The internationally rated scientific journal Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin
recently published the results of a conclusive study that showed early achievers (those who
throw themselves into work and achieve relative degrees of success) tend to have shorter life
spans than people who earn success simply by hanging around long enough. On a high-profile
level, the trend is particularly evident among those US presidents and governors who were
elected while young, but it can also be seen among international scientists and writers who
become Nobel Laureates in record time. It’s also been measured that young women who win
Best Supporting Actress Oscars tend to exit stage left well before their time. Less well-known
is the disturbing relationship between the year a doctor of any description receives their PhD
and their ultimate life span: it seems the earlier the mortar board, the sooner the camphor
chest.
Why is it so? Canadian psychology researcher Professor Stewart McCann believes workrelated
stress is the culprit. He says the strains, challenges and obligations associated with
busting a gut before the first set of hurdles can accelerate a person’s natural physical and mental
decline. Early success can also, he believes, cause motivational levels to peak too early, leaving
one without much incentive to bat on and keep scoring runs.
In another study, the British Journal of Ophthalmology published results showing that
power-dressing businessmen could be increasing their risk ofserious eye disease and even death
by wearing their ties too tight. (It shouldn’t therefore hurt your own career prospects to inform
your stressed-out tie-fiddling supervisor to stop playing with it or he’ll go blind.)
Even Japan, a nation well-recognized for its endless devotion to production, is finally
acknowledging that too much hard work can kill. In a landmark ruling in 2001, a Japanese
coroner announced that Nobuo Miuro, a forty-seven-year-old interiors fitter who regularly
worked eighteen-hour days, had finally keeled over due to karoshi, or ‘death by overwork’.
Since then, hundreds of retrospective civil lawsuits, some pertaining to deaths up to fifteen
years earlier, have been filed by Japanese families accusing employers of causing karoshi. With
reports of up to 10,000 karoshi-related deaths occurring each year, companies are now
understandably growing nervous. Some have even introduced a firm policy of one ‘no overtime’
day each week, wherein employees are only required to work their allotted number of paid
hours (unless of course they want to stay longer).
【題組】33. According to the report of an academic journal, what is the possible outcome of wearing a
tie too tight?
(A) sudden death (B) eye disease (C) serious stress (D) blindness
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