Tag Archives: Stress

36% of employees earning $100,000 are Living Paycheck to Paycheck

Rev 6:6 NAS “And I heard something like a voice in the center of the four living creatures saying, “A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius; and do not damage the oil and the wine.”

Important Takeaways:

  • Amid record inflation, 36% of employees earning $100,000 or more say they are living paycheck to paycheck
  • Thirty-six percent of U.S. employees with salaries of $100,000 or more are living paycheck to paycheck, double the share in 2019, according to Willis Towers Watson.
  • The highest earners are the only income group that reported an increase over that time.
  • The Consumer Price Index was up 8.6% in May from a year earlier, the highest inflation reading in about 40 years.

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Continued crisis is spiking stress and anxiety across America

Rev 6:6 NAS And I heard something like a voice in the center of the four living creatures saying, “A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius; and do not damage the oil and the wine.”

Important Takeaways:

  • Joe Biden’s America: Anxiety Spikes as Americans Report High Levels of Stress Due to Rising Prices
  • Americans are experiencing a spike in anxiety due to rising prices, supply chain issues, and global uncertainty, the American Psychological Association’s annual “Stress in America” poll revealed.
  • The survey found a whopping 87 percent of Americans identifying “rise in prices of every day items due to inflation (e.g. gas prices, energy bills, grocery costs)” as a significant source of stress.
  • 87 percent said that it “feels like there has been a constant stream of crises without a break over the last two years,” and 73 percent say they are “overwhelmed by the number of crises facing he world right now.” Further, 69 percent are worried the Russian invasion of Ukraine will lead to nuclear war, and the same percentage fear these are the beginning stages of a WWIII.

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Murder rates surge while American’s stress over pandemic

Mark 13:12 “Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child. Children will rebel against their parents and have them put to death.”

Important Takeaways:

  • ‘Stress, Anxiety, Lot of Anger:’ Pandemic and Other Factors Fueling America’s Surging Murder Rate
  • Experts say the spike in homicides began at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
  • “Pent up stress, anxiety, a lot of anger. People started losing their jobs. People are drinking more,” Criminologist Dr. Alex Piquero
  • “All of these things put together have occurred in every city in the United States,” said Piquero.
  • In 2021, Chicago, a city long plagued by deadly gun violence, saw its deadliest year in 25 years with 797 murders.
  • Los Angeles counted nearly 400 deaths in 2021 and 134 in Oakland. Both California municipalities’ murder rates reached 15-year highs.
  • Austin, Texas, recorded an unprecedented number of murders last year.

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Federal Reserve announces post-stress test capital ratios for large banks

By Pete Schroeder

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Federal Reserve announced on Monday how much each large bank that underwent its 2020 stress tests will have to hold in additional capital.

The results mark the first time the Fed has given out custom capital requirements for each bank under its new “stress capital buffer,” and takes effect on Oct. 1. Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley were ordered to hold the most capital of the 34 firms tested, with ratios of 13.7% and 13.4% respectively.

The custom capital requirements follow stress test results released in June, which found that banks would weather heavy capital losses should the economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic drag on or worsen. The Fed ordered banks to cap dividend payments and bar share repurchases until at least the fourth quarter to ensure they have sufficient cushions.

The new capital ratio combines the minimum capital requirements of 4.5% and the new “stress capital buffer,” which is determined by how each bank fared under a hypothetical severe economic downturn. That buffer is at least 2.5%, but was highest for Deutsche Bank’s U.S. operations at 7.8%.

The nation’s largest banks also face an additional capital surcharge for their predominant role in the financial system, ranging from 1% to 3.5% for JP Morgan Chase, the nation’s biggest bank.

The Fed also announced that it had reaffirmed the stress test results for five banks that requested reconsideration: BMO Financial Corp., Capital One Financial Corp, Citizens Financial Group Inc, Goldman Sachs and Regions Financial Corp. The Fed said the additional review found its stress test models worked as intended and there were no errors.

(Reporting by Pete Schroeder; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Jonathan Oatis)

Coronavirus rages on, putting strain on U.S. doctors, nurses

By Gabriella Borter and Nick Brown

NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. doctors and nurses on the front lines of the coronavirus outbreak came under increasing stress on Friday as the number of cases skyrocketed and hospital staff were forced to ration care for an overwhelming number of patients.

