Employees pay mental health costs for big business deals

Two new arti­cles, one Cana­dian, present some infor­ma­tive con­clu­sions about the health effects of merg­ers and acqui­si­tions — a rel­e­vant topic amid our cur­rent period of eco­nomic uncertainty.

Cana­dian researchers fol­lowed 3,280 ran­domly selected employ­ees for one year, assess­ing them along the way for job expo­sure to merg­ers and acqui­si­tions as well as men­tal health dis­or­ders. As reported in the National post:

Sur­prise, sur­prise: The employ­ees who endured merg­ers or acqui­si­tions had a much higher inci­dence of gen­er­al­ized anx­i­ety dis­or­der com­pared to those who did not

How­ever, the sec­ond study, con­ducted by Dutch researchers, presents an inter­est­ing mul­ti­fac­to­r­ial cau­sa­tion model. Research ana­lyzed exactly how the process of restruc­tur­ing harmed the health of the peo­ple who sur­vived it. The conclusion?

It’s not the restruc­tur­ing itself, but the job inse­cu­rity that’s so harm­ful. The researchers spec­u­lated that the cause was mul­ti­fac­to­r­ial. When fac­ing job inse­cu­rity, peo­ple expe­ri­enced anx­i­ety and ele­vated heart rates.

Source: National post

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