Job Promotions May Be Bad for Your Health

While more and more people around the world lose their jobs on account of the economic crisis, British researchers have counter-intuitively focused their research efforts on finding out how job promotions affect individuals' health. And their findings have not been what they expected, results show. It would appear that getting up in the ranks doesn't have only positive consequences, the investigation has evidenced, as people tend to get placed under an increased amount of stress and also become less likely to visit the doctor when they experience mild symptoms of various diseases.

In other words, with each promotion, employees tend to get more and more focused on their work, and much less so on their own well-being. While it's doubtful that the 13 million unemployed Americans would care whether they got sick or not from promotions, the facts still stand, University of Warwick expert 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. There are no indications of any health improvements for promoted people other than reduced attendance at GP surgeries, which may itself be something to worry about rather than celebrate,” the scientist adds.

Researchers know from previous studies that stress can literally be deadly, on account of the fact that it raises people's predisposition to developing a very extensive range of diseases, from the common cold to cancer and tuberculosis. Living under pressure for extended amounts of time, as in every day for some individuals, can also take a toll on a person's mental health, and force them to become more distracted by the things around them that are not in some way connected to their work.

The recent study, conducted on roughly 1,000 recently promoted individuals in the United Kingdom, has shown that 20 percent of them have reported a sudden lack of free time for themselves, which, on the one hand, increases stress levels, and, on the other hand, makes them likely to skip doctor appointments when they are feeling ill. Boyce shares that a full summary of the research will soon be presented at an upcoming conference of the Royal Economic Society.