to them.” So she makes sure that she knows what is most important to those working under her and insists they have time in their schedule for those things. Mayer offers Rosin an anecdote from her Google days to illustrate:

Katy loved her job and she loved her team and she didn’t mind staying late to help out. What was bothering Katy was something entirely different. Often, Katy confessed, she showed up late at her children’s events because a meeting went overly long, for no important reason other than meetings tend to go long. And she hated having her children watch her walk in late. For Mayer, this was a no-brainer. She instituted a Katy-tailored rule. If Katy had told her earlier that she had to leave at four to get to a soccer game, then Mayer would make sure Katy could leave at four. Even if there was only five minutes left to a meeting, even if Google cofounder Sergey Brin himself was mid sentence and expecting an answer from Katy, Mayer would say “Katy’s gotta go” and Katy would walk out the door and answer the questions later by email after the kids were in bed.

Could similar resentment-busting measures at your business make burn out as rare as unicorns and fairies, or is this view of burn out only true for a select group of highly ambitious workers?

Original Source:  http://www.cnbc.com/id/49060108

Doctors are experiencing burnout at higher rates than other professionals – according to new research published in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

Researchers surveyed 7,288 physicians nationwide and found that 45.8% reported experiencing at least one symptom of serious burnout, such as emotional exhaustion, depersonalization and a low sense of personal accomplishment.

Study author Tait D. Shanafelt, MD, a professor of medicine in the Dept. of Internal Medicine at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn, said burnout is leading more physicians to retire early or shift away from clinical practice.

In their weekly conversation, WHYY’s behavioral health reporter Maiken Scott and psychologist Dan Gottlieb discuss this research and the impact of burnout on medical care.

Gottlieb said that burnout could contribute to worse patient care, increased medical errors and loss of well-trained and experienced staff.

I’ve walked out on one job in my life.

I had been in NYC for just over a year when I saw a Craigslist ad for an office manager/executive assistant for a fashion designer management agency in SoHo. I immediately jumped at the opportunity to work in fashion.

Although the book version of “The Devil Wears Prada” was already out, I had not read it, and the movie adaptation was still a year away.

Believe it or not, I had zero idea about the stereotypical catty world for which I was about to sign up. When they offered me the position, I gave my current job notice, dusted off my one pair of Jimmy Choo pumps and prepared to take my place in the world of fashion.

I had been making $28,000 at the previous job, and although the new one only paid $2,000 more, it was still more, and the work, I figured, would be far more exciting.

The Good, the Bad and the Fashionable

Admittedly, working in fashion had its perks. I got free shoes and an occasional lunch at Balthazar, a trendy French brasserie downtown … but I also had to deal with incessant screaming phone calls from designers, and the sting of everyone from industry insiders to my own boss questioning my intelligence (he would call me “clearly brainless”).

Making matters worse, I was not psychic.

I was supposed to somehow know my boss never flew American Airlines, never used condiments and had not one, but three phones—when he had never actually given me any of this information. I learned the hard way when I booked his trip to L.A. on American, got his turkey sandwich with mustard and gave out the wrong number to his BlackBerry. Each screw-up resulted in being pulled aside and reamed out for not figuring it all out on my own. I began to doubt myself: Maybe Iwas the idiot he claimed.

RELATED: 9 Signs You’ve Got a Bad Boss

I won’t even get into the female agent who often opened her drawer of enemas and offered me a few to help with my weight problem. I don’t think I have a weight problem.

It was an emotional year, to say the least.

Then Things Got Even Worse: My Breaking Point

Just before Fashion Week in September, things got even worse. The once passive-aggressive ridiculing by my boss had started to take place in the main office, rather than in private. It was as though he got off on berating me out in the open, for everyone—even designers I had followed for years in Vogue—to see.

Every tiny mistake led to him asking if I was deliberately trying to get fired. When I asked for a raise because I was working 10-11 hours a day and was almost always at his beck and call, he literally laughed in my face. I countered that I was making $30,000 and putting up with emotional and mental distress on a daily basis. He suggested I get a therapist like the rest of New York; I politely said I couldn’t afford one.

