Let’s End Financial Stress Together

Our first Vision Statement: “To end financial stress for workers globally.”

Of all the concepts we might have chosen, why this, and why does it matter to you, the employer?

To understand why, we first must begin with you, the employer.  Consider your day from when you wake up to when you go to sleep.  As you attend to the day’s activities – eating breakfast, commuting to work, interacting with your staff, coming home, seeing your family, enjoying your downtime – how often does some form of stress impinge on those activities?

Perhaps you are experiencing emotional discord with family members – spouse, kids, siblings, or parents.  Perhaps you are worried about moving.  Maybe you are hoping to get a better mortgage rate.  You have lost a meaningful memento from your life.  Your neighbor’s dog won’t stop barking.  You are worried about a medical procedure or diagnosis.

Choose the most stressful thing you’ve had to deal with in the past few years.  Recall how you felt during that period when this thing was nagging at you, or worse.  Recall how you couldn’t concentrate as much on work, or really be present for your family or children.  Recall how even when you tried to do enjoy yourself like watch TV or read a book, that thing was always there.

Now, put yourself in the shoes of someone who lives with that excessive stress every minute or every hour of every day.  It never ends.  It never lets up.  It is always on one’s mind.

There are tens of millions of people in America alone who live like this.  They are unable to live a stress-free life, much less one that might be fulfilling and meaningful. 

By partnering with PayActiv, you have given your employees the ability to remove the financial stress from their lives.

Stress doesn’t merely contribute to one’s unhappiness.  It has a detrimental holistic effect to the human body and mind and, by extension, to others who are close to the afflicted.

Just how bad can this form of chronic financial stress be?  It can be devastating.  The Dartmouth Undergraduate Journal of Science suggests that, with ongoing stress, a hormone called cortisol is over-produced, which affects proper brain functions.  Specifically, it may disrupt synapse regulation, and shrink the prefrontal cortex, which handles memory and learning.  It can also increase the size of the amygdala, which can make the brain even more receptive to stress.

It triggers the “fight-or-flight” response, creating a vicious cycle in which the afflicted may respond by constantly living in that state.  There is also a positive correlation between high cortisol levels and depression. 

That constant state of guardedness filters into the body, creating stress-related disorders like migraines, back pain, and other musculoskeletal disorders.  The heart must pump harder, increasing blood pressure.  Because cortisol is partially responsible for regulating the immune system and controlling inflammation, consistently high levels of it can impair communication with the immune system, compromising it.  The gastrointestinal system triggers higher stomach acid production, creating heartburn and increasing the risks of esophageal cancer and ulcers.

As you can see, constant financial stress creates a cascade of health issues that can turn a person into a walking chronic illness.

That’s no way to live.

Why mention all these detrimental effects?  When we were creating our Vision Statements we knew that employers, the media, and policymakers needed to understand stress the way the average worker lives it. 

Financial stress isn’t just an inconvenience.  It is the single biggest obstacle to any person achieving a sense of security, one of the three cornerstones of our Mission Statement – Security, Dignity, and Savings For All.

Without security, one is not truly living.  Only when a person feels secure can they even begin to consider ways to enhance their lives. 

By partnering with PayActiv, you have handed a tool that will reduce or remove financial stress, and set your employees – your workers, your people – on the path to a secure life of living and not just surviving.