Work will lead to the grave. Why is the night shift dangerous for our body?

Question of the day: is working harmful?

“Anyone who is as active as a bee during the day, strong as an ox, works hard as a horse and comes home in the evening as tired as a dog should consult a veterinarian.
For there is a high probability that he is an ass.” (Folk wisdom)

Scientists from the Finnish Institute for Occupational Safety and Health answered the question “ Is it harmful to work? ? After many years of research, the answer was unequivocal: working is harmful . And for both physical and psychological health.
True, the Spanish “associate professors with candidates” make a significant reservation: working is harmful , if the work is unloved.

That’s how it goes: we’re fussing, we’re in a hurry, we’re nervous that we won’t make it in time...
Having studied the bad statistics, doctors now strongly recommend stopping one day, catching your breath, looking back, looking around and soberly and honestly analyzing: what have we done wrong in this “squirrel wheel”?!
And was it worth such a subtotal when it’s scary to look at yourself in the mirror?!
This is called the cumulative effect...

“You don’t have to work hard, but with your head,” the unforgettable Steve Jobs used to say.
And it’s true, “the head was given to a person not in order to work, but in order not to work.”

The standard working time in the EU is now forty hours a week. I know that in Canada, for example, they practice long weekends – three days off almost once a month.
Why so?!

In many cultures, the axiom “work hard” is considered hereditary. A is it harmful work - you couldn’t even think about it, sedition...
Make a career, they say, and you’ll be fine... Not a fact. Now doctors are often forced to cool down their workaholic rage.
Apart from the well-known wear and tear and occupational diseases, people smoke and drink frequently to relax after work. So is it harmful to work ?!

Is it harmful to work – this is not a rhetorical question...

The work can take hours, days, years, or even a lifetime. There are studies that to become a pro in any craft, you need to devote ten thousand hours to it, that is, three hours a day for ten years.
With all that said, work is just a part of life, and try to convince me that the most important...

Rutherford's biographers cite the following story...
One day, Rutherford walked into his laboratory late at night and saw one of his promising employees there, despite the odd hour.

“What are you doing here so late?” - the scientist was surprised.
“I’m working,” he replied.
“What, then, did you do during the day?”
“Of course he worked.”
“And in the morning? Did you really work in the morning too?”
“And in the morning too.”
“Excuse me,” Rutherford was genuinely amazed, “when do you think?” - and stopped placing special hopes on this employee.

If work is in the foreground, then health, family, children, pleasures and other joys of life are in the second, fifth, tenth... But work is a vampire, and the mentioned joys of life are donors. So is it harmful to work ?

They claim that the work made a man out of a monkey... Just a version for now. It is easier to prove that the work made a tired and sick monkey out of a monkey...

Agree, “the phrase “Get to work!” The most satisfying thing is when she toasts!”

Be healthy!

Comments are accepted. Comments are welcome. Additions are encouraged.

Hello! My husband works as a painter with powder paints, his partner had problems with his lungs, the doctors recommended an urgent change of job. I am interested in the following question: how dangerous (if dangerous) is working with such paints, what safety precautions should be used, should the company pay extra for the harmfulness of such work? Please answer if you can, this is very important to us!

Hello Zoya! Your concern about your husband’s health is completely justified and understandable. Any work associated with spraying paint is dangerous for the human respiratory system due to the fine suspension inhaled during the work.

But you should not be afraid that problems will definitely begin with your husband after his partner. Risk in such production is present for all workers, but people suffer first of all:

• immunocompromised
• with a predisposition to respiratory diseases.

Allergic reactions to dye components are especially harmful. It is advisable for your husband to periodically undergo preventive examinations at a diagnostic center. And, of course, follow personal safety rules in the workplace.

How to properly protect yourself?

It is necessary to work in protective clothing, wear gloves on your hands, and a respirator and goggles on your face. Today you can also find special masks on sale. All these means personal protection The owner of the company must purchase it for the workers, and he is obliged to strictly observe the stipulated service life and promptly issue new workwear to the workers instead of the one that has expired.

The responsibility of the company manager is also to ensure the correct arrangement of the painting area, chamber and the entire working area as a whole. There are special rules, which include the installation of air conditioning and ventilation systems, equipping the paint booth with special elements, and the use of high-quality tools and paint materials.

If the employer’s production premises are equipped according to all the rules, in accordance with the requirements of technical regulations and labor safety standards, then the sanitary inspection authorities, during mandatory periodic inspections, issue a production examination report with a positive conclusion.