Halfway through Fashion Week, one of my favorite designers came by the office. That same day, my boss was scheduled to fly to Miami, but his flight, as well as every other one, was canceled due to a hurricane. There was nothing I could do about a natural disaster. But to him, of course, it meant I didn’t try hard enough.

When I broke the news, he launched into a tirade of insults. I watched the interns cower, the other agent roll her eyes and I did everything within my power not to cry. (After I saw “The Devil Wears Prada,” I started to wonder if he was taking tips from it.)

The designer, whom I had long admired, stared in horror and shot me a sympathetic glance. Other than that, no one said a word. I walked back to my desk and told my intern I was going for a walk. As I said it, I had already decided to never step foot in that office again.

As I walked toward the elevator choking back tears, my boss told me to pick him up a Starbucks coffee while I was out. I nodded silently and left.

What Happened After I Walked Out

I went to Starbucks, got myself an iced Americano and proceeded to walk up Broadway to the Flatiron building. I sat down and watched the tourists, thinking about how I would tell my parents what I had done. Even before quitting, I was living paycheck to paycheck. My savings were somewhere around $600.

But in that moment, money wasn’t my greatest concern. I had been so belittled, all I could do was sit there, feel the wooden slats of the bench under me and allow myself to feel freedom instead of fear.

RELATED: Why Women Are Burning Out at Work Before 30

Finally, I got up and headed back to my apartment. On the way home, I received a call from the owner of the company who apologized (very weakly, if we’re to be honest) for my boss’ behavior. He also said I never had a thick enough skin for the job, but he appreciated my hard work and would give me one week’s severance. Not much, but it was something.

I was in no position to haggle. If anything, I was grateful.

My New Lease on Life

After drowning my sorrows in wine that first night, I started my job search with fervor. I also cut costs: no more eating out, no more bars and no more shopping until I got a job.

I didn’t want to tell my parents I had walked out until I had something else lined up. I was hoping we could have a good laugh about it, eventually. I have always found jobs on Craigslist, and once again started my search there. This was before the recession so finding a job wasn’t as difficult as it would be now; after only four interviews, I was offered a job just in time to pay October’s rent.

The job that came next was at a guerrilla marketing company. I was hired to be the office manager, and it was a job I had for over two years before I was eventually let go, along with almost everyone else, because of the recession. Unlike my job in fashion, the marketing company was full of great co-workers, an absent boss (which is always great) and an environment that nurtured our artistic pursuits outside of work.

I made amazing friends, met one of the great loves of my life and learned to have faith in myself again … a difficult task considering the office from which I came. I started a blog based on my office manager experiences, and eventually found the necessary self-esteem to pursue writing as a full-time career after I was laid off with a very generous eight weeks’ severance.

On a good day, I can say things happen for a reason. On a bad day, I don’t know why or how things happen.

While I can say now that having walked out on that fashion job was one of the wisest choices I ever made, I’m not sure I’d be able to say the same thing had the outcome gone in a completely different direction. However, instead of getting into “what if,” I’ll just say having had that job and then leaving it are two important parts of my life.

It also makes for a great story, and as a writer, that’s always a good thing.

Amanda Chatel is a writer based in New York City.

If You’re In This Situation: 

Burnout is real. We get how emotionally taxing it can be to work at a job you hate. If you’re in a similar boat, we urge you to think about a backup plan before making the leap. “It’s best to have another job lined up,” says LearnVest CFP Sophia Bera, “but sometimes you just don’t. If you have a significant other or parents who can support you for the next few months, it’s much easier to quit abruptly. Also, you have got to hustle! Put all your energy into expanding your network and set up as many information interviews as possible.”

In meantime, explore ways to make extra cash. “Post an ad on Craigslist or elance.com so you can get freelance work,” Sophia suggests. “Also, don’t overlook the possibility of serving, bartending or delivering pizzas. These jobs don’t involve working full-time during the day, so you still have plenty of time to look for work.” Of course, many people don’t have family to lean on: That’s why LearnVest always recommends your first financial priority be saving up an emergency fund so you don’t risk going into deep credit card debt, or being unable to pay your bills, should disaster strike.

