Not hypothetically. In reality.
I am a strong advocate of working hard, and playing hard. Quite often, these two can mix and cause damage. Or great success if the timing is right. Now we all work hard, right? Grinding away, making sure things get done, people get paid, and our business grows well. Long hours, extra tasks, extra stress, it's all in the name of creating a better life and business. No time to rest- the business isn't waiting. It needs to be constantly fed, constantly maintained! Well. I've got news for you.
Not taking a vacation can actually kill you.
Not immediately of course. But it can. The article included above, written by an actual doctor opposed to some random blogger like myself, states that a study comprised of 12 thousand men was conducted over the course of 14 years. It found that "...taking multiple vacations, up to five a year, resulted in a 32% lower chance of death from all causes, compared to the men who didn't take vacations." That's pretty powerful.
In a different view, this blogger (I had to include one) takes a more philosophical approach to a vacation saving your life. His views are simple: we work too much, and we forget that there is more to life than your next work shift. Vacations aren't the thing that's important. It's the break, the ability to unwind, the ability to let your guard down. That's what really matters. You don't have to go anywhere to do whatever you want, to be honest.
And let's not forget about one of the most insidious killers in the United States. Stress. Chronic stress has a LOT of health problems associated with it. I mean, you name it. Heart attack, high blood pressure, stroke. But here's the funny thing.
What I find the most alarming is the contradictory nature of the "more work is better" model. We work hard. Forever. Never taking vacations, always mired in responsibility and stress, and then? We wind up dead for all our trouble. So...work has to cease when you're dead, correct? So how is this model helping anyone? It's not, that's how.
Vacations are not excuses to be lazy. Rather, they are rewards for a lot of hard work that we all do. If we cannot reward ourselves, how will we even know when we get the carrot attached to the stick that we've been following for so long?
Showing posts with label heart disease. Show all posts
Showing posts with label heart disease. Show all posts
Thursday, October 31, 2013
Wednesday, March 13, 2013
Can an Office Job Kill You?
Some of us sit at a desk all day tak tak takking at a computer. And although these people don't move much, that doesn't mean they are lazy. But. Inactivity is inactivity, no matter how much work you get done at your seat. When I did the research for this article, I was a little disturbed to find this one: Death by Cubicle. Me? I thought that there was some minor health risks, but the cubicle can be far more insidious than I thought. Strange, using insidious to describe something so...benign and bland.
But, I get ahead of myself. I was only thinking about no movement, or perhaps poor diet when I first started this entry, but I was surprised to find that cubicles promote bacteria growth. And not the everyday stuff your body's immune system can just atomize, but potentially dangerous microbes that can make you ill. And it's not just bacteria. Poor ventilation in a building, combined with construction, fungus, and other particulates can cause occupational asthma, which is a freakin' shock to me. Poor ventilation (among a whole host of other things) can also cause sick building syndrome. Combine these phenomena with the fact that many people feel obligated to go to work when they're sick, and you have a dangerous environment that is completely invisible to the naked eye.
People also sitting at desks all day may have poor working conditions starting with simple things like seating, and computer monitor distance. Take a look at this check list and to the inventory the website says. How's your posture? Can your seat be adjusted? What about your keyboard? Do you have wrist support? Back support? The list goes on and on.
Psychological effects are abound as well. Evidently, according to this article, minor distractions from your co-workers, like them chatting on their cellphones, chatting with other workers, etc. can add up day after day after day and just break you down. This increases stress levels, and when chronic stress settles in, the human body falls apart. Hell, any sentient being breaks down.
Should you quit your office job? No. Should you be aware of yourself and your health? Yes. As adults in the working world, we all have responsibilities and intelligence (at least we should...). We use judgement, good ole' fashioned common sense and logic to know what's good for us, and what's bad. You know when something hurts. You know when you're stressed. So, as an adult, you must control yourself within an uncontrollable environment.
So what can you do? After mere seconds, I found an entire LIST of stuff you can do to keep your body healthy. While you're at your desk! Combine that with proper diet and some stress relief breathing exercises and you're going to be feeling much better.
Work is hard. Period. I don't care if you're building a house, or filing a report. Work breaks us down, wears us out, and makes us tired. But, work is something that can also be rewarding, fun, and satisfying. Don't let the world break ya down. Stay strong, work hard, and for the love of everything good, TAKE A BREAK!
