Richard Morin, Washington Post Sep 25, 2002
Boring jobs can kill you. At least that's the claim of researchers from the University of Texas School of Public Health.
The researchers found that workers who spent their lives in undemanding jobs with little control over their work were 35 percent more likely to die during a 10-year period than workers in challenging jobs with lots of decision-making responsibilities, after controlling for other relevant factors.
Professor Benjamin C. Amick III and his research team analyzed data collected annually by the University of Michigan, based on surveys from about 7,500 individuals.
The workers were divided into four categories based on their answers to questions that measured how much latitude they had to decide what work to do and how to do it, the psychological demands their job placed on them and other factors. On one extreme were low-stress jobs with little decision-making responsibilities, such as maintenance worker or housekeeper.
At the other extreme were jobs with lots of demands and lots of freedom to make decisions, such as high-stress managerial positions -- precisely the kind of jobs that people typically think can shorten your life span.
Well, apparently those high-pressure jobs don't kill you -- or at least not as quickly as boring jobs, the findings suggest.
"This alienating work could result in social disengagement and/or adopting of high-risk behaviors," such as eating, drinking or smoking too much, Amick wrote.
http://www.startribune.com/stories/389/3320805.html
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/ dave /