Inspection control, according to the law, is carried out regularly in such companies. If violations are detected, the company’s work will be suspended until deficiencies in the field of safety and labor protection are eliminated. The manager may also be subject to a substantial fine.

When crossing the border, imported paints undergo customs clearance, which requires obtaining a certificate of quality and compliance with safety requirements, in accordance with current technical regulations. Find out what material your husband’s company works with, where it gets its paints from, and whether a certificate or sanitary-epidemiological certificate has been issued for the painting material.

According to nature, man is a social being. Like any social creature, he needs an environment, or simply society. Loneliness leads to depression, which can develop into a severe mental disorder.

As you know, most people spend a large part of their lives at work. And often working relationships turn into friendships, and sometimes even develop into something more. But this does not change the essence: a person looks for an environment wherever he spends his time.

The fashionable trend of our time has become , one that does not require a visit to the office, as well as personal interaction with management and colleagues. All activities are carried out only via the Internet.

It would seem that this is freedom! Indeed, the lack of total control on the part of superiors can give you inspiration. But not for long. And all because many people are not even aware of the dangers that remote work poses.

Danger one: student syndrome

Almost all remote workers are faced with the habit of constantly postponing the start of order fulfillment or the “student syndrome”. And even if enough time is allocated for work, the employee still prefers to delay completion.

On the one hand, there is no logic, because the sooner the project is completed, the faster it is converted into money. But on the other hand, a person will need to strain, think, decide and do something, that is, suppress a certain state of relaxation. This phenomenon must be combated by any means necessary, otherwise the very idea of ​​working from home will soon have to be abandoned.

Danger two: substitution of tasks

Projects can be either urgent or non-urgent. And there are also extra-urgent ones. So why are the ones executed first which, if we say in simple language, can they wait? According to one wise saying, problems need to be solved as they arise.

In the case of remote work, we can say this: orders must be completed in relation to their urgency, complexity and importance. If you put this technique into practice, you can significantly increase your productivity over time.

Danger three: total lack of time

In the understanding of each person, the word “freedom” is associated with different things. But if we bring them to a common denominator, it turns out that in 95% of cases only time that is not occupied with anything is invested in it. And it is for him that they go to “free bread.” But in reality, it turns out that the worker at home has no time at all except for searching for orders and fulfilling them.

Not the most tempting prospect, is it? And this is a direct consequence of the irrational organization of your working day. Therefore, the first step on the path to that same freedom should be learning the basics of time management.

Danger four: irregular rest and constant overwork

Actually, there can be a great many reasons for this danger, but most of them boil down to the following:

• Irrational planning of work and rest schedules;
• Being in constant tension, especially if there are no projects at all or there are too many of them;
• Lack of regular physical activity.

There is only one way to solve the problem of overwork and increase productivity: plan your time wisely. It should have both a place for work and a place for rest, during which it is best to change your occupation altogether.

For example, if a worker at home fulfills orders only at the computer, then chatter in in social networks- Not the best option to restore strength. But a walk or a visit to the gym are the most optimal forms recreation.

Danger five: playing with one goal or fear of action

It’s good if a freelancer has an alternative source of income, then he can safely set his own rules of the game with customers, without fear of not getting a certain amount. But if the money received in this way is the only income, then sometimes the fear of loss turns out to be stronger than the tempting prospects for profitability.

This is how Mother Nature works. And very often the consequence of this is that people continue to work for several years literally for pennies, achieving scanty results solely due to the number of completed orders.

But is this what all online home workers dream of when choosing this path? Of course not! But, faced with reality, they preferred to tightly squeeze the bird in their hand, and thereby lock themselves in a cage. Is it possible to break out of such shackles? Can. But only with the help active actions. As you know, a drop pierces a stone not by the force of impact, but by the frequency of its fall.

Working from home, on the one hand, allows you to get out of the office jungle and gain the desired freedom, but on the other hand, it can turn your whole life into a prison.

Every home worker faces numerous dangers that are constant attributes of remote work, but not everyone finds the strength not only to fight them, but also to win this fight. Ultimately, being among the winners or losers is a personal choice for each person.

The most innocent and safe office at first glance, upon closer examination, is a real breeding ground for dangers to our physical and mental health. Today we will look at the most well-known risk factors at work and find out how they threaten our health.

