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Get a Life!:

Get a Life!: Civil service stress

By Judy Welles
Published on January 29, 2008 - 04:31 PM

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The stress of civil service work has higher health risk, according to a British study.

Civil servants, especially those under 50 years of age, are proving that work can kill you.  At least, that may be the case for British civil servants.

Reuters news service reported that, in a 12-year study of some 10,000 British civil servants, workday stress greatly raised the risk of heart disease. 

Chronically stressed workers had a 68 percent higher risk of developing heart disease, and the link was strongest among people under 50.

Researchers measured stress among the civil servants by asking questions about job demands, such as how much control they had at work, how often they took breaks, and how pressed for time they were during the day.

Behavior and biological changes were cited as reasons that stress at work causes heart disease.  Workers under stress tend to eat unhealthy food, smoke, drink and skip exercise — all behaviors linked to heart disease.

In the study, stressed workers had lowered heart rate variability — a sign of a poorly-functioning heart — and higher-than-normal levels of cortisol, a stress hormone that provides a burst of energy for a fight-or-flight response.

The study adds to evidence that work stress and heart disease are causally related; i.e., work stress really does affect a person biologically. 

While we can’t extrapolate from Britain to what happens to federal workers, the news might make you want to dust off your New Year’s resolutions.

How stressed are you? Post a comment (registration required) or send an e-mail to letters@fcw.com (subject: Blog comment) and we will post it for you.

View Comments

More evidence that sitting on your fanny all day with a low sense of urgency, and taking too much time off can be bad for you. These deer need a dog to chase them everynow and then to shed the pounds and get the heart beating. There is another way to look at this: Civil servants might be the healthiest dead people around.

Posted by Federal Enterprise Architect on January 30, 2008 - 08:21 AM

As a Federal Employee, I think you certainly can make some extrapolations from the British study. Studies in this country have shown many of the same issues such as lack of control, etc. As for comment from "Federal Enterprise Architect," if you're slamming Federal employees you need to to get some more information. There is no free ride in the Federal government. We are hard working people who deserve some respect.

Posted by Chris on January 30, 2008 - 10:52 AM

Chris, If my organization fails, I need to find a new source of income. And you? You have no idea what a free ride is. Perhaps because your are too close to one. Right smack dab in the middle of one?

Posted by Federal Enterprise Architect on January 31, 2008 - 09:08 AM

Federal employees are the most educated and underpaid employees . I resent some of these comments. If you were working a 8-9 hour day where do you find time to go to the gym, etc. most federal workplaces do not provide decent sources of food, no gyms, and they cut back constantly so we are working with less people. I 've worked 30 years and have acollege education, and raised a child while dead beat dad got off ...what did you do for 30 years?

Posted by PJJ on January 31, 2008 - 10:35 AM

I think there are "sub-optimal" employees in both the government and commercial spaces, but the percentage seems to be much higher in the gov space, probably because it is so difficult to thin the herd when necessary. Ever hear of a government layoff? Attrition by retirement, yes, but no pink slips.

I have seen countless government programs and projects which are dismal failures, directly related to government employees mismanaging the project, only to see those programs renamed and restarted and the employees transferred to louse up somewhere else. The same sort of thing happens in the commercial space, but much less frequently.

There are some highly dedicated and professional government employees out there, and you know who you are. No need to defend yourselves, as these comments are not directed at you. The rest (the sub-optimal performers) are the ones feeling the sting of criticism - and as we all know, the truth hurts.

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