Job dissatisfaction affects mental health

Job dissatisfaction in early working life, notably in 20s and 30s can have poor overall health and emotional problems later on in life typically in 40s, warn researchers who presented the study at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association in Seattle recently.

The findings showed that mental health was most affected by one’s feelings about their jobs.

‘We found that there is a cumulative effect of job satisfaction on health that appears as early as your 40s,’ said lead author Jonathan Dirlam, doctoral student at The Ohio State University, in the US.

People who were less happy with their work early in their careers were more depressed and worried and also had more trouble sleeping.

The research revealed that those with low job satisfaction and downward trending careers had more problems like back pain and frequent colds compared to the ones with high satisfaction group.

‘The higher levels of mental health problems for those with low job satisfaction may be a precursor to future physical problems,’ added Hui Zheng, Associate Professor at Ohio State.

‘Increased anxiety and depression could lead to heart diseases or other health problems that won’t show up until they are older,’ Zheng said.

On the other hand, people whose job satisfaction started low but got better over the course of their early career didn’t have the health problems associated with consistently low or declining satisfaction.

If you really believe that only health is wealth, then do not pay much attention to job dissatisfaction; try and get as much satisfaction from the job that you are on!