• Sitting all day long takes years off your life.
  Sitting for a long time is very harmful. Pain throughout the body and a feeling of exhaustion are the least of the problems arising from this reason: sitting for too long can lead to an early death. You may face a high risk of muscle and bone disorders, obesity, diabetes, cancer, heart disease and more, even if you exercise regularly.
• If you regularly slouch in your chair, it can lead to chronic diseases
  If your job requires you to sit most day, then you should get a special device that helps straighten bad posture. If you don't, you will contribute to the development of many chronic diseases, including arthritis and bursitis.

  
  

• Using a desktop with a built-in treadmill can cause injury
  While such desks may reduce the risk of obesity and heart disease, they also increase the number of typos and can lead to falls and injuries.

  
  

• Neglecting breakfast results in constant stress for your body.
  Are you constantly on the run and regularly skip the most important meals? If you do this constantly, you will bring your body to stress and metabolic disorders. People who don't eat breakfast are more likely to have high blood pressure, be overweight and have more heart problems than those who regularly eat within two hours of getting up in the morning.

  
  

• Regularly eating fast food instead of a full meal increases the risk of cardiovascular disease
  Majority office workers From time to time they eat junk food instead of lunch, but even rare indulgences can have negative consequences. A serving of “fast food” usually contains double the amount of calories compared to the same serving of regular food. In addition, it contains a lot of oxidized fats, which increases the risk of heart disease.

  
  

• “Motivational” meetings actually have a depressing effect on people
  In order to motivate employees to work productively, employers sometimes conduct team-building exercises or motivational meetings. However, research has shown that trying to get people to be happy about something they're not sure about can actually make them feel more dissatisfied.

  
  

• Recirculated, toxic air clogs your lungs
  Security Directorate environment calls it "sick building syndrome." Indoor air can be up to 100 times dirtier than outdoor air, exposing people to a variety of harmful gases and chemicals. Air conditioners have contaminants, toxic particles, dangerous bacteria and mold all floating around, especially in buildings that are not properly cleaned.

  
  

• Staying near operating printers and copiers for too long can cause lung disease.
  Photocopiers are a source of potentially deadly ozone if their filters are not changed promptly. Even a small amount of This gas can cause chest pain and irritation. The same goes for laser printers with developer powder particles that enter the lungs and bloodstream, which can lead to lung disease and other diseases.

  
  

• Sitting with a running laptop on your lap for a long time is very harmful.
  If you keep your laptop on your lap and not on your desk while working, overheating may cause skin problems. However, there is even more alarming news for men. Researchers at New York University have found that using a laptop can increase the temperature of the scrotum, leading to lower sperm counts.

  
  

• Working more than 10 hours a day can cause a heart attack
  European researchers have found that people who work 10 hours or more every day have a 60% greater risk of developing cardiovascular disease, including heart attack and angina.

  
  

• Working without a fixed schedule can lead to weight gain and increased levels of stress hormones
  Those who work primarily in the evenings (such as computer programmers) are at greater risk of developing type 2 diabetes, cancer and heart disease. A 2009 Harvard University study found that people who wake up later have lower levels of leptin (the hormone responsible for curbing appetite) and higher levels of the stress-related hormone cortisol.

  
  

• It harms your vision if you stare at the monitor endlessly.
  Although computer screens do not emit radiation, the strain of staring for long periods of time can harm your vision, although sometimes this is only temporary. You may also experience headaches and migraines.

  
  

• Too much light increases stress, fatigue and blood pressure
  Excessively bright light can cause you more problems than everyday headaches. The body perceives hyperlight as complete darkness, which confuses your internal clock. You may experience health problems such as fatigue, stress, high blood pressure, and an increased risk of certain forms of cancer.

  
  

• Boredom increases your chances of dying from heart disease or stroke
  According to researchers, boredom can actually shorten your life. A study conducted at University College London found that those who complain of boredom are more likely to suffer from heart disease and stroke. This also increases the risk of accidents at work.

  
  

• A dirty keyboard is as dangerous as E. coli and coliform bacteria
  The keyboard can be a breeding ground for bacteria growth if not kept clean. Microbiologists have found that a keyboard can contain five times more bacteria than a toilet, including dangerous ones such as E. coli and coliform bacteria, which are commonly associated with food poisoning - along with staph, which causes a range of infections.

  
  

• Germs are literally everywhere in the office.
  Your keyboard isn't the only breeding ground for bacteria in the office. Door and faucet handles, elevator and printer buttons, handshakes and much more are all hotbeds of bacteria. Germs are everywhere, and some of them can be deadly.

