Deals with a study conducted by Greg Oldham, a professor of labor
and industrial relations at the University of Illinois and Benjamin
Gordon, a doctoral student regarding the role occupations play in
workers' substance abuse. Reasons workers use substances; Recommendations
to bosses to eliminate potential substance abuse.
By
PT Staff, published on January 01, 2000
COPING
You may grumble that our job will drive you to drink. But for some
workers, it literally does.
According to Greg Oldham, Ph.D., a professor of labor and
industrial relations at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign,
and Benjamin Gordon, a doctoral student, people who find their
occupations either too challenging or too simple use greater amounts of
cigarettes, alcohol and marijuana.
In their study of over 7,000 people, Oldham and Gordon found that
for individuals who scored high on a test of cognitive ability, the more
complex their jobs, the less they drank and smoked. But for those who
scored low on the test, the more demanding their job, the more they used
cigarettes, alcohol and marijuana. "People may use substances to soothe
the frustration they experience as a result of being over- or
under-stretched by their jobs," the researchers write in the Journal of
Health and Social Behavior.
Oldham and Gordon recommend that bosses routinely measure each of
their workers' strengths and weaknesses to best match their employees to
suitably rewarding jobs, thereby eliminating dissatisfaction--and
potential substance abuse.
PHOTO (COLOR): You may grumble that our job will drive you to
drink. But for some workers, it literally does.
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