Ethics Sage Speaks Out About Psychosocial Risks in the Workplace
An International Labor Organization (ILO) report reveals that workplace psychosocial risks—including severe stress, long working hours, and harassment—are linked to 840,088 global deaths each year. This is an astounding figure. The key questions are why it happens and what can be done about it. According to AI,
Key Findings from the Report
- Annual Deaths & Impact: The study associates these toxic work environments with over 840,000 deaths annually, nearly 45 million lost disability-adjusted life years, and global economic losses of 1.37% of global GDP.
- Primary Health Consequences:
- Cardiovascular diseases (such as heart disease and stroke) account for the vast majority, causing 783,694 deaths.
- Mental health disorders (including depression, anxiety, burnout, and suicide) account for 56,394 deaths.
- Core Risk Factors:
- Long Working Hours: 35% of workers globally exceed 48 hours per week (peaking at 47% in the Asia-Pacific region).
- Harassment and Bullying: 23% of workers experience workplace violence or harassment (18% psychological/bullying, 9% physical, 6% sexual).
- Other Stressors: Job insecurity, high job demands with low personal control, and an effort-reward imbalance.
Psychosocial Risks
The underlying trigger of these disorders is what the study calls “psychosocial” effects of badly defined and managed jobs, increasing pressures to complete work, and lengthening hours required to perform tasks. Other factors include constant background fears of rising employment insecurity, and additional stress and emotional trauma that any workplace bullying or harassment can create.
“Psychosocial risks are becoming one of the most significant challenges for occupational safety and health in the modern world of work,” said Manal Azzi, the ILO’s team leader on occupational health policy and systems. “Improving the psychosocial working environment is essential not only for protecting workers’ mental and physical health, but also for strengthening productivity, organizational performance, and sustainable economic development.”
It may be tempting for American businesses owners to assume that most harmful working conditions that fuel psychosocial fatalities are probably more frequent and prevalent in foreign nations and workplaces the study also examined. Yet one of the major findings is that both globalization and broad-based technological advances are making the ways people are expected to perform various jobs increasingly similar around the world, regardless of where they are performed.
As a result, the negative environments and treatment that can arise while doing that work are becoming increasingly uniform internationally as well.
“While many psychosocial risks are not new, major transformations in the world of work, including digitalization, artificial intelligence, remote work, and new employment arrangements, are reshaping the psychosocial working environment,” the study noted. “These changes may intensify existing risks or create new ones if not properly addressed.”
What Can Employers Do?
A direct consequence for employers of negative psychosocial factors spreading across global workplaces are the “45 million disability-adjusted life years lost… to illness, disability, or premature death,” the ILO report notes. That shortfall translates into what the study estimates is 1.37 percent lower worldwide GDP every year—or an annual loss of about $1.6 trillion.
What can business owners do to prevent destructive psychosocial workplace forces from taking root in their companies—and identify and weed out those that already have?
The initial step is to make an effective and honest appraisal of how healthy the workplace is, paying extra attention to identify and eradicate any degree of bullying or harassment. From there, three major areas can be examined to uncover and measure the worst stressors that cause psychosocial problems.
The ILO stresses that these deaths are preventable by integrating psychosocial risk management directly into occupational safety and health systems. Key steps include:
- Improving workload management and job design
- Enforcing strict anti-bullying and anti-harassment policies
- Strengthening worker representation and social dialogue through trade unions.
The report advises employers to evaluate their broader framework of workplace policies, practices, and procedures. The objective is to gain a clear picture of how those shape the ways employees do their jobs, whether they are fairly rewarded for that, and how they’re treated by managers in performing their work.
“These include employment and working time arrangements, the management of organizational change, digital monitoring, performance and reward processes, OSHA policy and management systems, procedures to prevent violence and harassment at work, and mechanisms for worker consultation and participation.”
The ILO also urges national governments to take stock of the rising impacts of destructive psychosocial factors in the workplace, use their observations to reinforce their mix of employment and public health policies, and implement preventive controls and job design as follows:
- Balance Workloads: Adjust job demands, provide adequate tools and technology to cut down errors, and clarify ambiguous roles (only 50% of global workers clearly agree on what is expected of them).
- Promote Work-Life Balance: Offer flexible working options, encourage regular breaks, and respect a “right to disconnect” during non-working hours.
- Control Physical and Environmental Factors: Where possible, remove or isolate environmental stressors like excessive noise or poor lighting.
These recommendations make sense. However, what it comes down to is the critical importance of establishing an ethical culture. There is no place for harassment or bullying in the workplace. Leaders must set an ethical tone that creates, what I call, an empathetic and caring work environment. Employees must be convinced that management is concerned about their wellbeing and will do whatever it takes to create an ethical workplace experience.
Blog posted by Steven Mintz, PhD on November 3, 2026. Dr, Mintz is a professor emeritus from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. You can contact him at: smintz@calpoly.edu. Visit his website to find out more about his activities.