  
  

• Chronic keyboard use leads to carpal tunnel syndrome
  Excessive keyboard use is a known cause of carpal tunnel syndrome (carpal tunnel syndrome), which is a painful sprain of the wrist that can spread to the entire hand. The disease can have serious consequences, including irreversible nerve damage and muscle atrophy.

  
  

• Deadlines negatively impact learning and memory
  Do you get nervous when you have to fit in a very short time, which in turn greatly inhibits your learning and is bad for your memory, according to data published by Science Daily. This type of short-term stress can be just as bad for you as stress that lasts for weeks or months.

  
  

• Keeping your computer mouse in the same place can lead to chronic strain on your tendons due to constant strain.
  If your mouse stays in the same place all day long, it can lead to overexertion. An upper limb strain occurs when your tendons are strained more than they should be for long periods of time. This may be caused by repetitive movements or constant awkward positioning of the hand.

  
  

• Smartphone abuse can eventually weaken your hands and wrists
  People who constantly use their smartphones to text and emails, are prone to muscle fatigue and the so-called “smartphone finger syndrome”, or de Quervain’s stenosing tenosynovitis. The consequences can be so bad that the pain reaches your wrist and weakens your hand.

  
  

• Uncomfortable shoes can lead to spinal injury, muscle spasms and chronic headaches
  The luxury pumps you wear may make you feel tall and give you confidence, but they are also wreaking havoc on your body in unexpected ways.
  From 2005 to 2009, the number of visits women made to doctors due to foot problems increased by 75%.
  Uncomfortable shoes can cause spinal injury, muscle spasms, and even chronic headaches and migraines. In addition, the more sick you are, the more time you will spend sitting, which in itself is fraught with a host of health problems.

  
  

Source

Russians consider the most dangerous professions firefighters, rescuers, police officers and test pilots. Such data are provided by the Levada Center, but representatives of seemingly calm office professions are exposed to no less, and sometimes even greater, danger at work. American researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology came to the conclusion that office workers receive severe, including life-threatening injuries. injuries are no less common among miners, builders and lumberjacks, whose work has always been considered the most dangerous. In this case, office employees are divided into two groups. The first is those who receive serious damage through their own fault and without the participation of third parties. The second is those who get their nuts from angry clients, the police or a violent boss.

In the first group, the leading positions are held by system administrators, engineers, couriers, cleaners and secretaries, in the second - lawyers, accountants and deputy managers.

In Russia, there are no accurate statistics on office injuries, but even without statistics, based on simple reports from ambulance departments, emergency rooms and police, we can conclude that our clerks are not inferior to their American colleagues.

Secretary

Girls sitting at the entrance to the office at solid counters most often suffer from burns, cuts, head injuries and broken limbs. They regularly get burns from coffee machines, coolers and cups of tea, coffee or broth. In one of St. Petersburg advertising companies There was a tradition: every day at six in the evening the secretary had to heat up soup for top managers. For a while, everything was calm, the management slurped and slurped broth in unison, and the girl successfully coped with her duties, but one fine day the young lady dropped a tray with six cups of hot soup on herself. She was wearing a woolen skirt, which only made the burns worse. The secretary was hospitalized.

Another secretary girl, this time in Moscow, carried a package of bottles with drinking water. The plastic burst and the bottles fell on the employee's legs, causing tendons to rupture.

Another secretary spent a month on sick leave with a concussion. The culprit was a poorly secured window frame that fell on her head. The girl just wanted to open the window to ventilate the room.

Secretaries often suffer because of perfectly polished glass doors. Thus, the assistant secretary of one of the capital's architectural bureaus was out of work for a month due to a collision with an office door. According to Olesya, she was in such a hurry to get home at the end of the day that she did not notice that the glass door to the common hall was closed. “We had a designer handle on the door, also glass, so when the cleaners washed the glass, it seemed like there was no door there at all. So I hit it with my face as hard as I could,” the girl recalls. As a result, she broke her nose, split her lips and almost lost her teeth. Moreover, the secretary herself later wondered how she managed to hit her face. “I have, excuse me, quite decent breasts, and my posture is fine, I don’t walk head first! I should have just spring back, but I stuck my nose right into the door!” - the victim complains.

Representatives of this profession often experience severe concussions, which occur mainly due to impact with a tabletop. Thus, an employee of a Moscow cargo transportation company, Valentina K., hit her head hard on the tabletop when she reached for a folder with documents that had fallen under the table. “I collected them for a long time, realizing that the boss really needed these papers, I was in a hurry as best I could, and then the phone rang. I straightened up sharply, and I vaguely remember what happened next,” the girl recalls. The blow was so strong that Valentina lost consciousness. The furious boss, who came to collect the documents literally a minute after the incident, saw only the secretary’s legs sticking out from under the table. Fortunately, everything turned out to be two weeks of sick leave, which was also paid for by the company. Unfortunately, this is the exception rather than the rule, since employers rarely pay sick leave to your awkward employees.

