Lighter Load: Health affected more by worrying about losing job than actual job loss
Drivers are not hopping from one job to the other as quickly as they did when trucking was roaring. (©2009 JupiterImages Corp.)
By BARB KAMPBELL
The Trucker Staff
10/20/2009
Back in the day, and the day wasn’t that long ago, there were so many trucking jobs available that drivers jumped ship faster and more often than a jackrabbit being chased by a beagle.
But for now, anyway, that has changed drastically.
According to ATA officials, the turnover rate at truckload carriers was at the lowest level in 14 years during the second quarter, dropping to an annualized rate of 52 percent at large carriers and 42 percent at smaller ones, representing the lowest rates since ATA began monitoring driver turnover.
These numbers reflect our economy and most likely include drivers’ fear of losing a job. So they remain in the one they have rather than risk a job loss completely like that old, “a bird in hand is better than two in the bush” saying.
The latest news on trucking turnover and a larger-than-expected unemployment rate for September reminded me of a story I read back in August on MSNBC.com, titled: “Worry over job is worse for health than no job.” The report was based on data from two long-term studies, and while not specific to trucking, drivers are people just like those in any job with stressors, fear, and a host of other feelings.
“Based on how participants rated their own physical and mental health, we found that people who were persistently concerned about losing their jobs reported significantly worse overall health in both studies and were more depressed in one of the studies than those who had actually lost and regained their jobs recently,” said Sarah Burgard, a sociologist at the University of Michigan, as reported by MSNBC.com.
“In fact, chronic job insecurity was a stronger predictor of poor health than either smoking or hypertension in one of the groups we studied,” Burgard added.
The stress caused by insecurity is the reason cited. And most of us are aware that stress can be deadly.
Here’s what stress can do over time:
• Immune system. Constant stress can make you more likely to get sick more often. And if you have a chronic illness stress can make your symptoms worse.
• Heart. Stress is linked to high blood pressure, abnormal heartbeat (arrhythmia), blood clots, and hardening of the arteries (atherosclerosis). It's also linked to coronary artery disease, heart attack, and heart failure.
• Muscles. Constant tension from stress can lead to neck, shoulder, and low back pain. Stress may make rheumatoid arthritis worse.
• Stomach. If you have stomach problems, such as gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), peptic ulcer disease, irritable bowel syndrome, or ulcerative colitis, stress can make your symptoms worse.
• Reproductive organs. Stress is linked to low fertility, erection problems, problems during pregnancy, and painful menstrual periods.
• Lungs. Stress can make symptoms of asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) worse, and
• Skin. Skin problems such as acne and psoriasis are made worse by stress.
It’s the ambiguity about the future that has so many of us worrying during this recession. We get a glimmer of hope when the latest report says job losses were fewer this month than the one before (even when that could have been an all-time record high), or XYZ company lost less than expected last quarter, when the loss may have been in the millions, but hey, it’s better than what we thought it would be.
I wonder how many of us who have lived, and even suffered through, this latest recession (the longest one since the ’30s) will change our mindset about things such as job hopping, saving for the future, etc.
People who lived through the Great Depression were much more likely to skimp and save afterward than were those of us who never experienced it. Suffering, no matter how great, can change how people think about things.
Researchers noted that job insecurity is nothing new, but the numbers experiencing persistent job insecurity could be considerably higher during this global recession and thus, their findings could apply much more broadly today than they did even a few years ago.
When I visit a local truck stop a couple of times a month to interview drivers for our features section, I often encounter guys who say: “You don’t want to talk to me.”
When I ask why, they start telling me how they have lost everything (usually an owner-operator who has traded in his independent driving business to become a company driver). They don’t want to talk because they say everything they would tell me is negative.
During the last week of September I interviewed a driver, Jean Edouard (see story on page 53), who moved to the U.S. from Haiti some 17 years ago. No matter what subject we discussed he regularly avoided saying anything negative, including saying that he doesn’t hang out in truck stops (I met him outside at the fuel pumps and asked him to let me do the story) because of what others say.
“I don’t need people to tell me how miserable [my job is],” he said.
My guess is that Edouard doesn’t have a lot of stress in his life. He avoids subjecting himself to those who bemoan their lot in life and since negativity breeds negativity, he probably doesn’t have much of that going on in his head.
He came from a worse situation in Haiti and even though things didn’t work out exactly as he planned, he is making the best of what he’s got.
I think that’s what a lot of truckers are doing right now, they are sticking with what they have and happy to be there, at least until the country pulls out of this recession and trucking starts hitting on all cylinders again.
This recession has hit most of us in some way, or at the least someone we are close to. It’s personal when our pay is affected, or we are without a job at all.
The strong ones know they will survive no matter what, even if they have to work several jobs to pay the bills, but may suffer with the stress of what will happen if they lose their health insurance.
These are trying times for all of us.
Remember though, “worrying about it” can be worse than all of “it.” So try to do as Edouard does, don’t breed negativity and don’t worry about what could be, just do the best where you are and hope that you can hang on until we climb out of the recession.
Barb Kampbell of The Trucker staff can be reached for comment at barbkampbell@thetrucker.com or to find information on her new book, visit www.barbkampbell.com.
Follow The Trucker on Twitter at www.twitter.com/truckertalk.