Horrible bosses: Is yours sending your BLOOD PRESSURE through the roof?
ANSWERING to a particularly demanding employer might be taking drastic toll on your health - LONG after the initial stress occurred.
A confrontation with a boss can raise blood pressure, says study
Dealing with a difficult boss or a stressful situation with a work superior raises blood pressure, even after the incident took place, researchers found.
After taking other factors in to account, the research team found that when employees had a negative encounter with their boss their blood pressure went up.
Blood pressure stayed high even after the incident happened
More worryingly, the work stress hung around long after the incident took place and elevated blood pressure was recorded at home when workers “re-traumatised” themselves.
The team concluded that a dressing-down from the boss lingers even after you’ve left the office.
The finding also backs the link between stress in the workplace and cardiovascular diseases.
Workers took a high blood pressure reading even when they got home
The study looked at 55 nursing home care-workers. The average age of the carers was 43 and all had been in their job for 11 years.
Participants were asked to wear a blood pressure monitor every day, until they went to sleep.
The specialised monitor took an hourly reading, at which time the care-workers were asked to fill a form in detailing how they were feeling, what they were doing at the time of the reading, their perceived stress levels and information about the last interaction with their boss. For the latter, they had to score the encounter out of 10.
Blood pressure: How to take a reading
“People in a sense re-traumatise themselves," said the study co-author
Study co-author E. Kevin Kelloway, Canada Research Chair in Occupational Health Psychology at Saint Mary’s University, said: “This is important, because this now speaks to more than just an instantaneous stress response.