Slacker or Sick

dancpsu writes "Researchers at Temple University's College of Health Professions found that early nerve damage caused by repetitive strain injuries can trigger "sick worker" syndrome -- often mistaken for poor performance. They discovered that nerve injuries caused by low-force, highly repetitive work can be blamed on an onslaught of cytokines -- proteins that help start inflammation. Unexpectedly, the researchers also found that the cytokines affected the rats' psychosocial responses. At three weeks, even before the rats experienced pain from their wrist injuries, they began to self-regulate their work behavior. By five weeks to eight weeks, when cytokine production reached "peak" levels, some rats curled up in a ball and slept in between tasks."

Comments

Rats?

[Associate]

Who Moved My Cheese if you really want to be insulted.

Re:Rats?

[TapeCutter]

During the late 90's (2000?) I worked for a very large, very blue IT corporation who were busy gobbling up the Australian market from the top down. They rounded everyone up into confrence rooms and paid us (contractors included) to watch a video version of "who stole my cheese". I didn't know wether to be insulted or amused. I took the cheque and figured it was just another "Through the looking glass" moment from the HR department in order to qualify for a tax break. I trully didn't think anyone could possibly swallow what to me was the most childish propaganda I had seen since the "just say no" campaing.

But alas I was wrong, within a week the book started appearing on the desks of the office arse-lickers who then passed it on to the people who slept curled up like rats all day, a few months later the NYT declared it the years #1 selling bussiness book!!!

Re:Rats?

[TapeCutter]

Yep, that's what I meant by "childish propaganda". The real pussies are the PHB's who turn to fairytales because they can't look you in the eye and tell you the work has dried up.

Promising shift in user interfaces

[The Clockwork Troll]

Here is the Institute for Interactive Research's example of clickless user interface that I hope more application developers espouse in the future.

Re:Promising shift in user interfaces

[Cave_Monster]

While the interface is interesting, the fact that you still are hanging onto a mouse is a drawback. The other drawback I see is that if this were to be incorporated into all programs today (as it is demonstrated on that website), I feel that the amount one could do with a program would be limited. For example, take Firefox. If you had 10 tabs lining the top of your browser, how could you get to the 'back' button or the 'reload' button? I feel this interface would prove a hinderance because you would have to snake your mouse around the screen to make sure you didnt cross anything unexpected.

Treatments?

[Anonymous Writer]

The article goes into details about repetitive work, cytokines, and work injuries. But it doesn't mention any remedies. Is the process reversible? Are there medications that can treat the production and effect of cytokines? If this is found to apply to humans, can a worker's routine be changed slightly, or would that person need to go so far as to completely change their job and lifestyle? Would they be able to fully recover?

Re:A good reason to stop reading Slashdot tonight

[Anonymous Coward]

If this doesn't prompt you to get up from your computer and go to bed a bit earlier tonight, there's no hope for you, in other words. You'll be involluntarily curled up like a rat ball, if you don't take charge of your wrist health.

Proper exercise helps. Yoga and chi gung help to regulate metabolism and strengthen your body's connective tissue, along with numerous other health benefits. Weight training isn't bad either, provided it is the right kind. For me, kettlebell training has transformed my spindly little wrists into steel wires.

Re:likely story

[Maian]

'cause gaming isn't work. It's like sex for geeks.