BMJ  2004;328:590 (6 March), doi:10.1136/bmj.328.7439.590-a

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Downsizing

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The internet is generally regarded as a democratic medium, a marketplace of information open to anyone with a mouse and a modem. It is surprising, then, that sites about the effects on health of organisational downsizing—the subject of a paper in this week's BMJ (p 555)—seem stacked more in employers' than in employees' favour. While there are several papers available online showing that downsizing can adversely affect health—search "the world's largest online library" (www.questia.com) or PubMed Central (www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/) for these—campaigning sites seem scarce. Instead, searching on www.google.com brings up links sponsored by companies offering occupational health services to businesses to help them, for example, reduce cost of sickness absence or "rehabilitate" stressed or absent employees (www.healthmanltd.com/ and www.matrix-ms.com/).

However, there are some interesting online initiatives. Timesizing.com is a US-based site that campaigns to downsize the working week rather than the workforce (. . . [Full text of this article]

BMJ tjackson@bmj.com

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Relevant Article

Organisational downsizing, sickness absence, and mortality: 10-town prospective cohort study

Jussi Vahtera, Mika Kivimäki, Jaana Pentti, Anne Linna, Marianna Virtanen, Pekka Virtanen, and Jane E Ferrie
BMJ 2004 328: 555. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

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