Dying for a Paycheck: How Modern Management Harms Employee Health and Company Performance―and What We Can Do About It Hardcover – March 20, 2018

This is an excellent book. It says that the reason why people stay on in harmful work environments is obviously sheer economic necessity. Some companies tend to locate their warehouses in economically struggling areas so that the companies can tap into surplus labor that will be grateful for almost any type of job. The book mentions about the positive achievements of George Zimmer when he was with the Men's Wearhouse and that he paid great wages to his employees treating them with courtesy and respect with a positive work environment. Many people don't want to look for another job because looking for a job is itself an unpaid job and takes a lot of energy. Money cannot completely undo damage to relationships or damage to physical health. Almost 40% of uninsured adults have outstanding medical bills. Medical reasons and unpaid bills are among some of the major reasons why some people declare personal bankruptcy. Some companies where high-pressure work cultures exist should be avoided if at all reasonably possible Healthy positive workplaces can be pluses for both the employer and employee.

This book deserves to be widely read - by managers, by employees, by HR professionals... really by anyone who works. Pfeffer points out the blindingly obvious truth - humans are not machines that you can endlessly crank productivity out of. Happy, healthy people are way more productive than stressed, unhealthy ones. Unfortunately it is a truth mostly ignored. Real leaders who practice empathy and look out for "their people" will already get this and find useful ammunition to make their case in organizations. More importantly, the "all about the numbers" managers who persist in seeing employees as commodities from which to extract as much as possible, should realize that to maximize productivity they may need to reel in the demands, hours, stress, etc. As with many things in life, productivity is a a parabola, not an ever increasing line.

In the past, the workplace was a dangerous environment. Fatalities and severe injuries were so common that they were deemed to be simply the price of being employed. Thanks to Occupational Health and Safety acts, the once frequent physical danger of workplaces has been largely eliminated. We know this type of injury has diminished because these injuries are visible and easily measurable.What is less well known and almost entirely ignored, is the danger of toxic workplaces to individuals’ physical wellbeing, even causing premature and unnatural deaths. Really.Professor Jeffrey Pfeffer has been a professor at the elite Graduate School of Business at Stanford University for almost 40 years. He is the author of 15 books including ‘Leadership BS’ and ‘Power’, both reviewed in this column, and both anything but warm and fluffy. With rigour, befitting a man of his stature, he brings exquisitely researched information to the argument of this book.His conclusion, briefly stated is: “The workplace profoundly affects human health and mortality, and too many workplaces are harmful to people’s health… affecting people in numerous occupations, industries, and geographies, and cutting across people of various ages and levels of education.”So, what constitutes a toxic workplace? One that has impossibly demanding work requirements, that doesn’t offer medical aid, that uses shift-workers irregularly, that creates insecurity about one’s job, that has an overpowering micro-management style, where you do not have friends - and you can fill in the rest.Consider ‘excess’ death caused by workplace conditions. ‘Excess’ is the number of deaths beyond the norm, that can be directly attributed to the workplace, and nothing else.The research Pfeffer cites indicates shocking figures. Becoming unemployed leads to 35,000 excess deaths. Not having medical insurance leads to 50,000. Shift work to 13,000. Feeling insecure about keeping your job leads to 29,000 deaths. Having little control over your work, 17,000. Not having social support at work, 3,000. Having a highly demanding job leads to 8,000 to excess death.(The research methodology that underlies this information is extraordinarily sophisticated and well described in the body of the book.)The 120,000 deaths that are excess each year in the United States, makes workplace management practices, the fifth leading cause of death in the country! This is an invisible killer, widely accepted as an inevitable part of work, and seems to be getting worse.So many organizations allow management practices that literally sicken and kill their employees, and many even encourage these practices. But the employers suffer too, because these practices don’t improve profitability or performance. In the US the cost of toxic work places is more than $300 billion annually!Emerging countries fare no better. Wages are lower, jobs are scarce, and working hours are longer. How many people do you know who have begun taking stimulants, or who turn to alcohol to numb the constant workplace stress and abusive management?Consider laying off staff. Research on the effects of layoffs on company performance is extensive, and the shocking truth is that there is little evidence that layoffs provide benefit when analysed carefully and over time. There is a lot of evidence that layoffs do more harm to companies than good and affect profitability in non-obvious ways. These include low morale and survivors who are risk-averse, commit sabotage, or perpetrate workplace violence as aggrieved former employees. The loss of institutional memory and knowledge is a huge cost, as is diminished trust in management and reduced labour productivity.Layoffs by themselves rarely if ever solve the underlying business problems, such as poor quality, low productivity, or market acceptance.Sustainability is a major concern in most developed and developing countries as is evident from the volume of laws prohibiting companies from abusing the environment. Pfeffer remarks that you “are better off being a tree than an employee.”It doesn’t have to be this way and there is clear evidence of the solution to keeping employees physically and mentally healthy.Physical and mental health doesn’t depend on offering “cute amenities” and doesn’t require deep pockets. The solution lies in the work environment and the work itself. A healthy workplace has two crucial elements: employees have control and autonomy, and have social support.“If you want to drive any organism—a rat, a dog, or a human being—crazy and create a whimpering, downcast, and helpless being, one of the surest ways is to administer random punishments, not linked to any specific behaviour, or to in other ways impose capricious demands that remove people’s sense of control over their environment,” Pfeffer explains. This has been proven to be correct in numerous studies dating back the ‘Whitehall Studies’ in the 1970s which examined the difference in life expectancy between those who have control over their work, and those who don’t.The first step towards improving employees’ physical and mental health is to understand and measure the cost of toxic management practices. This can be calculated in terms of direct medical costs, and indirectly in terms of lost productivity and decreased staff turnover.According to the Mayo Clinic, the person you report to at work is more important for your health than your family doctor, Pfeffer writes. “Leaders should ensure that at the end of the day, their employees return home in good shape, prepared to live fulfilled lives outside of work.” That is surely a human right.Readability Light ---+- SeriousInsights High +---- LowPractical High --+-- Low*Ian Mann of Gateways consults internationally on leadership and strategy and is the author of the recently released ‘Executive Update.

Professor Pfeffer clearly demonstrates with in depth research and review using meta-data, what I have seen personally and heard anecdotally for the past several decades. I will use this in my consulting practice and advocacy for an overhaul of how capitalism can be...

I would give "Dying for a Paycheck" TEN STARS if I could. This book should be required reading for every CEO, manager, employee, and college student. It should be in the curriculum of every economics, psychology, sociology, ethics and government class in schools throughout the United States and abroad. Dr. Pfeffer's work is outstanding. The subject matter is "the elephant in the room" that no one is talking about. He and his team of researchers have done the research and Dr. Pfeffer has presented their findings in a way that is impossible to misunderstand - unless one deliberately chooses to be obtuse. This book sheds light on a pervasive problem in corporate America. I can't recommend it highly enough.

This book was filled with statistics but not very interesting to read. After the first chapter the same information seemed to be presented over and over.

I just finished my doctorate on improving resilience and learned the importance of organizational resilience. This is an excellent book with great examples of both what is not working and what is working in all types of businesses and professions. Highly recommend for everyone who cares about their mental and physical well-being!