If you're a driven type A in a complex, creative job, scrap it for
something simple. It'll do your heart good.
Though you'd think creativity and intellectual stimulation on the
job would be cathartic for type A's, seven years of interviews with
police and firefighters told John Schaubroeck, Ph.D., the opposite. "The
combination of type A's in complex jobs, like that of a detective, leads
to cardiovascular problems," Schaubroeck, a professor of organizational
behavior at the University of Nebraska, reports in the Academy of
Management Journal.
It's the easy-going, mellow folks -- your type B -- who should be
in those coveted creative jobs. "Type B's in complex jobs are less likely
to have heart trouble than type B's in less stimulating, mechanical jobs,
like dispatchers," Schaubroeck finds.
But that's only the case for psychologically complex jobs -- those
requiring reflection, multiple skills, and independence -- which
shouldn't be confused with jobs that are only intellectually demanding, a
different type of complexity. Just as exercise strengthens the heart,
stimulating jobs may toughen the type B's autonomic nervous system -- the
system that regulates the heart.
"Type A's should have fairly simple jobs that don't require a lot
of independent reflection, skill variety, and autonomy -- the elements of
job complexity," says Schaubroeck. "In a complex job, the type A becomes
overstimulated and can't distance him or herself."
