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Accounting for Headaches
The survey, titled Exedrin@Work Headache-by-profession Index, ranked the following professions in terms of the number of headaches experienced by workers in that profession, results were as follows:
- slightly less than half the accountants polled reported suffering weekday headaches,
- librarians came in second with 43%,
- followed by 42% of bus and truck drivers, and
- construction workers with 38% reporting headaches.
Furthermore, 77% of the workers polled say that 56% of their headaches strike during working hours, and 21% say that all their headaches happen at work.
Occupational Hazards
The survey also highlighted some industry-specific triggers:
- half the headaches experienced by the accountants polled are caused by the sloppy bookkeeping of disorganized clients;
- borrowers at libraries who are incapable of using the research resources are the source of 56% of the headaches experienced by librarians;
- truck and bus drivers say that bumper to bumper traffic caused 38% of their headaches, while bad weather is responsible for a further 31%; and
- nearly half of all the law enforcement officers polled said they’d have fewer headaches on the job if citizens would stop trying to elicit sympathy.
While 98% of workers polled consider themselves either solid performers or over-achievers, 47% said their work quality has suffered because of headache pain, and even though 62% of headaches occur during work activities, only about 40% of those polled take medication at the onset of a headache.