December 4, 2009 – The men who flee from a conflict with a boss rather than face it three times the risk of having a heart attack, and even dying from it, compared to those who do.
This is what emerges from a Swedish study carried out in different workplaces with 2,755 men aged 41 on average.
For 10 years, they have been polled on different occasions to measure their reactions – immediate and subsequent – when a conflict situation arises at work.
What about when conflict arises between colleagues? The risk of heart attack is multiplied by 4 in those who tend to flee the situation compared to those who face it.
Ruminating, a source of cardiovascular disease?
How can running away from conflict cause a heart attack? “Leaking does not eliminate anger – on the contrary – and this repressed anger keeps coming back to your head: this is called rumination”, explains Sonia Lupien, director of the Center for Research on Human Stress at Louis-H. Lafontaine, in Montreal.
Rumination increases the production of stress hormones which, when used chronically, can cause heart disease and even death. “This link between chronic stress experienced at work and heart disease is not new, and this study confirms this link,” adds the neuropsychology researcher.
Social support to counter stress
Sonia Lupien believes that workers have every interest in improving their ability to cope with conflict situations.
“The best bulwark against stress is social support: the exchanges it generates prevent ruminating alone, even in very stressful situations,” she says.
She says she is very critical of management methods that rely solely on employee performance. “Employers – and unions, where there are some – should promote more social support within their company, rather than relying on management that induces too much pressure between colleagues,” says Sonia Lupien.
Martin LaSalle – PasseportSanté.net
1. Leineweber C, et al, Covert coping with unfair treatment at work and risk of incident myocardial infarction and cardiac death among men: Prospective cohort study, Epidemiol Community Health, published on November 24, 2009 on the Internet.
