The Pace That Kills

Does the high pressure of their jobs cause top corporation executives to burn out faster and die earlier than other men? Though industry still lacks the statistics to make a watertight case, the answer seems to be yeas. After checking the health of more than 25,000 executives averaging 45.6 years old, New York's Extension Examiners found that only 20% were in normal health. In Chicago's Michael Reese Hospital, three doctors examined 55 executives under so years of age, found only three entirely free from organic disorders. Of 340 Standard Oil (N J.) executives reporting for a medical checkup, 235 had something wrong and 192 had ills that would materially affect their working lives.

Six Years Too Soon. Faced with such facts, U.S. corporations have awakened to the acute need to help prolong the lives of their executives. As the tempo of industrial life speeded up during the war so did the death rate. In General Motors alone, 189 of its top management group died in five war years. Good executives scarce enough in wartime, have become even harder to get in the postwar boom. Companies which once regarded an executive as expendable but fortunately replaceable have changed their thinking.

Some experts estimate that a $20,000-a-year executive represents a $250,000 investment by his company. And the American Fidelity & Casualty Co. has found that the average businessman dies six years before his time, thus losing for the company a sizable investment. As long ago as the 1930s, a few companies like Standard Oil of New Jersey set up company health programs with a limited emphasis on the protection of executives. But to most companies, the fallacy in lavishing care on their machines while neglecting their men, is a recent revelation. No longer is an ulcer the badge of loyal devotion, a spare tire around the midriff an excuse for a gibe. They are visible signs of the depreciation of a valuable company asset. By last week the concern had become so great that Dr Harry J. Johnson, director of the Life Extension Examiners, could confidentially describe health programs as "the hottest thing in medicine today."

Waste of Time? In starting health programs, many a corporation got off on the wrong foot by making periodic medical examinations mandatory for its management group. The result was that many executives complained about the "waste of time" involved in checkups. The real reason was their fear that something would be found wrong and that it would prejudice the boss against them.

Instead of a mandatory checkup, most corporations have changed to voluntary ones--and the results are confidential between doctor and patient. Today, of the 450 companies which the American Management Association considers to have good medical programs, only a few still require a report on each man to the company president. But companies like Ford, Du Pont, General Motors and Jones & Laughlin, all of which have voluntary programs, make it abundantly clear to executives that it is a good idea to be examined.

The Last Resort. Because few companies have adequate facilities to give exhaustive examinations, many send executives to such outside clinics as Detroit's Henry Ford Hospital, Boston's Lahey Clinic and New York's Life Extension Examiners. For many hard-driving executives, however, the prospect of spending three days idling in bed is too deadly an ordeal. To take care of them, there is an entirely new kind of clinic, where prescriptions are mixed with fun.

Most lavish is the Greenbrier Clinic, set up in a wing of the Greenbrier Hotel in 1948 by the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad. Now, 45 big companies send their executives to the Greenbrier periodically for a leisurely, three-day checkup on the company (cost: $100, plus hotel-room charges). Executives may take their wives (many clients foot the hotel bill for wives too) and play golf or swim between medical examinations. Said the wife of one recent visitor: "The only time in years I have spent so long with my husband at one time was when he was at the Greenbrier."

With this sugar-coating on the pill, the executive usually is willing to undergo the numerous tests. While these are going on, one of the Greenbrier's doctors gives him a light psychiatric once-over, looking for hidden tensions in his office or home life. In most cases, Greenbrier's director, Dr. James P. Baker, has found that executives take treatment for ailments detected. Nine out of ten whose examinations show organic troubles undergo surgery or change their habits. Six out of ten patients found overweight start reducing. To help them, companies like Du Pont have developed special diets; Westinghouse's executive dining room features a 350-calorie "Waistliner" lunch each day and posts a calorie count after every item on its menu.

Living Assets. Corporations with health programs (which range in cost from $35 to $125 a year for each executive) are convinced that they are hardheaded business investments. In the 18,000 examinations that General Motors executives have undergone since 1944, ailments such as gall bladder trouble, which could be cured by a change of diet, serious sinus infections and potentially fatal malignancies which required surgery have been discovered. In G.M.'s program, the director Dr. Max Burnell, has calculated that 422 persons underwent operations after the examinations disclosed hidden ailments. Jones & Laughlin's medical director, Dr. John Laurer, believes that health programs also pay an extra bonus in morale and better productivity. Said he: "When an executive doesn't have to worry about his health, he feels and works better."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.