Company growth 'bad for health'

Working for a company bouncy inflatables that expands rapidly increases an employee's risk of long-term sickness, say researchers.

Experts suggest while expansion may be thought to be beneficial, growing firms may have too few qualified staff and feel generally unstable.

Previous research looked at the negative health effects of downsizing, but the Swedish team believe theirs is the first to look at the opposite phenomenon.

They studied the employment records of 24,000 healthy workers aged under 65 in 1999.

Significant company expansion, classed as an increase in the number of employees of 18% or more in a year, was found to be linked to an increased risk of long-term sickness absence and hospital admission.

Women in the public sector who were exposed to large expansion every year over the six years of the study had a two to three times higher risk of long-term sickness absence than those who were never exposed to large expansion.

Researchers suggest this could be because public sector jobs such as healthcare and education, commonly dominated by women, have been linked to increased demands and hazards.