Occupational Health Care

Feeling stressed at work? If you are under 50, could get worse, at least for a while.

Researchers at Nottingham University in England reported that stress levels reach their peak at the beginning of the fifties, but begin to diminish as one ages.

But this is not necessarily good news. The job-related stress seems to keep people in retirement.

The findings come from a recent report that analyzed hundreds of research publication of the last two decades.

“It is thought that work-related stress is responsible for more days lost than any other cause, and it is becoming clear that it is also a factor affecting the willingness and ability of older workers to stay in the workforce,” said in a press release from the university to the report’s lead author Amanda Griffiths, a professor of occupational health psychology. “Therefore, to protect older workers of tomorrow, in addition to today, pay dividends as older workers are part of the workforce of tomorrow.”

The researchers said their study sought to fill a gap in research that focused on labor as a whole rather tended to assess the particular age groups.

They found that people who are elderly from 50 to 55 could be under stress due to several reasons: Perhaps you had retired, had acquired an antiquity that offers more control over their work, or opted for a less stressful position.

“As we get older, people’s priorities may also change,” said Griffiths. “We often have responsibilities to care for others, or want to spend more time with their grandchildren and have developed other interests. His work and career may not be their main motivators.

“Doing the work is attractive and flexible to allow older people to balance work and their other interests more easily, could be a very important step forward,” he said.

Tags: job-related stress, occupational health psychology, stressed at work, work-related stress

This entry was posted on Saturday, November 14th, 2009 at 12:25 am and is filed under Work Related Disease. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.