For the nearly 1 in 4 US adults with chronic pain, employers' expectations of a healthy body can lead to shame

[marmar]

For the nearly 1 in 4 US adults with chronic pain, employers’ expectations of a healthy body can lead to shame
Published: March 23, 2026 8:26am EDT

Beth Schinoff
Assistant Professor of Management, University of Delaware
Elana Feldman
Associate Professor of Management, UMass Lowell


(The Conversation) Your back pain gets worse as you sit through a long meeting. Your wrist pain flares when you’re typing furiously to meet a tight deadline. During a busy shift at the grocery store, you feel a migraine coming on.

If that sounds familiar, you’ve got plenty of company. About 1 in 4 U.S. adults suffer from chronic pain. The share who say they are in chronic pain either on most days or every day in the past three months is growing: It jumped by nearly 4 percentage points to 23% of U.S. adults in 2023, up from 19% in 2019.

Chronic pain is not only hard on workers trying to do their jobs, but it also takes a toll on employers and the economy as a whole by costing an estimated US$722 billion in lost productivity each year.

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We interviewed 66 people between 2019 and 2021. All of them said that they were in chronic pain – meaning pain that lasts for at least three months. They were all U.S. workers and at least 18 years old. They lived all over the country, in relatively more urban than rural areas. Our sample was 78% women because women tend to experience more chronic pain than men and tend to be more open to talking about their pain.

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Regardless of what job they had, people described a surprisingly similar pressure to perform despite their pain. From warehouse workers to lawyers, people felt they had no choice but to walk without a limp, lift heavy things and sit still during meetings. ...................(more)

https://theconversation.com/for-the-nearly-1-in-4-us-adults-with-chronic-pain-employers-expectations-of-a-healthy-body-can-lead-to-shame-278140

[FakeNoose]

1. I think it's the main reason why employers try to shed their older workers first

They don't wait for voluntary retirements any more.