Staff
who struggle into work when they are ill risk potentially
shortening their lives, researchers believe. Some workers
who do not take time off when ill had twice the rate of heart
disease, the 10-year study of 10,000 civil servants showed.
The University College London team found that even working
with a common cold can be harmful.
Heart
disease risk was even increased by working with a common cold.
The study said it was the stress from working when ill which
caused the risk of heart disease.
Professor Sir Michael Marmot, the head of the study, said workers
did not realise the damage they were doing.
Germs
"So many people force themselves into work when they are not
well and have little knowledge of the consequences.
"Far from contributing to their companies or spreading a few
germs around the office, they could be hastening their own deaths."
Researchers compared attendance rates with the health records
of civil servants and found 30% to 40% of those who did not
take time off when ill had double the incidences of coronary
disease.
"If
this is correct it confirms what we have been saying - you
should not go to work when you are ill" --- Paul
Sellers, of the Trades Union Congress
The findings will be broadcast on Wednesday in BBC2's The Money
Programme.
Dr Charmaine Griffiths, of the British Heart Foundation, welcomed
the report, saying the findings were supported by previous research,
which had already shown stress at work could increase the risk
of heart disease.
"Different people experience stress in different ways, but people
are more likely to feel stressed when they feel they have little
control over their work but have a lot of demands placed on
them."
Paul Sellers, a policy officer at the Trades Union Congress,
said the findings were "pretty serious".
"If this is correct it confirms what we have been saying - you
should not go to work when you are ill.
"Some people, particularly in jobs that involve long hours,
feel compelled to come to work as promotion is directly linked
to how long you spend in the office.
Stress
"We need to get the message across this is not productive and,
it seems, not healthy."
But the Institute of Directors played down the link between
the workplace and heart disease.
A spokesman said: "It seems to us to be a mistake to link stress
and heart disease to work.
"It is the illness which is ultimately causing the increased
risk.
"You could be putting yourself at risk by doing many things
when ill, for example looking after children."
And he denied some workers may feel compelled to go to work
when ill.
"Employers realise it is beneficial that if someone is ill they
do not come to work."
Staff
who struggle into work when they are ill risk potentially
shortening their lives, researchers believe. Some workers
who do not take time off when ill had twice the rate of heart
disease, the 10-year study of 10,000 civil servants showed.
