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It's costing industry $20 billion annually
AN OLD BROMIDE SAYS: "WORRY KILLS MORE CEOS than work, because more CEOs worry than work." Work and worry, however, are becoming synonymous. Stress is virtually unavoidable. Rightsizing and downsizing programs abound. Acquisitions and divestitures are multiplying. Reengineering and reinventing companies are daily occurrences. And the opportunities (or impositions) of new technologies are taking a terrible toll among executives and the rank and file alike. These pressures-often coupled with such family anxieties as financial, emotional, generational, social, and health problems-make for a growing number of tense and testy men and women among our employees.
Executive Health Examiners tell us that 25% of the thousands of businessmen and businesswomen they study each year show evidence of stress and stress effects. About 5% are serious enough to require professional help. Stress-related illnesses run the gamut from mild irritability to debilitating depression. But stress has an insidious multiplying effect, because it can trigger a host of other disorders including heart disease, hypertension, ulcers, and colitis. It can also...