Slashdot Mirror
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."
"Early nerve damage caused by repetitive strain injuries can trigger "sick worker" syndrome -- characterized by malaise, fatigue and depression"
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.
Saskboy's blog is good. 9 out of 10 dentists agree.
When did employers ACTUALLY start hiring real rats for the rat race?
Oh, sorry, I read the story a bit more carefully now. Never mind.
Why slashdot? Why not?
What kind of exercises give rats "wrist injuries"? Did they get little rat-sized keyboards?
Personally, I'm a slaker. But I come by that naturally. My father, and his father, and his father, were all slakers. It is the way of our people.
-- I wanna decide who lives and who dies - Crow T. Robot, MST3K
Here's some more info on Cytokines:
a ls/cytokines.html
http://microvet.arizona.edu/Courses/MIC419/Tutori
I wish TFA was a little more specific on which kind of cytokines they found... I guess we'll have to wait for the human studies.
Really, though, this should be no surprise. It's been known for some time that stress to the body results in immunological cytokine release.
The symptoms (pre-RSS) that they mention, like depression, fatigue, etc, are eerily similar to Epstein-Barr... I wonder if the immne system is revved up by the repetitive motions (hence feeling sick), or inhibited, like the EBV toxin.
"Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
Not only were the rats sleepy, but their code was buggy as hell.
Hello, Peter. We need to talk about your TPS reports.
Damn, do those Rats go to University too?
Repetitive strain injury is one thing, but if you combine that with ultra-stress, depression, insane workloads, and extremely difficult work... THEN you're fucked. The common term for this phenomenon is "University".
Your hand is so sore you can barely write with it; your fingers seem permanently dented where your pencil resides.. in fact, every muscle in your body aches. Theyve been aching for so long you cant remember.. painkillers do nothing now. Youve had 8 strong coffees, your mind is numb and throbbs... Your neck is so stiff and sore... not a wink of sleep in days, yet you just couldnt fully fall asleep if you tried. Social interaction is futile - you can barely manage to utter coherent language, and most of such encounters are awkward and embarassing. All you can do is calculation, logic - the world around you seems etherally mechanical, filled with logical/mathematical portent. Youve been sitting on your bed for 12 hours straight, listening to the same song over and over, its 4AM, and nothing makes any sense anymore. Possible failure looms, watches you like a hawk - it forces you onward, mercilissly. Theres over 20 hours more material to study. The exam starts in 4 hours.
Sure... the rats "self regulate" their activity because of the possibilty of damage. Please... somebody...show me the same behavior in ever crack and war crack players (I'm guilty of both). If the tendency did exist to self regulate potenatially repetive stress related injuries I'd say that their logs would confirm as much. We've got tons of human related data.. why aren't we using it instead of rats?
Here is the Institute for Interactive Research's example of clickless user interface that I hope more application developers espouse in the future.
There are no karma whores, only moderation johns
Middle.
Management.
*shrug* If they didn't hire rats, there'd be unemployed MBAs and JDs clogging up the gutters. It's as much a public health issue as anything else.
News for Geeks in Austin, TX
I've actually read this, it's a not-so-subtle peice of corporate propaganda. It causes the reader self doubt; and sometimes convinces the reader that THEY should change for the better of the corporation. If this peice of shit were given to me by my boss I would quit in no quiet, or kind way.
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?
No wonder I've been nodding off at wo...Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Amazing! Your head hit just the 'z' key, and held down the SHIFT key simultaneously for the first one! And then, somehow, your computer submitted your comment. How do you do that?
I wish I could do that.
Anyway, more seriously: Why is this story tagged as humor? I read the article, and there's really nothing funny in it.
Not that that stops us from taking it lightly, of course.
I got my Linux laptop at System76.
Damn, someone took the domain already.
who felt just like the rats?
I had to stop reading it about halfway through because I couldn't stand the patronizing tone. I kept thinking, "Okay, I get it. I have to look for opportunities, and I shouldn't let myself get too comfortable, and I should be ready for a sudden upheaval. What's your next point?" But there never was another point - it just kept bashing those into the readers' heads. I felt like ripping the book in half.
And I had a similar (but not as pronounced) reaction: I remembered that I work to live, not live to work.
MAYNARD: It reads, 'Here may be found the last words of Matt Perry. He who is valiant and pure of spirit may find the Holy Grail in the Castle of Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz'.
ARTHUR: What?
MAYNARD: '... the Castle of Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz'.
BEDEVERE: What is that?
MAYNARD: He must have fallen asleep while typing it.
LAUNCELOT: Oh, come on!
MAYNARD: Well, that's what it says.
ARTHUR: Look, if he was falling asleep, he wouldn't bother to type 'Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz'. He'd just snore it!
MAYNARD: Well, that's what's written in the post!
GALAHAD: Perhaps he was dictating.
ARTHUR: Oh, shut up.
"Excuse me, did you say 'Trekker'? The word is 'Trekkie.' I should know; I created them." -- Gene Roddenberry