Dying for a Paycheck

By Jeffrey Pfeffer,

Book cover of Dying for a Paycheck: How Modern Management Harms Employee Health and Company Performance―and What We Can Do About It

Book description

In one survey, 61 percent of employees said that workplace stress had made them sick and 7 percent said they had actually been hospitalized. Job stress costs US employers more than $300 billion annually and may cause 120,000 excess deaths each year. In China, 1 million people a year may…

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Why read it?

2 authors picked Dying for a Paycheck as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Peter Cappelli

Author

Most of the discussion about whether jobs are good or bad focuses on wages. The sociologists add the concern about uncertainty–will my job last?

What gets far less attention is the fact that the way we manage employees has a direct and profound effect on their mental health and, in turn, on their physical health.

This is a new finding and an important one. We can see a direct effect of bad management practices on employee sickness and death. As documented here, stress kills.

From Peter's list on hate your job and dread job hunting.

Ingrid Biese

Author

I really like this book because it makes the problems with the way we work today so painfully clear.

Through my research on opting out I have heard so many stories of people who just reach a point where they can’t do it anymore, and Pfeffer comprehensively explains exactly why that is.

The way we work today takes a toll on our health, and although it should go without saying, companies obviously don’t thrive if the people working for them are literally getting sick (or even dying). It feels refreshing to have someone spell it out and Pfeffer also offers…

From Ingrid's list on to change working life as we know it.