Ref: The 7.30 Report
Reporter: Natasha Johnson
The ACTU and the Business Council of Australia can be odd bedfellows,
but they joined forces today to sound a warning about Australia's ageing
population. Both are worried that the country is running out of workers,
so they argue that the rush to retire will have to be postponed well beyond
the age of 55 and business will have to change its attitude to older workers
for the benefit of the economy.
But young or old, work isn't always the fulfilling experience most people
would like it to be. In fact, a Uniting Church report has been looking at the
devastating and sometimes deadly effects of workplace stress.
'CAROLYN': Frank was a very together sort of a person.
He was a great strength to us all.
It was just something that in your wildest dreams you would never think
would happen.
It was like our family was thrown up in the air like confetti and we could
never pick up the pieces again.
NATASHA JOHNSON: Struggling to hold together a shattered family,
'Carolyn' is packing up a lifetime of memories in the Melbourne home
where she and husband Frank raised four children.
He vanished one Sunday morning three years ago and was missing for two
agonising weeks before being found in a park, having taken his life.
'CAROLYN': I go over it time and time again.
I can't make sense of it.
I wish that I had recognised the signs earlier so I could help him.
NATASHA JOHNSON: 53-year-old Frank was a workaholic.
He'd spent 35 years with the same company, working his way into a
senior management position.
While one of their children has schizophrenia, it was well controlled and
Carolyn claims it was years of work stress which finally overwhelmed him.
'CAROLYN': When there were huge deadlines, he'd work often till 11,
12 o'clock at night.
Often that would be at work.
Then he'd come home and work on the computer here and then go to bed
for an hour or so and then get up and work again.
NATASHA JOHNSON: You believe his work drove him to his death?
'CAROLYN': I believe that his work was a contributing factor.
REVEREND JOHN BOTTOMLY, URBAN MINISTRY NETWORK: We
believe that what we've found is a tip of the iceberg.
NATASHA JOHNSON: Reverend John Bottomly runs the Urban Ministry
Network, a Uniting Church agency which supports families and companies
bereaved by workplace death.
Spurred by the grief he's witnessed, John Bottomly conducted a search of the
Victorian coronial database to produce a report which found on average nine
suicides a year in which the coroner mentioned work as a contributing factor.
REVEREND JOHN BOTTOMLY: Work stress emerges as the main factor.
Then there are factors such as disagreements between employees and
management, bullying, pressures of work, performing your work s
atisfactorily, job dissatisfaction, long hours.
NATASHA JOHNSON: There's rarely one sole cause of suicide and the
report found that in many cases personal or health problems also contributed.
But the particular influence of work factors hasn't to date been widely
investigated.
PROFESSOR DIEGO DE LEO, INSTITUTE FOR SUICIDE RESEARCH
AND PREVENTION: With regards to a contribution from work bullying or
work dissatisfaction, it is something that is pretty new to the attention of
researchers, but worrying.
So it's something that surely requires more attention and so the report from
this point of view is clearly very credible.
NATASHA JOHNSON: As well as researching the problem, the church has
established a support group for workers who felt themselves pushed to the edge.
DR JOAN BECKWITH: I was really pleased to feel passionate again for the
first time.
NATASHA JOHNSON: Dr Joan Beckwith was a psychologist for a welfare
agency, but even with her professional experience, she struggled to cope
with the emotional fallout of an ugly 18-month dispute with a manager,
which culminated in her resigning.
DR JOAN BECKWITH: It was quite obsessive - you know, that I ate and
drank and slept this issue, and at one stage my daughter, who at that stage
was 9 or 10, said, "I want my mummy back".
NATASHA JOHNSON: Did you ever get to a point where you wondered
whether it was worth going on?
DR JOAN BECKWITH: I was with a friend one day and said, "Death would
be preferable to this".
And there was a sense in which that was true, but there was also a very,
very strong pull away from that.
I was really aware at the same time of the devastating impact of that and
the long, long, long legacy of that sort of action.
NATASHA JOHNSON: While employers have a responsibility to provide a
safe and healthy workplace, the Urban Ministry Network argues they should
also look after an employee's psychological wellbeing.
REVEREND JOHN BOTTOMLY: They'll need to be focused on how personal
and family factors affect their workers' health, whether the worker has a
balance in their life between work and family and personal life.
PETER ANDERSON, AUSTRALIAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE AND
INDUSTRY: Stress is a very controversial issue in the workplace because
stress can mean so many different things to different people.
It would be quite wrong for the employer to be responsible for stress that
may manifest itself in the workplace, but where it comes from our own
personal circumstances.
NATASHA JOHNSON: Stress, long hours and family work balance are currently
a top campaign priority for the trade union movement.
But the church is also advocating occupational health and safety reforms to
incorporate suicide prevention strategies, like training managers how to spot
the warning signs.
It's a call that's supported by the Institute for Suicide Prevention at
Queensland's Griffith University.
PROFESSOR DIEGO DE LEO: People that commit suicide actually very
rarely want to die.
They want to end their suffering and if we were able to intercept this
trajectory of suffering, that would solve the issue.
PETER ANDERSON: Employers cannot be expected to be mind readers.
Employers cannot become amateur psychologists or amateur psychiatrists.
NATASHA JOHNSON: Representing 350,000 Australian businesses,
the Chamber of Commerce and Industry says it's sensitive to the issue,
but employers should stick to solving work, not personal, problems.
PETER ANDERSON: There is another whole pressure on employers from
the privacy lobby and from the discrimination lobby, which says that
employers should not move into inquiring about an employee's personal
life or an employee's personal circumstances and so employers find
themselves in a bit of a pincer movement here.
NATASHA JOHNSON: There hasn't been a lot of talk about the connection
between work and suicide, but these women hope that by sharing their
story, they might spare others from sharing their suffering.
JOAN BECKWITH: It may feel like the end of everything, but things do
change, and other things become important.
'CAROLYN': It's not worth giving up your life for your work.
MAXINE MCKEW: We should mention that anyone who feels the need for
some help in this area can contact Lifeline on 13 11 14.
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