Stress doesn’t come for Free. Click to keep reading…

12 May Stress doesn’t come for Free. Click to keep reading…

Have you seen Rob Cooke’s TED Talk about the cost of stress in the workplace? Stress impacts productivity and wellness, and increases health care costs. Cooke estimates that stress may cost the U.S. economy an estimated 300 billion dollars a year (or 12% of the GDP).

Cooke illustrates how workplace stress can create cyclical patterns that perpetuate poor health and bad nutrition, and how these factors compound themselves to create more stress, decrease productivity, and create a huge drag on the economy.

Many organizations cultivate a culture where personal well-being takes a back seat to hours logged at your desk. Cooke suggests a fundamental shift in the modern workplace, where a company invests in the mental well-being of their employees, just like they invest in R&D. The positive impact on a worker’s mental, physical, and emotional well-being could generate a boon to the economy worldwide.

Check out Cooke’s TED talk online.