Good news, working people and non-working people! Can't get a promotion in this economy? (Hell, some of us can't even get hired.) No problem. According to this new study, you wouldn't want one anyway. Researchers at the University of Warwick found that after a job promotion, there was a 10 percent decrease in a person's mental health. Even more worrisome, 20 percent of those promoted showed a drop in their visits to their doctors. The reason? More time and stress at work, less time to see the M.D. Tsk, tsk.
This discounted accepted wisdom that the higher up the corporate ladder you rank, the healthier you are, due to an increased sense of self-worth and control over your life. (And, presumably, better health insurance and doctors.)
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As researcher Chris Boyce says, "Getting a promotion at work is not as great as many people think. Our research finds that the mental health of managers typically deteriorates after a job promotion, and in a way that goes beyond merely a short-term change."
Well, we knew there had to something good about toiling away as a low-level cubicle slave.
The Most Annoying Co-Workers
Insistent Instant Messenger: No matter how much time or miscommunication could be spared by talking face-to-face, this person insists on talking virtually, via IM or email. If they're a superior and you're not online, they send you an email to ask where you are (meanwhile you're at your desk, ten feet away).
Cycle Sister: This is a person you're not particularly fond of, but for whatever cosmically twisted reason, your daily routine is synched up -- you walk into work at the same time, and from there, you see your Cycle Sister in the bathroom, on your smoke break, at the vending machine, and on the way out. Even if you do like this person alright, the sheer coincidence makes things creepy and awkward.
Mr. Flibble, Flickr
The Get-a-Lifer: This person asks you out to post-work drinks on a regular basis, despite the fact that you always decline. And the one time you went to a party at their house, it ended up being the two of you playing Taboo. The Get-a-Lifer is often the same person who plans meetings at 6 p.m. on Fridays, not realizing that everyone else goes out with their friends on the weekend.
bealluc, Flickr
Listserv Leech: If someone has taken this person's lunch out of the fridge, the entire staff will be notified via the staff listserv, which everyone else uses exclusively for professional communication. Alternately, this person may use the listserv to let everyone know about the lack of toilet paper in the bathroom, a party they're throwing, or to ask who took that package off their desk.
Angry Typist: The Angry Typist pounds on her keyboard with the vigor of someone hitting their ex-boyfriend. The violent clacking leads to many misunderstandings, as this person is often unaware of their problem and is not actually pissed.
.faramarz, Flickr
The Toilet Mouth: You're on the pot midstream (or worse) when the Toilet Mouth strikes up a conversation. This person also likes to chatter at the sink for before and after they go, giving no one in the bathroom privacy to do their business.
Megan *, Flickr
Monday Manic: The coffee hasn't hit your bloodstream yet, and the Monday Manic is flittering about, imbued with an unnatural amount of energy and optimism. They're telling stories about how freaking great their weekend was and so stoked about the work they get to do that day.
Old News Hound: OMG, did you hear that Lindsay Lohan is dating a girl!? The Old News Hound is always the last to know about everything, but the first to belt out at a stale headline at full-volume to their surrounding coworkers.
Rash Revealer:This person has no shame getting on the phone with their doctor, their spouse, their aunt, or their mom to discuss a rash, a yeast infection, and any other personal bodily defect or medical issue.
maydaFUNKbewithu!, Flickr
The Chit-Chat Blaster: If this person catches you in the break room or on your way out of the bathroom, you're done for a half an hour later they're still yammering away about the paint samples they're considering for the livingroom, the deli they ate at for lunch, the meeting the boss called earlier, the diet they're on. The Chit-Chat Blaster also doesn't notice you inching away, and generally lack the ability to pick up social cues.












Comments:
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Friday 10 April
By hardy
This discounted accepted wisdom that the higher up the corporate ladder you rank, the healthier you are, due to an increased sense of self-worth and control over your life.
Reply
Friday 10 April
By Don S.
Yes thats right. Print ANYTHING to continue the dumbing down of our society. Do your best to make it unfashionable and downright stupid to want to succeed. Wow even unhealthy. How unhealthy is it to want to do better for your family? How unhealthy is it to want to maybe retire with something a little earlier so you can enjoy it. This crap is getting to be unhealthy for me. The way our media (and by the same token this adimistration) wants everyone to be dependant and not self sufficient. Well it's downright stressfull. And that means "unhealthy".
Reply
Friday 10 April
By Wayne
What a bunch of crap.
Reply
Saturday 11 April
By usage
Yes it is unhealthy...the american whimpy way of life..that is.
What is so wrong with striving and getting ahead in life? Nothing.
It got me where I am today, I am a millionaire due to hard work, striving
getting promoted and very hard work. I do not drink...do not smoke....eat right
Now that could be a hazard...never mind the whiny...whimpy new american way. My checkup's have never suffered due to my sucess. This story is crap.
Reply
Saturday 11 April
By matt sisco
You may be a millionaire but that does not imply that you are happier than you would have been if you weren't. Empirical data from Ivy league institutions including Princeton and Yale shows across the board that money is not correlated with happiness. You specifically may very well be happy, and may not have given up your health to achieve your status, but for most people this is not the case. Success in life is vitally important, yet the definition of success as material wealth is flawed and misleading. Most people are willing give up their health and true sources of happiness in striving for higher status. That is what this article is shooting against, and it's a God send for it.
Saturday 11 April
By grossness54
As Jim "Gomer Pyle" Nabors used to say, "Surprise, surprise!" Forty years ago it took me exactly one summer to realise that corporate life was basically one big round of office-politics stress and mindless conformity, and that was way before they started hassling people about not spending what spare time they had working out and getting cosmetic surgery to look like perpetual 30-year-olds. Too bad our Dilberts lack the guts to assert their right to some dignity the way they do in Europe - with a nice general strike, preferably timed to hit the holiday or fiscal-year rush. Unfortunately, most of these camps - er, corporations still have an "up or out" mentality much of the time. Hopefully now some wage-slaves can manage to avoid getting hit with large increases in workload and responsibility coupled with modest increases in pay. (That's what the real definition of "promotion" should be.) Lord help 'em all!
Reply
Saturday 11 April
By namesure
This article is not meant to dumb down our society in fact it is very insightful. Our obsession with consumerism and capitalism is destroying our environment (rapidly) and has been proven to not be making us happier. We are taught to always reach for something higher, like a dog chasing its tail. We need to learn to truly appreciate and be happy for what we have instead as we have so much already. The former is inescapably unfulfilling and the latter is a constant state of contentment. We should always be reaching higher, but in the direction of true happiness and not material wealth.
Reply
Sunday 12 April
By Tooscrewed
Well matt sisco I have had my health suffer in many ways because I am NOT rich.
I have to work a crap job which is crippling me, for low pay because I never had the money to pay the excessive education costs and the worry about how I will pay the rent and bills each month is horrible.
Yeah if I had been rich I would have been able to pay for fixing my teeth and have health insurance plenty of vacation time to enjoy life.
And those hoity toyty professors who never did a REAL job, would never give up THEIR cushy jobs or salaries since money is so terrible according to their lying, hypocritical views.
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