Forum Post: Unemployment is bad but the new work culture under the strain of this economy can KILL you

Stress, Portrait of a Killer - Full Documentary (2008)

http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=eYG0ZuTv5rs&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DeYG0ZuTv5rs

The American Workplace and Bullying The growth of the service sector economy and the dynamics of high-pressure corporate work environments have combined to fuel the likelihood that workplace bullying will occur with greater frequency. Because service-sector work is so dependent on personal interaction, it becomes a form of “emotional labor” in which the psychological consequences of work, both positive and negative, are easily exacerbated, especially in comparison to the more mundane yet steady working conditions of a manufacturing plant. Frequent, ongoing personal interaction between workers often becomes a basic element of a job, especially in work arrangements between supervisors and subordinates. The more people interact, the more likely it is that personalities will clash.

This is especially true when employees must confront economic pressures, layoffs, and the challenges of doing more work with fewer resources. In fact, Baron & Neuman found that popular cost-cutting measures such as downsizing and layoffs, and organizational changes such as corporate restructuring, were “significantly related” to acts of “verbal aggression and obstructionism” in the workplace (Baron & Neuman, 1998). Hornstein, examining the corporate work environment of the early 1990s, described a “siege mentality” whereby managers felt “that they must stamp down subordinates to stay on top of things and alive” (Hornstein, 1996, p. 29). This environment “ignited explosions of brutality both from innate bullies who thrive on their mistreatment of others and from overburdened bosses who might never have behaved that way in less stressful times” (Hornstein, 1996,)

http://www.valuesbasedleadershipjournal.com/issues/vol1issue2/yamada.php