The Martlet

Civil servants beware — that tedious job could be killing you.

At least that’s the case according to “Boring Ourselves to Death,” a soon-to-be-released British study. The study, based on survey’s conducted over 20 years ago, looked into the health and lifestyle of civil servants to see what impact the occupation had on their health.

Researchers from the University College of London (UCL) conducted the study. From 1985 to 1988, 7,000 London-based civil servants between the ages of 35 and 55 were asked if they were ever bored at work. If so, they were asked to specify how frequently they endured fits of boredom.

Flash forward to 2009, when two professors from UCL returned to the data. Sifting through it for participants to see who had died by April 2009, the professors found that, of the original survey participants, the ones who had reported being bored at work showed a greater tendency to die from heart disease.

Though the results of the study are only preliminary, is there enough to suggest that a link does exist between occupational boredom and heart disease?

Ask any former or current civil servant and you’ll likely get an affirmative response. Michael Allen, an English major at UVic, certainly sees a correlation.

“I definitely think there is a connection between a boring work environment and health problems,,” said Allen, who used to work for the B.C. Ministry of Transportation.

But Robert Gifford, a psychology professor at UVic, doesn’t think boredom is a significant threat to the health of civil servants.

“Occasional boredom is not a problem. Boredom often is a choice, one that most people can avoid,” he said. “Some jobs are constraining, so that a person’s boredom risk is high because one really has little choice about what to do, but many times one could be looking around for ways to contribute to the organization or to enliven one’s own work life.”

Researchers have long believed that a bored worker is much more likely to engage in risky behaviour, such as smoking, drinking and over-eating, than a colleague who is more engaged with his or her job.

According to a statement on the website of the UCL department of epidemiology, a boring or stressful work environment has been “associated with adverse health behaviors” including the lowering of the heart rate.

During his time at the ministry, Allen worked eight-hour shifts at a desk. To break up the tedium of the job, Allen and his co-workers took lengthy lunches and talked a lot.

“I know I had a lot of sick days,” he said.

Allen referred to his old workplace environment as being both “sterile” and “lifeless.”

The professors behind the study are puzzled by the media attention that their work has produced.

“We have been inundated with media requests,” said Dr. Annie Britton, senior lecturer in epidemiology in the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health at the UCL. “The piece was not meant to be taken seriously. It was a light-hearted attempt to justify the expression ‘bored to death.’”

But light-hearted or not, some will no doubt see a great validity to the study.

“The human body and mind needs exercise and stimulation, none of which I got at the Ministry of Transportation,” Allen said. “I definitely felt more lethargic working [at the ministry].”

Allen offers some plum advice for employers.

“Employer’s could invite more group activities and less isolated, monotonous work. Take office clerks to work sites to show employees what they are really working at,” he said. “More meetings in cafés [would also be good]. Get out of the office once in awhile.”

The International Journal of Epidemiology will release the study in April.