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.