If you don't think you've earned it, you probably have.
 |
| Source |
But, I get ahead of myself. I was only thinking about no movement, or perhaps poor diet when I first started this entry, but I was surprised to find that cubicles promote bacteria growth. And not the everyday stuff your body's immune system can just atomize, but potentially dangerous microbes that can make you ill. And it's not just bacteria. Poor ventilation in a building, combined with construction, fungus, and other particulates can cause occupational asthma, which is a freakin' shock to me. Poor ventilation (among a whole host of other things) can also cause sick building syndrome. Combine these phenomena with the fact that many people feel obligated to go to work when they're sick, and you have a dangerous environment that is completely invisible to the naked eye.
 |
| Source |
People also sitting at desks all day may have poor working conditions starting with simple things like seating, and computer monitor distance. Take a look at this check list and to the inventory the website says. How's your posture? Can your seat be adjusted? What about your keyboard? Do you have wrist support? Back support? The list goes on and on.
 |
| Source |
Psychological effects are abound as well. Evidently, according to this article, minor distractions from your co-workers, like them chatting on their cellphones, chatting with other workers, etc. can add up day after day after day and just break you down. This increases stress levels, and when chronic stress settles in, the human body falls apart. Hell, any sentient being breaks down.
 |
| Source |
Should you quit your office job? No. Should you be aware of yourself and your health? Yes. As adults in the working world, we all have responsibilities and intelligence (at least we should...). We use judgement, good ole' fashioned common sense and logic to know what's good for us, and what's bad. You know when something hurts. You know when you're stressed. So, as an adult, you must control yourself within an uncontrollable environment.
So what can you do? After mere seconds, I found an entire LIST of stuff you can do to keep your body healthy. While you're at your desk! Combine that with proper diet and some stress relief breathing exercises and you're going to be feeling much better.
Work is hard. Period. I don't care if you're building a house, or filing a report. Work breaks us down, wears us out, and makes us tired. But, work is something that can also be rewarding, fun, and satisfying. Don't let the world break ya down. Stay strong, work hard, and for the love of everything good, TAKE A BREAK!
If you don't think you've earned it, you probably have.
Wednesday, January 16, 2013
Stress and Working Yourself to Death
We all must work. Whether it is an honest job or not, we all work somehow. Many of us, however, work ourselves to the point where we can no longer work. Doesn't have to be physical. Some of the hardest workers I know barely lift anything over 5 pounds in their work day. But this is the point of this whole damn entry- most of us, and I mean as a nation (U.S.A.), work way too long, and way too hard.
Where does it end? With debt, cost of living, unexpected expenses, most people have to work two or three jobs just to make ends meet. Many other countries that we share the planet with set a maximum hour limit to a work week. America does not. We also among the countries that have the most of our men and women working over 40 hours a week.
There are no laws regulating paid sick days (a company does not have to offer them) and employers expect more and more and more from us on average as money and resources get tighter. The article listed in this paragraph begun to suggest that this type of cycle is more insidious than circumstantial: and that's not just me whining- there is only so much a human being can do in a day before work suffers. Before life suffers.
Here's a look at offered vacation days around the world that'll make you sad:
Don't understand the graph? Me either. So, I found this webpage that details it all. And I quote:
"This report reviewed international vacation and holiday laws and found that the United States is the only advanced economy that does not guarantee its workers any paid vacation or holiday."
Now of course this doesn't mean that NO-ONE takes vacation days, but what I found interesting is that Americans actually wind up giving back vacation days, i.e. not using them. In this article, it is stated that, "In 2009, harrumphs Expedia, Americans 'gave back' a total of 436m vacation days." That number has probably increased since then. If we do get offered vacation days, sometimes we don't take them to try and do more at work to get ahead. When we do take them, we typically don't use all of them, and sometimes? We can't use all our vacation days if they're not paid. We can't afford to miss work!
What have we become? Forget America for a second. What has a human being become? We just...work until death? Is that what we are? A tireless, bio-machine that simply goes to work, keeps working, and then expires without retirement benefits. People. We're not meant to live our lives this way.
Easier said than done of course. But. Yes, there's always but. But. I wanted to see what working does to your body. According to this website, "the latest findings discovered by scientists at the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health support results from a 2011 British survey that revealed that doing more than 11 hours of work a day raised heart disease risks by 67 percent." The article then suggested that poor diet, lack of exercise (these two most commonly associated with office jobs in my opinion AND from personal experience) creates a well? In a word? Fatal combination.
Then, being under the constant stress of working all the time, your body produces cortisol, which is good in short amounts, but when your bloodstream is flooded with the stuff 24/7, you can see all sorts of dangerous side effects, like increased blood pressure, and a compromised immune response. And then, you can enjoy a nice heart attack for all you hard work and dedication.
