Want To Live A Happy, Healthy Life? Fire Your Boss

People tell me time and time again that they want to quit their job, but entrepreneurship is just too risky. Here’s a few facts I’ve collected that show you that staying in the cubicle farm is more detrimental than you may think.

1. Your boss is slowly killing you.

According to a study of 3,000 Swedish workers, workers who rated their managers most incompetent had a nearly 25% higher risk of developing serious heart problems (the gluttons for punishment who stayed four years or longer increased that risk to 39%).

I personally believe that bosses should be subject to the same labeling regulations as cigarettes: 25% of their viewable surface area should display a warning from the Surgeon General.

2. You’re wasting your life by complaining.

TIME magazine reports that the “average American male spends roughly five months complaining about his boss.”

Let’s put that in perspective with some statistics: for every one hour of time you spend having sex, you spend ten hours complaining about your boss (entrepreneurs, on the other hand, spend ten hours reading self-help business books for every hour they spend having sex).

Both situations are troubling.

3. You hate your boss more than you think you do.

You probably won’t be shocked to hear that people don’t like spending time with their boss. But did you know that a major Princeton University study showed that people rate spending time with their boss as the worst part of their day? Yes, even below doing dishes and watching reruns of Jersey Shore.

Think about the thing you hate doing most in your house. And then think about the fact that you spend a good portion of your day in the presence of someone you hate more.

Of the time that men spend with their bosses, a full 46% of it is an “unpleasant state” characterized by feelings of depression, anger, or frustration. Women, on the other hand, spend about 31% of their time with bosses in the unpleasant state, though they make up for the difference by listening to men complain.

4. You only live for the weekends.

Finally, an informal study conducted by me suggests that 50% of the status updates that I see on Facebook are about people dreading Monday or waiting for Friday – what you should be doing is sharing this post on Facebook (seriously).

You hate roughly 65% of the week, and the rest of us hate 100% of your complaining.

For further education on quitting your job, watch the movie Office Space (the more productive option is to read The 4-Hour Workweek or Wellbeing).

I, for one, pledge to continue doing my part to save humanity by neither having a boss nor having any employees to complain about me.

Zack