Civil service executives are stressed: study

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VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – Executives in the civil service are stressed.

A study into the health of managers revealed they are dealing with more stress than 75 per cent of the adult population, and 43 per cent of those are obese.

On average, they put in more than 50 hours of work in a week.

Acclaimed mental health expert, Bill Wilkerson, says the results are troubling. “I think at the heart of this, is a broad state of embedded frustration in the federal public service.”

The study also found that depression rates have doubled in the past five years; the number of managers taking medication to deal with issues like depression, insomnia or anxiety is one-in-five.

Wilkerson says this is an issue for all Canadians.

“This is a multi-billion dollar enterprise,” Wilkerson said. “You can’t have the management of this Ottawa based workforce so ill informed on how to motivate and how to get the best out of people and then expect there to be any return on that investment.”

However, the number of sick days managers take, less than five and a half, is considerably less than those in the public sector.

Wilkerson feels the four year downsizing of the public service is also contributing to the rise in depression and drop in morale.

“How would you like to be working in a place where there’s an axe hanging over your job,” he said.

He feels there are better ways to reduce the workforce without damaging morale.

The study was done by the Professional Executive for the Public Service of Canada.

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