Nick Coleman: Now more than ever, work may be hazardous to your health

During the final minutes of Super Bowl XLII, New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning ran in circles like a chicken trying to escape the ax while somehow managing to stay standing and evade the brutes trying to pulverize him as he threw footballs that fluttered (just barely) into the arms of his frantic teammates.

It was a thrilling and exhausting performance that may have seemed familiar to millions of workers. Except for the new Cadillac and the MVP award Manning picked up, it looked a whole lot like just another a day at the office.

In fact, one of the best Super Bowl commercials was an ad called "Queen of Hearts" from careerbuilder.com. The spot featured an office worker's beating heart literally leaping from her chest and landing on her keyboard with a splat.

In an environment where many workers fear they will leave their jobs carrying a pink slip or being carried on a gurney, a heart exploding from a chest is the visceral sum of all fears. But in the ad, the heart gets up on little feet (as its startled owner watches) and marches into the office of the lobster-eating, TV-watching, feet-on-his-desk slob of a boss.

Then the heart pulls out a sign: "I quit." The ad ends with a message steering viewers to careerbuilder.com and a more basic message:

"Follow Your Heart."

It's good advice, too.

Job stress has become such a worrisome problem in the United Kingdom that Friday was designated Stress Down Day in Scotland, where a quarter of the workers are so stressed out at work that they dream of leaving the U.K. and moving abroad.

When even workers who live overseas dream of moving overseas, you know the workplace is a health danger zone.

And according to the Associated Press, many businesses are reporting that "employees' stress levels are rising" as worries about a recession, the stock market and a collapse in housing values spread through the workplace. In that context, maybe it's no surprise that vital organs were hitting the floor during the Super Bowl.

In previous years, Super Bowl ads for careerbuilder.com featured the frustrations of working alongside annoying monkeys. But the ante has been upped: The American workplace is in do-or-die mode. And studies seem to back it up: Job stress is on the rise, and job satisfaction is on the decline.

Over the past five years, the average workweek has grown by five hours -- an hour a day -- for both men (who work an average of 45 hours a week) and women (who average 40). It means less time with the family, fewer family meals, more junk food, less exercise and higher blood pressure for workers suffering stress on the job.

• Forty percent of workers say their job is very or extremely stressful.

• A quarter of the workforce feels burned out on the job.

• A quarter has felt like screaming while on the job.

• One worker even threw a telephone at a wall. OK, that was me, about 15 years ago. But I had a good reason.

Today, the workplace is under pressure from a stumbling economy and corporate cost-cutting: Many companies have fewer employees to do the work. And workers, hoping for promotions, fearing for their job security or needing to earn overtime to make ends meet, are working longer and longer days.

And while workers toss and turn, they can fret about the rest of the economic picture:

Home prices are down, gas prices and the cost-of-living are soaring, the stock market is wobbly and the dollar is weakening. But relax, workers!

The government is going to give you a tax rebate to help jump start the economy. Why, a family with three kids could get as much as $2,100 back - just about 20 percent of the long-term bill for the war in Iraq that they will pay later.

Oh, well.

Breathe deeply. Eat healthful meals, exercise and enjoy life.