But as Americans, we work more than most other 1st world countries. Which is startling. Aren't we always told that Americans have zero work ethic? Have no spine for true, hard work? Not all of us. Some? Sure. But not all of us. Not me. Probably not you, either. Here's what I found (quote taken from here):
"The UN International Labour Organisation said the average Australian, Canadian and Japanese worker worked about 100 hours, or 2.5 weeks less than the average American per year. Brazilians and British workers worked 250 hours, or more than five weeks less, while Germans worked roughly 500 hours, or 12.5 weeks less."
We all work hard. But it seems that America is working the "hardest". And this is not a completely good thing. Americans, whether they were born and raised here, or immigrated from a different land, work way too much. Race doesn't play into it. Location does. Why America? Why do we demand so much for so little? Why are we not the only ones thinking this way? I have no idea. One could speculate, of course. Economy, ethics, greed, this list could go on and on. But the fact of the matter is we, humans, all work too hard. Life winds up becoming weekend to weekend, and if you work on the weekend, you may have no rest at all!
So what are we to do? I don't know.
Do you?
Where does it end? With debt, cost of living, unexpected expenses, most people have to work two or three jobs just to make ends meet. Many other countries that we share the planet with set a maximum hour limit to a work week. America does not. We also among the countries that have the most of our men and women working over 40 hours a week.
There are no laws regulating paid sick days (a company does not have to offer them) and employers expect more and more and more from us on average as money and resources get tighter. The article listed in this paragraph begun to suggest that this type of cycle is more insidious than circumstantial: and that's not just me whining- there is only so much a human being can do in a day before work suffers. Before life suffers.
Here's a look at offered vacation days around the world that'll make you sad:
 | ||
| Source: http://20somethingfinance.com/american-hours-worked-productivity-vacation/ |
"This report reviewed international vacation and holiday laws and found that the United States is the only advanced economy that does not guarantee its workers any paid vacation or holiday."
Now of course this doesn't mean that NO-ONE takes vacation days, but what I found interesting is that Americans actually wind up giving back vacation days, i.e. not using them. In this article, it is stated that, "In 2009, harrumphs Expedia, Americans 'gave back' a total of 436m vacation days." That number has probably increased since then. If we do get offered vacation days, sometimes we don't take them to try and do more at work to get ahead. When we do take them, we typically don't use all of them, and sometimes? We can't use all our vacation days if they're not paid. We can't afford to miss work!
What have we become? Forget America for a second. What has a human being become? We just...work until death? Is that what we are? A tireless, bio-machine that simply goes to work, keeps working, and then expires without retirement benefits. People. We're not meant to live our lives this way.
Easier said than done of course. But. Yes, there's always but. But. I wanted to see what working does to your body. According to this website, "the latest findings discovered by scientists at the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health support results from a 2011 British survey that revealed that doing more than 11 hours of work a day raised heart disease risks by 67 percent." The article then suggested that poor diet, lack of exercise (these two most commonly associated with office jobs in my opinion AND from personal experience) creates a well? In a word? Fatal combination.
Then, being under the constant stress of working all the time, your body produces cortisol, which is good in short amounts, but when your bloodstream is flooded with the stuff 24/7, you can see all sorts of dangerous side effects, like increased blood pressure, and a compromised immune response. And then, you can enjoy a nice heart attack for all you hard work and dedication.
 |
| Source: http://www.umm.edu/patiented/articles/coronary_artery_blockage_000441.htm |
But as Americans, we work more than most other 1st world countries. Which is startling. Aren't we always told that Americans have zero work ethic? Have no spine for true, hard work? Not all of us. Some? Sure. But not all of us. Not me. Probably not you, either. Here's what I found (quote taken from here):
"The UN International Labour Organisation said the average Australian, Canadian and Japanese worker worked about 100 hours, or 2.5 weeks less than the average American per year. Brazilians and British workers worked 250 hours, or more than five weeks less, while Germans worked roughly 500 hours, or 12.5 weeks less."
We all work hard. But it seems that America is working the "hardest". And this is not a completely good thing. Americans, whether they were born and raised here, or immigrated from a different land, work way too much. Race doesn't play into it. Location does. Why America? Why do we demand so much for so little? Why are we not the only ones thinking this way? I have no idea. One could speculate, of course. Economy, ethics, greed, this list could go on and on. But the fact of the matter is we, humans, all work too hard. Life winds up becoming weekend to weekend, and if you work on the weekend, you may have no rest at all!
So what are we to do? I don't know.
Do you?
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