Stress!

We didn’t need a poll to tell us that Americans are struggling to stay happy and healthy but we have one anyway. The Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index started polling 1,000 people a day on January 1st and the results are not shocking but might be a bit surprising. Almost 40% of those polled said they were significantly stressed the day before with two-thirds saying they had at least one chronic health problem, including high blood pressure or cholesterol. 28% said they were not well-rested, 23% reported being in physical pain, a third said they were worried about money the day before and 30% said in general they had a lot of worries.

One of the findings after speaking with 100,000 people so far is that adding stress factors together can multiply the negative effect by several times. Among those was a bad work environment where people were dissatisfied, and felt there was little trust…if you combined that with things like health concerns you were likely to have an unhappy person. Another negative to come out of the poll is that two-thirds of working adults are overweight or obese which certainly adds to bad feelings.

In addition to the way this all affects an individual’s stress, chronic health conditions and negative work environments are having a major impact on the productivity of workers and resulting in a higher number of sick days and lost wages. However overall job happiness increases when businesses allow employees to meet and get to know one another through social gatherings.

There is some good news in that social time with friends and family can be a buffer for much of the stress. Americans overall happiness rises sharply on the weekends and drops during the week. So far the happiest days of the year are New Year’s Day, Super Bowl Sunday and Easter Sunday.

As you might expect the survey shows that people who are thriving tend to have higher incomes, more education and less illness while those who are suffering have trouble meeting their basic needs, including food, shelter and medical care. This is not a one-shot poll…Gallup is committed to doing it for the next 25 years. As the song says….”don’t worry…be happy.”