The new disconnection
STEPHEN CRANSTON: Old Mutual's corporate disability monitor reveals some surprises
Focus has shifted from physical injuries to stress-related and psychological problems
When I saw that Old Mutual was publishing a corporate disability monitor I was looking forward to an analysis of all the crippled and walking-dead companies around. Would it have a go at its dysfunctional rival Liberty Life? There’s a website in America called Dead Malls, so why not set up a crippled companies website? Unfortunately, it wasn’t that kind of corporate disability. It was focused on how our work practices are leading to poor lifestyle and stress-induced diseases. The head of Old Mutual Corporate, Clement Chinaka, blames a great deal of this on the "always-on" culture — not that I have noticed much of that when I go to the main Old Mutual offices in sleepy Pinelands. To call the speed of action there snail’s pace would be an insult to snails.But Chinaka, who works out of the at least tortoise-paced Old Mutual office in Sandton, is quite observant of the world outside the Big Green. We have become physically disconnected from each other, he says. As we all know, millennia...
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