The United States surpassed two grim milestones on Thursday. The death toll soared past 1,000, reaching 1,261 by the end of the day, and the total number of infections topped 85,000, exceeding the national totals of China and Italy to make the United States the world leader in confirmed cases.

Worldwide, confirmed cases rose above 550,000 and deaths 25,000, the Johns Hopkins University & Medicine Coronavirus Resource Center reported on Friday.

“This is past a movie plot. Nobody could ever think of this, or be totally prepared for this. You’re going to have to wing it on the fly,” said Eric Neibart, infectious disease specialist and clinical assistant professor at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York. “The scale is unbelievable.”

After days of wrangling, the U.S. Congress may soon respond with a $2.2 trillion relief package, reinforcing an extraordinary array of economic measures that the U.S. Federal Reserve rolled out on Monday.

Leaders of the U.S. House of Representatives said they expected to pass the measure on Friday, sending the bill to President Donald Trump, who has promised to sign it.

In addition to aiding hospitals in hot spots such as New York and New Orleans, the package will bring welcome relief to businesses and unemployed workers. With much of the country on lockdown, a record 3.3 million Americans filed jobless claims last week, nearly five times the previous record set during the recession of 1982.

The counties surrounding Chicago and Detroit were also emerging as areas of concern, said Deborah Birx, coordinator of the White House Coronavirus Task Force.

One emergency room doctor in Michigan said he was using one paper face mask for an entire shift due to a shortage and that his hospital would soon run out of ventilators, the machines needed by sufferers of COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the virus, to help them breathe.

The doctor, Rob Davidson, urged Trump to use his executive authority to procure more test kits and ventilators.

“We have hospital systems here in the Detroit area in Michigan who are getting to the end of their supply of ventilators and have to start telling families that they can’t save their loved ones because they don’t have enough equipment,” Davidson said in a video he posted on Twitter.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has said any realistic scenario about the unfolding outbreak would overwhelm the healthcare system. His state, which has become the epicenter of the U.S. outbreak with more than 37,000 cases and 385 deaths, is scrambling to create more sick beds.

It is looking to convert hotel rooms, office space and other venues into healthcare centers, while setting up a convention center as a temporary hospital. Some hospitals are scrambling to convert cafeterias and atriums into hospital rooms to house intensive care patients.

Mount Sinai hospital had 215 inpatients with COVID-19 as of Thursday.

“The fear is next week we’ll have 400,” Neibart said, expecting a shortage of doctors and nurses.

In lighter moments, Neibart said he and his colleagues joke about claiming their own makeshift spots, for when they inevitably fall ill with the virus, although he said they routinely check on one another’s well being.

COVID-19 claimed the life of Kious Kelly, a Mount Sinai nurse manager whose death has led to an outpouring of remembrances from former colleagues.

“I remember him running crazy, checking on us and making sure we were OK,” Diana Torres, a nurse at Mount Sinai, told Reuters. “He would deliver our messages to administration if we weren’t happy. He wanted good things for us.”

Torres and other colleagues have also infused their tributes with angry messages about the shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE).

“It seems like we are fighting the government, (the hospital) administration and the virus,” Torres said. “We can tackle one, but not all at once.”

The New York Police Department also announced the first coronavirus death among its ranks on Thursday. Custodial Assistant Dennis Dickson was a 14-year veteran, NYPD said.

The Department of Veterans Affairs may be asked to help in New York, even as it struggles to provide enough staffing and equipment for armed forces veterans.

Maria Lobifaro, a New York intensive care unit (ICU) nurse treating veterans with COVID-19, said staff normally change masks after every patient interaction. Now, they are getting one N95 mask to use for an entire 12-hour shift.

The ratio of patients to nurses in the ICU is usually two-to-one. As of Monday it was four-to-one, she said.

“Right now we can barely handle the veterans that we have,” Lobifaro said.

(Reporting by Gabriella Borter, Nick Brown and Maria Caspani in New York and Doina Chiacu in Washington; Writing by Daniel Trotta)

Burnout, stress lead more companies to try a four-day work week

FILE PHOTO: Office workers take their lunch at a food court in Sydney, Australia, May 4, 2018. REUTERS/Edgar Su/File Photo

By Emma Thomasson

BERLIN (Reuters) – Work four days a week, but get paid for five?