Here are 5 ways to start an emergency fund, LearnVest’s crash course on savings 101 and what really counts as a financial emergency.

Original Source:  http://www.learnvest.com/2012/09/burnout-101-why-i-walked-out-on-my-job-and-dont-regret-it/

Physician Burnout is a constant, prevalent, looming threat over doctors everywhere. Over the last 20 years surveys have shown an average of 1 in 3 doctors suffering from physician burnout on any given office day – worldwide, regardless of specialty. The question is why?

Yes, the nature of our work is difficult, stressful and draining AND there are other parts to this Venn Diagram of physician burnout – and some of them are hidden.

In my work with hundreds of over stressed physicians I have isolated one of the major invisible causes of physician burnout – the pervasive mental conditioning of our training process.

Call it the “brainwashing” of our medical education if you will

In this article I will show you four “flavors” of this conditioning – how and why they develop and how they contribute to our physician burnout epidemic.

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The Brainwashing of Medical Education

Yes, indeed, we are most certainly brainwashed by our medical education. There is a set of attitudes and behaviors that are expected of us while in training that become subconscious and automatic by the time we are board certified.  These automatic behaviors set us up for physician burnout in private practice.

Here are the four flavors I routinely see in my over stressed physician clients.

NOTE: to most doctors these behavior patterns are invisible and unrecognized. You will see in a second why they virtually guarantee physician burnout in your 40’s and 50’s if they continue to sit in your blind spot.

The Four Horsemen of the Physician Burnout Apocalypse

Here they are in all their glory … see if they feel familiar to you.

=> Workaholic
=> Superhero
=> Emotion Free
=> Lone Ranger

These four behaviors are actually functional – even essential – when we use them to get through a rough night on call or a particularly onerous clinical rotation. However, they go much deeper than that in most doctors.

The process of becoming a doctor is so extremely challenging to most of us that we cannot help but feel our survival is threatened from time to time. So these four behaviors/attitudes get driven into our mental programming as a Survival Mechanism. We learn them at a deep subconscious level and can’t turn them off.

How deeply are we brainwashed?

Basic training in the military is 8 weeks. In that time they can condition an 18 year old to take a bullet on command. Medical education is a minimum of 7 years. (how long did it take you from your first day in medical school to your first day in private practice?) I believe there is no more thorough conditioning program on the planet than becoming a doctor.

If your only tool is a hammer, every thing looks like a nail

– and that is the problem. Not everything in a doctor’s world is a nail … especially after you graduate to private practice and the rest of your life. Physician burnout results when these four become “overused strengths”.

Being a workaholic superhero emotion-free lone ranger is an absolute requirement to make it through a 72 hour shift in your residency and it is NOT a great way to

- Be in a loving relationship

- Raise your kids

- Get your own needs met

- Or live your life

I help my clients see this conditioning when it appears as automatic behavior that is driving their physician burnout …

– when they are using this set of hammers to drive things that are NOT nails.

Here are a few examples:

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=> When your only response to a challenge or “problem” in your practice is to work harder — that is your workaholic programming. I can assure you there are other ways to address almost any practice issue that do NOT involve you personally working harder.

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=> When you feel like every challenge for your patients, your staff, your family and yourself sits on your shoulders and you “should” be able to solve them all — that is your Superhero programming. You are human. You are not a god. Learn to say, “I don’t know the answer to that” or “I wish I could help here, I wonder what you will decide to do?” and let things go that are outside your control. Breathe.

============

=> When you have strong feelings of fear, sadness, anguish, helplessness, love, joy, compassion, empathy … don’t stuff them. That is just your emotion free programming . AND please don’t feel guilty for having them in the first place.You are human, you will have feelings. This is part of what makes life rich, juicy and worth living. Let them flow. Don’t bottle them up. And never be afraid to tell someone what you are feeling in the moment – especially your work team – it lets them know you are not superhuman.

