Remember the 100-year-old who had to be forced to take a day off work to celebrate his centenary? Turns out he may not be as mad as we had previously assumed. No. An expert (that's a-n expert, not A-n-n-e Expert) has found that being unemployed could be as dangerous as smoking 400 cigarettes a day.
This 'expert' (a Prof. Mansel Aylward of the University of Protestant Work Ethics) also claims that his analysis of figures from the Office of National Statistics show that unemployed young adult males are 40 times more likely to commit suicide than their working counterparts and are also more likely to suffer depression, illness or die.
The prof. advises poor fools enlightened employees to "wander to work with a spring in your step and a smile on your face, happy to avoid the depression of unemployment."
The prof. also said work can only make us happy to a certain degree because we each have a threshold that limits how happy we can be. His studies reveal that people become happier after winning the lottery - but their happiness levels "soon return to the same as they were before the win."
A reason to go back to work as a binman then, Michael Carroll.
The potty prof. then went on to implore anyone who would still listen to him (i.e. The Daily Mail) that the evidence that being at work is good for happiness and also good for health was "compelling".
Once again, we must point all involved to the pages of the hallowedIdler publication, specifically their 'War on Work' issue.
Silly old bugger. Are any of you happy at work? Really happy? Please discuss.
Image from moxliukas's Flickr photostream