It sounds too good to be true, but companies around the world that have cut their work week have found that it leads to higher productivity, more motivated staff and less burnout.

“It is much healthier and we do a better job if we’re not working crazy hours,” said Jan Schulz-Hofen, founder of Berlin-based project management software company Planio, who introduced a four-day week to the company’s 10-member staff earlier this year.

In New Zealand, insurance company Perpetual Guardian reported a fall in stress and a jump in staff engagement after it tested a 32-hour week earlier this year.

Even in Japan, the government is encouraging companies to allow Monday mornings off, although other schemes in the workaholic country to persuade employees to take it easy have had little effect.

Britain’s Trades Union Congress (TUC) is pushing for the whole country to move to a four-day week by the end of the century, a drive supported by the opposition Labour party.

The TUC argues that a shorter week is a way for workers to share in the wealth generated by new technologies like machine learning and robotics, just as they won the right to the weekend off during the industrial revolution.

“It would reduce the stress of juggling working and family life and could improve gender equality. Companies that have already tried it say it’s better for productivity and staff wellbeing,” said TUC economic head Kate Bell.

OVERWORKED

Lucie Greene, trends expert at consultancy J. Walter Thompson, said there was a growing backlash against overwork, underlined by a wave of criticism after Tesla boss Elon Musk tweeted that “nobody ever changed the world on 40 hours a week.”

“People are starting to take a step back from the 24-hour digital life we have now and realize the mental health issues from being constantly connected to work,” Greene said.

A recent survey of 3,000 employees in eight countries including the United States, Britain and Germany found that nearly half thought they could easily finish their tasks in five hours a day if they did not have interruptions, but many are exceeding 40 hours a week anyway – with the United States leading the way, where 49 percent said they worked overtime.

“There has been work creep. Because you always have the technology, you are always working, so people are getting burned out,” said Dan Schawbel, director of executive development firm Future Workplace, which conducted the survey with Kronos.

Schulz-Hofen, a 36-year-old software engineer, tested the four-day week on himself after realizing he needed to slow down following a decade of intense work launching Planio, whose tools allowed him to track his time in detail.

“I didn’t get less work done in four days than in five because in five days, you think you have more time, you take longer, you allow yourself to have more interruptions, you have your coffee a bit longer or chat with colleagues,” Schulz-Hofen said.

“I realized with four days, I have to be quick, I have to be focused if I want to have my free Friday.”

Schulz-Hofen and his team discussed various options before settling on everybody working Monday to Thursday. They rejected the idea of flexible hours because it adds administrative complexity, and were against a five-day week with shorter hours as it is too easy for overwork to creep back in.

Clients who call on a Friday hear a recorded message explaining why nobody is at the office.

“We got an unexpected reaction from customers. Most of our clients did not complain. They were just jealous,” Schulz-Hofen said.

Grey New York, an ad agency owned by WPP, launched a program in April to allow staff to work a four-day week for 85 percent of their full-time salary.

Schawbel expects the idea to catch on in more companies and countries, but probably not his own: “I think America will be the last country to give us Monday mornings off because we’re so used to this way of working.”

(This version of the story corrects paragraph 13 to reflect that the study was conducted by Kronos and Future Workplace)

(Reporting by Emma Thomasson, Editing by Rosalba O’Brien and Lauren Young)

You’re Not Free-falling!

Most people associate free-falling with an exhilarating experience that many skydivers crave. Jumping out of an airplane without deploying your parachute until you absolutely must, is an example of free-falling through the air. I’ve been told that there is no feeling like it – and I believe it! The only control you have when you are free-falling is over the ripcord, hopefully.

Our recent visit from Bobby Conner was very eventful to say the least. One of the things we talked about was how I had felt so out of control in my recent bout with stress – stress that landed me in the hospital and produced some frightening symptoms. I had no idea where to find the ripcord as my body’s defenses plummeted. Continue reading →

Stress is a Killer

“Stress is a killer,” a well-known fact that I found accurate… the hard way. I had heard the expression many times over my lifetime, but the reality of it hits home when you find yourself landed in the hospital with life-threatening symptoms. The bottom line diagnosis and remedy was echoed by several doctors… de-stress or die!

Encarta defines stress as: mental, emotional, or physical strain caused, e.g. by anxiety or overwork. It may cause such symptoms as raised blood pressure or depression. Continue reading →