Stressing your money away

Constantly negotiating with other drivers, keeping all reflexes on high alert and not knowing what the neighbouring car's next move is going to be is what enlarges that vein in your forehead.

Traffic congestion is a daily issue not only in Dubai, Sharjah or Abu Dhabi but around the world. As inconvenient as it is to spend an hour or two in traffic, it is not only time that is wasted but also emotions.

Salem A. Al Shafiei, a senior planning and development advisor at the Abu Dhabi department of transport, said that the UAE wastes around Dh10.5 billion in its gross domestic product (GDP) annually because of traffic congestion. The increase in stress levels reduces productivity and the quality of work thus disturbing workflow and the company's output.

He said: "You have to understand that doing this every day produces negative affects, such as bad behaviour, on the employee and that affects them psychologically."

Due to the lack of properly documented statistics on the effects of traffic-related stress in work, we look at a hypothetical example to get an idea of how much is wasted due to traffic.

Fictitious Fabu works in an advertising firm in Dubai. Due to traffic congestion Fabu is frequently late to work and stresses over it every day.

His concentration level and productivity decreases before presentations to clients.

Al Shafiei said: "Creativity and generating ideas are disrupted when a person is preoccupied with something else. This is because the person is tired from this daily challenge [of traffic]."

Fabu's weak performance led to the company losing the Dh500,000 deal with the client as well as his chances of a Dh5,000 commission.

The half million contract loss, costs the company its expansion and research plans. Fabu loses money and his boss is very unhappy with him.

According to Al Shafiei, relationships between the employee and other people during work are changed from stress and would usually lead to miscommunication.

At the end of the day, Fabu breaks the news to his family about the day's events and transfers the negative emotions, which lowers his wife's productivity at work the next day.

Stress from traffic affects people, their emotions and ultimately the economy.

What a waste!