Is Unfulfilling Work Slowly Killing You?
The negative health effects of poor lifestyle and stress are well documented. Low wage work correlates with higher levels of cardiovascular illness and earlier death caused by factors which include the following:
Poor lifestyle is strongly tied to poverty and low wage work. So far this is familiar territory. If you have a job that doesn’t pay well you struggle to live and your health takes the biggest hit. This often results in much higher instances of depression, heart problems, some cancers, high blood pressure and diabetes.
Time and money are the two most valuable resources there are. If your job leaves you with little of either the bad news is that both your health and life span suffer.
This leads most people to conclude that we should all try our best to earn as much money as possible. Even if your work is unfulfilling and uninteresting you can retire early and sit by the pool for the rest of your life, right?
The Whitehall Studies.
From 1967–1977 and 1985–1988 scientist Micheal Marmot conducted The Whitehall Studies. The first study group was male subjects only and the second group was male and female subjects. A long term follow up of the subjects involved is still ongoing.
Named after Whitehall in London the study examined mortality rates among people working in the British Civil Service. The highly stratified hierarchy of positions within the Civil Service allowed the study to investigate what is now called “status syndrome”. Status syndrome describes the tendency for high ranking workers to be healthier than lower ranking workers.
The Whitehall Studies showed that within the Civil Service there was a strong correlation between working in the lowest positions in the hierarchy and a higher risk of early death, particularly from cardiovascular disease. The positions were ranked from lower grade, such as doorkeepers, all the way up to the top grade which was administrators.
In fact, in the first study the mortality rate was three times as high in men of the lowest grade compared to men of the highest.
Two surprising things were thrown up by the Whitehall Studies.
The first surprise was that the additional responsibility and perceived stress of high ranking positions did not translate into higher instances of cardiovascular problems. The stress of having large amounts of decision making responsibility did not show higher rates of heart problems as was expected. The boss of the company is the one everyone expects to drop dead of a heart attack but it turns out that’s not always true.
Secondly, when other factors were excluded the higher ranking workers still had better life expectancy. Therefore, a low ranking worker with a good lifestyle was still at a disadvantage compared to a high ranking one with a less than perfect lifestyle.
The “X factor” in the formula is the feeling of purpose and personal autonomy. If you have this your health and life expectancy benefits. If you don’t then even with a healthy lifestyle you are negatively effected.
This study by Gallup reveals that only 13% of employees globally are actively engaged or committed to their work. 63 % were not engaged or lacking motivation and interest. 24% were actively disengaged meaning they felt very negative about their work and were likely to express this in their workplace as well as at home. This means roughly 900 million not engaged and 340 million actively disengaged workers across the globe.
That’s a lot of people who lack a sense of purpose and a feeling of control. Much less any feeling that the work they do everyday has value.
Sadly, it doesn’t get better when after years of thankless toil you get to retire. If you haven’t found and established a fulfilling purpose before retirement the absence of it afterwards will be even more keenly felt. Risk of depression is known to rise sharply after retirement along with all of it’s associated health risks.
These days human beings enjoy a high standard of living fueled by technology. We live in a world where pretty much anyone with an internet connection can work, earn and set up their own business or venture. You can connect with like-minded people from all over the world. Multiple platforms exist to facilitate and further entrepreneurial aims.
It doesn’t matter whether you have a job to pay the bills or a business to create wealth. Fulfillment and purpose are more than just nice, optional add ons. As human beings we need to feel that our actions have purpose and meaning.
You need to think that what you do is valuable and you need other people to recognize that value. Likes and clicks may give you a rush but actual human interactions matter more. One of the reasons people in the blue zones may experience greater longevity is that they are surrounded by people who value them for who they are.
A sense of purpose and a pride in the effects of your actions on people and the world around you taps into your hard wired humanity.
Seeing the impact and good our hard work creates has a powerful, positive effect on us. Yes, you can work hard to earn big bucks and then retire early. All the while frantically trying to maintain your health by any means possible for the sake of longevity and quality of life. Sometimes however the low hanging fruit is what everyone misses.
Is Unfulfilling Work Slowly Killing You?
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