Last week, I wrote here about the latest study on how stress is affecting people in our modern workplace. Nearly half of the workers (48 percent) surveyed in the latest Staying@Work report from Watson Wyatt and the National Business Group on Health said that the stress of working long hours is affecting business performance, but only 5 percent of businesses are really doing anything about it.

Here’s another view on stress in the workplace: A Miami Herald story titled “Stress is a threat to workers and companies.” I was stuck by a couple of points made in the story:

• “Today, earning a living has become so competitive that even in toxic workplaces, staffers believe their identities remain tied to their jobs,” the story said. “The resulting threat to companies is not just higher absenteeism from stress-related illness, but that those who do show up underperform, lose focus easily or argue with co-workers.”

• “Consider this: One-third of Americans live with extreme stress and 48 percent believe their stress has increased over the past five years. For 75 percent of Americans, money and work were the top stressors, according to American Psychological Association’s Stress in America survey.”

• “Even worse, a new study found the suicide rate among 45- to 54-year-olds (people in their prime working years) shot up 20 percent from 1999 to 2004, the latest year studied, far outpacing changes in nearly every other age group. At the same time, the use of antidepressants among U.S. workers continues to soar.”

It’s a sobering story and just another reminder of how workplace stress is out of control in many organizations and threatening to erode productivity and, ultimately, profitability.

And one more thing from the Herald story: “Work-life balance no longer is a luxury,” says psychologist Ken Siegel. “If you lose your job you better have a great social network.” This is a point I made here earlier this week. Siegel also made another suggestion: Become self-aware. “Don’t go into a state of denial things will get better, that your industry will recover, because it encourages you to become passive.”

What is it about stress in the workplace these days? Is it really getting worse, or are we just more aware that it’s around and are better at identifying the telltale signs? I’d love to hear your opinion about it—either posted here or sent to me directly at jhollon@workforce.com.