“CEOs are the cause of a healthcare crisis”

Jeffrey Pfeffer, in his book Dying for a Paycheck, has an interesting hypothesis. He says that due to a lack of consideration for workplace health, through the disappearance of health insurance as an employee ‘perk’, the psychological effects of long hours and the work-family conflict, “we are harming both company performance and individual well-being.”

This view is backed up by Bob Chapman, CEO of Barry-Wehmiller Companies and author of Everybody Matters, who in his speech to 1000 CEOs at the ScaleUp Summit in San Antonio, California, stated that “you are the cause of the healthcare crisis.”

I’m a middle aged, middle manager, with five young children and a wife to support, and I don’t have work-based health insurance. I work long hours when you take into account my daily commute, which keeps me away from my family for nearly twelve hours a day, and as such, balancing work with family life is a challenge.

And is my health suffering? You bet.

And as a result, is my work suffering and thus my employer’s performance suffering? You bet on that one too.

And do I speak to colleagues and friends who feel the same? Absolutely.

According to a Gallup study, over 85% of US employees are disengaged from their work, which costs their businesses up to $7…