When Your Job Makes You Sick: Employees Find Little Leverage in Today's Workplace

Consider these signs of the times:

-- The Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index registered 47.1 in August for the category titled "work satisfaction" -- the lowest it has been since the measurement was introduced in January 2008. The number means that less than half the respondents surveyed last month answered "yes" to four questions: Are you satisfied with your job; are your natural aptitudes aligned with the job you are asked to do; does your supervisor treat you like a partner, and does he or she create an environment that is trusting and open? "We thought we had reached the bottom back in the latter half of 2010 when we were in the 47 and 48.5 range," says Dan Witters, the Index's research director. "I would be surprised to see it go much lower than it is right now, but I've been wrong before."

-- Judith McKenzie, director of clinical practice, occupational medicine, at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, treats workplace injuries ranging from broken bones to back sprains to repetitive motion injuries. Over the past few months, she has noticed two trends: First, some injured employees are taking longer to seek medical attention. Second, injured employees often insist on going back to work sooner than advised because they want to protect their jobs.

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