According to Vladimir Kalinin, director of the Center for Loss Settlement for Personal and Property Insurance at ROSNO, employers rarely insure office workers against accidents. “Office employees are the least risky category for the employer. Basically, such policies for personnel are purchased large companies, in particular banks. When determining the accident insurance rate for office workers, the lowest coefficient is applied. As a rule, office injuries are similar to household ones (bruises, cuts, etc.). Most insurance cases among office workers occur on the street on the way to work or home, for example in winter, when anyone can easily slip on ice and get injured,” Kalinin said.

Despite the fact that “office plankton” is almost not insured, injuries and damages occur frequently, which, in general, explains the reluctance of employers to spend money on injured personnel.

Courier

A whole series of attacks on couriers took place in March in Moscow, St. Petersburg and Kyiv. All crimes followed the same pattern. The goods were ordered through an online store to the address of a rented apartment, the criminals beat the courier, taking the order and, of course, without paying for it. Finding scammers is not so easy - their addresses are new every time.

Those who consider the work of a courier to be simple and uncomplicated are mistaken. In addition to the financial responsibility that the employee bears for what he transports, he also has to take care of his own integrity and safety.

For Alexey, who worked as a courier in a capital company dealing software, attacked by a pack of stray dogs. The young man barely fought off the dogs only at the cost of bitten legs, right arm and back. He still receives injections.

Couriers are more likely than other office workers to be hit by cars. In a hurry to deliver goods or documents, they run across the streets in the most unexpected places. If the collision is the fault of a pedestrian, the employer usually does not pay for medical expenses.

Accountant

The work of an accountant is usually quiet, calm, monotonous, even boring. But this is only at first glance. Not only are accountants attacked, they are regularly robbed by scammers, and law enforcement agencies are accused of theft, forgery, or other illegal activities. On top of everything, if you are “lucky” with a boss who is prone to adventures, you will constantly be subject to pressure: either they will force you to sign a “fraudulent” deal, or hide part of the funds from the tax authorities, or “cash out” them.

At the end of last year, law enforcement officers detained fraudsters who forged Sberbank bills worth 20 million rubles and tried to sell them. If an accountant had approached the bank with such purchased securities, he would have gone under Article 186 of the Criminal Code “Manufacture or sale of counterfeit money or securities.”

Another danger is associated with the periodic need to carry large sums. An accountant takes risks even if he rides in a car with a security guard. One example is an incident that occurred in the Moscow region. Armed robbers caused a car accident. It was not difficult to take away a bag with money at gunpoint and escape after that. After this ill-fated trip, the company lost more than 6 million rubles, and the accountant lion's share nerve cells.

Engineer

An installation engineer from Vladimir received fatal injuries after falling from a height of 3.5 meters. He was working on a loose wooden deck that had shifted at the most inopportune moment.

An engineer at one of the hydraulic power stations had his hand pulled into the machine. The man himself did not understand how this happened, because in his native workshop he knows every nut. The hospital insisted on amputation. The injured engineer was lucky: he found a brave and dexterous surgeon who took the risk of performing the operation. The hand was saved.

In offices, engineers often suffer because of electricity and furniture. When setting up and repairing electrical wiring, they are regularly electrocuted, and when moving, they crush their legs and arms with furniture.

In addition, engineers usually have the responsibility of arranging a new company office or accepting new premises, which also involves risks to life and health. So, in the Moscow region, when accepting new storage facilities the staircase leading to the third floor of the warehouse gave way under the engineer. The poor fellow flew one flight, crashed through the stairs on the second floor and landed on the concrete floor. Fortunately, he escaped with only serious bruises.

A similar story happened to an engineer construction company in the Arkhangelsk region. Andrey Kh. went to inspect the new premises. There was no light there yet, the engineer walked briskly along the corridor of the second floor, opened the doors, and examined the rooms. Having opened the next door and stepped inside, Andrei realized that he was falling down. “There simply wasn’t a floor there, and the window was also covered with some kind of rag. The only thing that saved me was that I didn’t have time to let go of the door handle.” The engineer did not accept the object, but he wholeheartedly praised the workers for the quality of the handles.