============

=> When you micromanage, can’t let things go and drive you and everyone around you crazy by having to do everything yourself — that is just your Lone Ranger programming. Yes, you are ultimately responsible for the outcomes in your practice (and your life) and you CAN ask for support. You can delegate and create systems that will take away some of your burden while delivering the quality you demand. It is possible.

============

For most of us these four horsemen and their automatic behaviors are deeply subconscious. Remember that you spent a minimum of 7 years installing them in your psyche – deliberately, consciously, through thousands of hours of dedicated study and on the job training. No wonder they poke there heads into all areas of your life – and not always in a good way. AND this is not the only risk factor for physician burnout.

Our Brainwashing is only ONE of the Four Main Causes of Physician Burnout

So the way I visualize the causes physician burnout is like this — and it is a four part Venn Diagram

1) Physician Burnout Cause #1

The stressful, draining nature of the clinical practice of medicine. We have a tough job to begin with. Lots of responsibility and very little control. If clinical medicine was the only thing we had to worry about, physician burnout levels would be higher than a “normal” person — turns out it is only one of the big four.

2) Physician Burnout Cause #2

All the other demands placed on us in private practice that have nothing to do with clinical medicine.
Documentation/EMR, billing, the business of medicine, compensation formulas, practice politics, political uncertainty, our leadership roles we are unprepared for — and many other non-clinical hassles.

3) Physician Burnout Cause #3

The care and feeding of our larger life outside of medicine.
Getting our own physical and emotional needs met, our significant other and family relationships, our personal finances – everything outside of our career. We put this off throughout our training and now our ability to avoid physician burnout hinges on creating this work-life balance.

4) Physician Burnout Cause #4

And last, but certainly not least, our subconscious programming/brainwashing and the four horsemen I have laid out here. Their automatic behavior often throws gas on the fires created by stressors 1-3.  A recipe for physician burnout.

Next Steps:

Here’s a simple way to expose your own brainwashing and lower your physician burnout risk.

Whenever you find an area of your practice or life that is NOT WORKING the way you would like …
Ask yourself:
“How am I perhaps acting like a workaholic, superhero, emotion-free, lone ranger here?”

When you notice one of the four horsemen beneath your automatic behavior in this area …
Ask:
“What might I do differently that will get me more of what I really want?”

Original Source:  http://healthworkscollective.com/dikedrummond/50686/physician-burnout-four-horsemen-burnout-apocalypse

London, (IANS) Being bossed around in a stressful job raises chances of a heart attack by 25 percent, warn researchers.

They said workers who feel over-pressured yet powerless are more at danger than counterparts who suffer less stress. Their findings are based on 200,000 workers, including civil servants to factory workers.

“Our findings indicate that job strain is associated with a small but consistent increased risk of experiencing a first coronary heart disease event, such as a heart attack,” said Mika Kivimaki, professor at the University College London (UCL), who led the study, medical journal The Lancet reports.

Previous research has suggested stress at work can trigger heart problems but there have been conflicting results. The UCL investigation pooled results from 13 studies in Britain, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, the Netherlands and Sweden between 1985 and 2006.

All the men and women taking part completed questionnaires about their jobs, workload, deadlines and freedom to make decisions. None had suffered a heart attack before providing the details, according to the Daily Mail.

Over an average follow-up period of 7.5 years, researchers recorded 2,356 cases of heart disease. These included hospital admissions due to heart attacks and deaths from coronary failure. Kivimaki said job stress may account for a “notable proportion” of heart problems in the working population.

He said that stress reduction would have a much smaller impact than tackling either lack of exercise or smoking, which had a negative effect 10 times greater.

Original Source:  http://nvonews.com/2012/09/16/job-stress-burnout-can-lead-to-heart-attacks/

PhD student Marieke Ledingham is investigating the prevalence, symptoms and causes of burnout in WA mental health professionals.

She surveyed 56 professionals in the field of which around 70 per cent said they had experienced burnout at some stage in their career.

“Typically burnout is a result of work demands rather than other situational factors,” she said.