No Control at Work Can Be Deadly

While you daydream about strangling your boss, beware: It’s more likely that your employer is killing you.

A study of British civil servants suggests that a feeling of little or no control at work explains why the Dagwoods and Dilberts of the world have the greater risk of heart disease--50% higher than the people in the executive suite.

The study published in the Lancet, a British medical journal, was directed by professor Michael Marmot of the International Center for Health and Society at University College in London. It used data from a study of 7,372 men and women employed in the British civil service, tracked from 1985 to 1993.

“The issue of control, I think, is a relatively new idea, but certainly one that makes a lot of sense,” said Robert Carney, professor of medical physiology at Washington University in St. Louis.

Asked whether bosses are a big source of job stress, Carney said: “Oh, absolutely.”