Don’t set very high targets for yourself in workplace

Team L&M

Do you suffer from constant fatigue, stress, have low threshold to pain and find it difficult to sleep at night?

Well, you are not alone. There are scores of people like you. In fact, nearly 56 per cent of corporate employees face these issues.

According to a study done by the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM), nearly 56 per cent corporate employees sleep less than six hours in a day due to high stress levels that arise out of tough targets set by employers. This, in turn, causes diseases like hypertension and sugar etc.

Setting of unreasonable and unrealistic targets causes lack of sleep and has wide-ranging effects, including daytime fatigue, physical discomfort, psychological stress, performance deterioration. This then leads to low pain threshold and increase in absenteeism, says the report.

The work performance pressure, peer pressure, difficult boss, all of this is taking a toll on physical and mental health of people, adds the survey.

In the US, the sleep deprivation costs $150 billion a year due to reduced workplace productivity.

As per the findings, about 46 per cent of the workforce in organisations in India suffers from some or the other form of stress. The stress could be related to personal issues, office politics, or performance target issues. There is a rising case of metabolic syndrome that includes diabetes, high uric acid, high blood pressure, obesity, and high cholesterol.

ASSOCHAM findings, however, further reveal that 46 per cent of respondents say that they feel fatigue on regular basis due to sleep disorders and close to 42 per cent of participants in the survey admit that they suffer from regular headache. Sleep disorders cause depression among 49 per cent  of respondents.

Low physical fitness

In terms of physical fitness, the study found out that 30 per cent of corporate employees say that they hardly exercise against 25 per cent who physically exercise but for less than one hour a week.  About 24 per cent of employees exercise for 1-3 hours a week against 9 per cent  of employees who exercise for 3-6 hours a week and merely 5 per cent stay fit by exercising for more than 6 hours a week.

About 16 per cent of sample population of the report claim that they suffer from obesity.  It is found that obesity alone can modify occupational morbidity, mortality and injury risk that can further affect workplace absence, disability, productivity and healthcare costs.

In addition, 11 per cent of the sample corporate employees suffer from depression, 9 per cent high from blood pressure and 8 per cent suffer from diabetes.

Spondolysis (5.5 per cent), heart disease (4 per cent), cervical (3.0 per cent), asthma (2.5 per cent), slip disk (2 per cent) and arthritis (1 per cent) are the other diseases suffered by corporate employees.

Though several progressive companies provide annual health risk assessment check-ups for employees and have facilities such as gym and fitness centres in office premises, many people at the top level have no time to avail of these.