One In 12 Canadians Not Happy At Work
Posted October 17, 2006 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
If the prospect of waking up and heading to work on Monday morning gives you the blues, you’re not alone. And if you feel the same way on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, you can find some comfort in the fact that your dissatisfaction is shared by up to 1 million workers in Canada.
According to a 2002 study, about 1 in 12 workers are suffering from workplace stress and depression.
“Depression stands out as a major occupational health issue,” said the report by Statistics Canada.
“For workers of both sexes, high stress on and off the job was associated with depression. However, the mental health of male workers was more vulnerable to stress arising from the work environment.”
The findings suggest that six per cent of workers were “not too satisfied” with their jobs and another two per cent were “not at all satisfied.”
Those who were most unhappy tended to work in sales, service, processing, manufacturing or utilities as well as administrative, financial or clerical jobs.
Workers stuck on evening or night shifts suffered more depression that those on regular day-time schedules.
“Money made a difference, although the link to personal income was stronger for men,” the report found.
Not surprisingly about 15 per cent of men with annual incomes less than $20,000 were dissatisfied with their jobs. Of those who made at least $60,000, only five per cent were unhappy.
“Male and female workers who considered most days to be quite a bit or extremely stressful were over three times as likely to have suffered a major depressive episode, compared with those who reported low levels of general stress.”
