Status of employees' mental health deteriorating
FY2003 fact-finding survey conducted by the Japan Productivity Center for Socio-Economic Development targeting labor unions produced findings that were more serious than those of surveys conducted last year targeting corporations.
The survey, targeting 873 labor unions randomly selected from local unions throughout Japan, took the form of a questionnaire. Responses were sent in from 241 unions, or 27.6%.
The survey found that 67.2% of the labor unions felt that the number of members suffering from mental diseases had increased over the past three years (versus 48.9% of the respondents in last year's corporate survey who were asked the same question). Of the respondents belonging to labor unions with 3,000 or more members, moreover, the rate was a shockingly high 81.5%. A total of 63.5% of the labor unions had members unable to work for one month or more due to depression and other mental illnesses. Of these labor unions, 140 or 90.9% predicted that such members would continue to increase.
These survey results show that physical and mental fatigue and dissatisfaction are growing among employees as a result of increased workload and the tough performance goals being imposed on them. However, their responses related to vitality and motivation toward work revealed a different picture. While many of today's employees felt that they were in no condition to state that their current corporate life was stable, and that they had no anxieties whatsoever about their future life, they did acknowledge that they were more motivated than ever before to "embrace even difficult tasks and problems and use imaginative strategies to resolve them."
The survey also asked the respondents about the influence of the personnel evaluation system--introduced along with the spread of a merit-based salary structure--on employees' mental health.
Their answers revealed that those who were not totally happy with their evaluations experienced both physical and mental adverse effects. The survey stresses that not only rationally improving the evaluation system but also making the system more readily acceptable by the employees, and ensuring fairness and equality of work allotments suited to employees' abilities and personality, can greatly help improve and maintain employees' mental health.
This, of course, is true. What is troubling, however, is the fact that the percentage of respondents citing "satisfaction with their evaluations" has dropped continuously since FY2000, and the fact that the number of respondents who cited physical and mental fatigue--such as tired eyes, a feeling of fatigue still remaining after waking up in the morning, tired nerves, and a general feeling of fatigue being felt recently--has increased by more than 5% in the past three years.
Similar findings were seen in the survey on workers' health status for 2002 announced in August by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare targeting approximately 12,000 business offices and their approximately 16,000 employees. This survey is conducted once every five years, and the most recent study received valid responses from 78.3% of the business offices and 72.8% of the employees surveyed. The survey found that as many as 61.5% of workers experienced intense anxieties, problems, and/or stress about their work or their career/occupation, and 72.2% of the workers felt fatigue in their everyday work.
