By Aswad Walker
High-stress, low-reward jobs are not only bad for your financial bottom line, they are literally deadly, especially for Black men.
Research recently published in “Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes” shows that men working high-stress jobs yet receiving “low reward” experience double the risk of heart disease compared to men free of those stressors. And, as usual, the bad news is even worse for the brothers.
“Considering the significant amount of time people spend at work, understanding the relationship between work stressors and cardiovascular health is crucial for public health and workforce well-being,” said lead study author Mathilde Lavigne-Robichaud, R.D., M.S., doctoral candidate, Population Health and Optimal Health Practices Research Unit, CHU de Quebec-University Laval Research Center in Quebec, Canada as shared in an article by the American Heart Association. “Our study highlights the pressing need to proactively address stressful working conditions, to create healthier work environments that benefit employees and employers.”
Black men have a 70% higher risk of heart failure compared with white men.
america heart association
Heart disease is the No. 1 cause of death in the U.S., according to American Heart Association statistics. In 2020, nearly 383,000 Americans died of heart disease. However, cardiovascular disease hits some people, especially Blacks, harder than others. For example, 47% of Black adults have been diagnosed with cardiovascular disease, compared with 36% of white adults. Additionally, Black men have a 70% higher risk of heart failure compared with white men.
Black men have a shorter life expectancy than almost all other U.S. demographic groups. According to KFF (formerly Kaiser Health News), provisional data for 2021 showed life expectancy was lowest for AIAN (American Indian and Alaska Native) people at 65.2 years, followed by Blacks (70.8 years). Asians (83.5) and Hispanics (77.7) were the top two, followed by whites (76.4). Different reports show different numbers, but they all have Blacks at the bottom, and Black women outliving Black men.
For Black men, mortality is affected by a wide range of biopsychosocial risk exposures during critical periods of the life course, one of which is the point when Black men become involved in the workforce and are exposed to work-related stress, according to an article published by the National Library of Medicine.
Making matters worse is the generational presence of systemic racism in the forms of employment inequality, the racial wealth gap, and educational inequalities which lessen earning potential. And in a society that defines a large part of manhood by one’s ability to earn money and provide for a family, all while Black men are one of the least rewarded (via salary level, raises, recognitions, etc.) on the job, the recipe for stress-related health disasters is ever-present.
Research has shown that two psychosocial stressors — job strain and effort-reward imbalance at work — may increase heart disease risk. Oddly, few studies have examined the combined effect.
Effort-reward imbalance occurs when employees invest high effort into their work, but they perceive the rewards they receive in return — such as salary, recognition or job security — as insufficient or unequal to the effort.
Mathilde Lavigne-Robichaud, lead study author
“Job strain refers to work environments where employees face a combination of high job demands and low control over their work. High demands can include a heavy workload, tight deadlines and numerous responsibilities, while low control means the employee has little say in decision-making and how they perform their tasks,” stated Lavigne-Robichaud.
“Effort-reward imbalance occurs when employees invest high effort into their work, but they perceive the rewards they receive in return — such as salary, recognition or job security — as insufficient or unequal to the effort. For instance, if you’re always going above and beyond, but you feel like you’re not getting the credit or rewards you deserve, that’s called effort-reward imbalance.”
“In my circle of brothers, there isn’t one who doesn’t feel underpaid, under-appreciated and consistently overlooked for promotions at the J-O-B,” said Houston-area accountant Kenneth Simpson. “And I have homeboys at every spectrum of the earning ladder; some making banks, others living paycheck-to-paycheck.
Simpson said he knows “too many brothers” who have had heart attacks or heart issues, but never equated them to their job dissatisfaction.”
“Man, as a brother, we know from jump life is hard and stress is normal. It is what it is.”
And what it is leads to heart disease, the top killer of Black men in the U.S., and a disease many physicians view as an older white male condition, becoming more prevalent among younger brothers.
In 2007, then 28-year-old DeAndre Gaines, on his way to work, experienced dizziness and an abnormal pounding of his heart.
“It just didn’t feel right,” Gaines told a Louisville, KY WHAS 11 reporter. Hours later, he woke up in an emergency room to the news that he experienced heart failure. By the end of the day, Gaines was given a pacemaker – at 28 years old.
Nearly half of Black people, according to one survey, are dissatisfied with their jobs. A Survey conducted by Kickstand Communications showed two main reasons 49% of Black workers are seeking new jobs. First, many Black workers (43%) fed up with a hostile work environment (constant microaggressions from coworkers and leadership) want new jobs.
Second, Black workers dissatisfied with their jobs say their employers are “talking out the side of their necks,” claiming to prioritize DEIB (diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging) while actually, not so much.
Pew Research reveals more Black worker job dissatisfaction, with higher-income earners more likely than lower and middle-income earners (the two groups most populated by Black workers) to say they’re satisfied with their job; lower-income earners being less likely to have access to key employer-sponsored benefits (ex:paid time off for vacations, doctor’s appointments and minor illnesses, health insurance, and retirement programs such as 401(k)s); and Black workers’ own specific testimonies about experiencing job discrimination. Some 41% of Black workers, in fact, say that at some point they have experienced discrimination or been treated unfairly by an employer in hiring, pay or promotions because of their race or ethnicity compared to 8% of white workers and 20% of Hispanic workers.
The study reported on by the AHA found:
- Men exposed to stressful working conditions who also felt that they put forth high effort but received low reward had twice the risk of heart disease compared to men who were free of those psychosocial stressors.
- The impact of job strain and effort-reward imbalance combined was similar to the magnitude of the impact of obesity on the risk of coronary heart disease, in the study of nearly 6,500 white-collar workers in Canada.
- Results on how work stress affects women’s heart health were inconclusive.
But what that study missed, and what most Blacks already know, these negative realities play out with Black people in general, and Black men specifically in ways the produce more detrimental health outcomes.