1,001 Facts That Will Scare the S#*t Out of You: The Ultimate Bathroom Reader (34 page)

231

FACT :
China also has a word for
death by overwork
: guolaosi.
Named after that hardworking American actor, Bela Guolaosi.

Rory O’Neill, “Drop Dead,” Hazards Magazine, July– September 2003,
www.hazards.org
.

232

FACT :
A study published in 2002 concludes that workers who perform meaningless work with minimal chance for input were
at higher risk of dying young
.
In other words, everyone but CEOs and a few VPs.

Rory O’Neill, “Drop Dead,” Hazards Magazine, July– September 2003,
www.hazards.org
.

233

FACT :
A report by the
American Journal of Epidemiology
states that long-term strain on the job is
more harmful for the heart
than aging thirty years or gaining forty pounds.
And not nearly as fun. I’ll take the forty pounds instead. Pass the biscuits.

Paul A. Landsbergis and others, “Life-Course Exposure to Job Strain and Ambulatory Blood Pressure in Men,” American Journal of Epidemiology, June 2003,
www.aje.oxfordjournals.org
.

Rory O’Neill, “Drop Dead,” Hazards Magazine, July–September 2003,
www.hazards.org
.

234

FACT :
Workplace homicide can happen anywhere. In 2007,
the frequency of on-the-job murders
involving police officers and supervisors of retail sales workers both increased significantly.
I worked in retail once, but it was the customers, not the supervisors, that I wanted to kill. Wait—no, I wanted to kill them both.

“TED: The Editor’s Desk: Workplace homicides in 2007,” Bureau of Labor Statistics, August 26, 2008.
www.bls.gov
.

235

FACT :
A 2003 UK study shows that working for an unfair or unreasonable boss can result in
dangerously high blood pressure
.
It can also result in a dangerously high likelihood that someone will bring a gun to work and cap his ass.

Rory O’Neill, “Drop Dead,” Hazards Magazine, July–September 2003,
www.hazards.org
.

236

FACT :
In 2003, 1,400 government employees in India
committed suicide or died from starvation
.

They had not been paid in more than a decade. The state officials responsible were charged with theft, reportedly using employee funds for lavish foreign trips.
So impatient. They couldn’t wait one more day for their paychecks?

Agence France-Presse, “World Briefing | Asia: India: Inquiry Into Deaths Of Government Workers,” New York Times, November 14, 2003,
www.nytimes.com
.

237

FACT :
In a 2004 poll, 12 percent of respondents confessed to
having sex in the workplace
, while another 10 percent said they fantasized about it.
Jack and Elaine often worked late, leveraging each other’s assets and pumping up the bottom line.

“Poll: American Sex Survey: A Peek Beneath The Sheets,” ABC News, October 21, 2004,
http://abcnews.go.com
.

238

FACT :
Researchers concluded in a 2008 study that bullying at work, such as persistent criticism of work, belittling comments, and withholding resources, is
more harmful to employees than sexual harassment
.
Belittling comments, persistent criticism and withholding “resources”? Sounds more like marriage than the workplace.

M. Sandy Hershcovis and Julian Barling, “Bullying More Harmful Than Sexual Harassment On The Job, Say Researchers,” ScienceDaily, March 9, 2008,
www.sciencedaily.com
.

239

FACT :
Layoffs and a sluggish economy are contributing to frequent outbreaks of “desk rage” in America, with employees arguing and breaking down under pressure. Ten percent of Americans work in
places where physical violence occurs because of stress
, and 42 percent say that verbal abuse and yelling occurs in the workplace.
The economy is slowing? I hadn’t noticed.