Gravely ill have better quality of life than senior managers

According to a story by Gabrelle Monaghan in The Irish Times (premium content) senior managers in foreign companies in Ireland have a poorer quality of life than people living with terminal illnesses!

The cause? The increasing demands from their foreign bosses, instant communication and emails according Ciar¿n O'Boyle, professor of psychology at the Royal College of Surgeons in Dublin who examined 23 senior managers and 110 newly appointed managers.

He analysed their stress with a measure the college pioneered to examine the quality of life of hospital patients."For senior managers, the quality of life was lower than any group of patients we looked at, including those who are terminally ill and those with motor-neuron disease," Prof O'Boyle said."Newly appointed managers had a lower quality of life than patients with osteo-arthritis and peptic ulcers."

The research comes as Ireland observes Work/Life Balance Day, a Government initiative supported by State agencies that's aimed at encouraging companies to communicate or improve their work-life balance policies for staff. The managers examined for the study "work for global organisations and are so busy responding to demands - they're money rich and time poor", the professor said. "Technology such as Blackberries and e-mail has really allowed the urgency of demands to get the upper hand."If a company's parent is based on the west coast of the US, it creates a whole time-lag problem and a need for availability. There is the increasing sense that people are expected to be available 24/7."