Dr Benjamin C. Amick and colleagues at the University of Texas found that people tended to die earlier when they were in jobs where they had few opportunities to decide what work to do and how to go about it. Benjamin explained that struggling to stay awake or alert was as stressful as too much pressure and claimed that such jobs were completely unnecessary.

“The sad thing is, we know how to make work meaningful, and it doesn’t come at the cost of reduced productivity.”

The research followed the health fortunes of 5,000 households across 25 years.

The Danish Government considers its campaign against boring, repetitive work a huge success. Since 1993 it has reduced boring work by 25% and won support from 90% of companies which offered boring jobs.