Stress issues make the blood pressure rise

MEDICAL research never loses its capacity to surprise.

According to a new study, British civil servants working overtime could be taking on dangerous levels of stress and literally dicing with death. It's not a set of findings that accords with the popular stereotype of the average civil servant – or stress for that matter. Government offices are rarely open after 5pm, always shut on public holidays, and the speed of work within does not accord with a general understanding of "stress". There are, of course, honourable exceptions to this rule, though not perhaps as many as this study suggests.

"Health campaigners" say the research raises further questions about the effects of people's working lives on their health. How fortunate that the researchers chose civil servants rather than those in the private sector, otherwise the researchers may have needed a break. Those in business have the added worry of trying to keep the business afloat, filling in the ever-increasing number of forms (from civil servants) and working regularly well into the evening and at weekends.

Civil servants may not have the stress of day-to-day viability. But they are the ones most likely to have active programmes to ensure "work-life balance" and away-day training on multi-tasking. A diet of this can be enough to push the sturdiest to breaking point.