Gas Pains: Pump Prices Distract U.S. Workers

Crippling Crude: The upward spiral in U.S. gas prices is exerting numerous secondary impacts on employees, according to a Florida State University business professor. Wayne Hochwarter says obsession with filling their tanks has employees feeling blue and inattentive on the job. Hochwarter surveyed more than 800 full-time employees this spring, mostly in the southeastern U.S., and found they were “simply unable to detach themselves from the stress caused by escalating gas prices as they walked through the doors at work.” In fact, price gouging at the pump is foremost in the minds of stress-filled workers, prompting 52 percent to abandon summer vacations, 45 percent to halt debt payments and 30 percent to consider “going without basics” of food, clothing and medical treatment.

About half (45 percent) blame soaring gas prices with causing them to fall behind financially, nearly 40 percent say their standard of living is precipitously declining, and one in three would jump at the chance to take a comparable job closer to home.