Low-Level Jobs More Stressful Than Boss's
Being a workplace drone may be hard on your heart
 (HealthDay News) -- Sure, the grass always seems greener on the other side of the fence. Low-level workers think the boss is unqualified and mean; the boss thinks the staff has no work ethic.
But research now has found that feeling stuck in a low-level job might actually be killing you.
Such a situation makes the heart beat faster and cuts its ability to respond to challenges, increasing the risk for heart disease, according to a 20-year study published in the journal Circulation.
This isn't the first time a link between worker status and heart disease has been found, said Eric Brunner, an assistant professor of epidemiology at University College London and a member of the research team. But the current study explains how it happens: "There is evidence now that socioeconomic status is related to heart rate and heart variability," he said.
The researchers studied what might be considered an ideal group: 2,197 men in the British civil service, where everyone is graded by salary. Lower heart rate variability -- a reduced response to stimuli -- and faster heart rates were found among the men with lower positions and less control over their jobs.
The heart rate of men in low-level positions averaged 3.2 more beats per minute than men in top-level positions, a statistically significant difference, the researchers reported. The study also found that a higher heart rate and lower heart variability were closely associated with the incidence of metabolic syndrome, a combination of factors that boosts heart disease risk.
But what about the low-level workers who smoked, didn't eat well or didn't exercise?
The link was still there, even when the researchers accounted for these lifestyle factors.
Employers need to learn from this study, Brunner told HealthDay. "The ideal would be that the work situation would change, and there are signs of that," he said. In Great Britain, "there is more attention being paid to making the workplace a more comfortable environment," Brunner said.
But the fact remains that senior executives have the most control over their conditions "and, as you proceed down the work hierarchy, it becomes increasingly difficult to take control over problematical situations," he said.
What to do? "Someone who feels stressed out or unhappy about a [bottom-rung] job should take very good care of themselves -- and give consideration to changing jobs," Brunner said.
Dr. Rita Redberg, a professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, called the findings "very interesting," but said the results couldn't be taken as gospel because the research was flawed.
One glaring omission was that there were no women included in the study, and the researchers didn't report on "end points," such as an increase in heart attacks and other cardiac problems in the lower-level employees, Redberg said.
"Heart rate variability is probably related to a lot of different things that have to do with fitness," she said. "You can't control for all of the other risk factors that might be responsible for the association they attribute to job status."
Redberg's conclusion: "It's a hypothesis-generating study, but we still need more data."
On the Web
To learn more about the hazards of job stress, visit the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health online.
SOURCES: HealthDay News; Eric Brunner, assistant professor of epidemiology, University College, London, England; Rita Redberg, M.D., professor of medicine, University of California, San Francisco; June 7, 2005, Circulation
Author: Anne Thompson
Publication Date: June 30, 2006
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