A recent online study has reported that one-fifth of workers say that working at their jobs makes them ill, says Reuters. As the article reports,

“On average, 19 percent of respondents globally said their job was adversely affecting their health, with an additional 13 percent saying their work was so stressful it was making it hard for them to sleep at night.”

That’s a lot of sick and sleepless people just as a result of making a living. Among the nations surveyed, Japan had the highest percentage of respondents saying that work made them sick, followed by Canada. Meanwhile in New Zealand, India, and Australia the lowest proportions of workers reported illness.

The take-home message here is not to avoid working as to stay well (sorry, everyone). But instead these data suggest that unhealthy workplaces contribute to a significant amount of lost sleep or morbidity–at least that’s what the workers themselves claim. The caveat here, of course, is that the respondents to this survey could be misattributing work as the source of what ails them–while it could be other factors.

Even so, this study does suggest that employers should pay greater attention to wellness in the workplace and the environment in which their employees spend 1/3rd of their lives.

Summer Johnson, PhD