Are office jobs more difficult than manual labour? Builders tell GMB nothing is more exhausting than being on a site while businessman says a day of mental tasks ‘is much tougher’
- Scientists found that a long day sitting at a desk can be as tiring as manual work
- The Bald Builders say nothing is more exhausting than being on a building site
- Entrepreneur Richard Farleigh says mental work ‘is much tougher’ then physical
Scientists have found that a long day sitting at a desk can be just as tiring as manual work.
Builders and entrepreneurs Sam Hughes, 28, and Brad Hanson, 38, aka The Bald Builders spoke to Charlotte Hawkins and Robert Rinder on Good Morning Britain and said ‘there’s nothing more exhausting than being on a building site’.
However, businessman and entrepreneur Richard Farleigh says mental work ‘is much tougher’ then physical labour.
Brad admitted he understands that office work is tiring but he disputes its more tiring than being on a building site.
He said: ‘We are lucky to be on both sides of the fence, we got an office job, we do social media and we have got our own radio show, so we are in the office half of the time.
‘It is tiring and you do take it home but there’s nothing more exhausting than being on a building site lifting up concrete blocks, lifting two or three tonnes of material in the morning. ‘
His business partner Sam agreed and quipped: ‘With a spade and a wheel barrow not just moving a mouse. ‘
Richard disagreed saying he thinks office work is ‘much tougher’ and he has always suspected it was.
However, businessman and entrepreneur Richard Farleigh says mental work ‘is much tougher’ then physical labour
Builders and entrepreneurs Sam Hughes (left) and Brad Hanson (right) aka The Bald Builders spoke to Charlotte Hawkins and Robert Rinder on Good Morning Britain and said ‘there’s nothing more exhausting than being on a building site’
Richard said mental work is’ really really tough’ saying office jobs have higher levels of depression and more stress
He said: ‘Mental work is really really tough, and often times much tougher, higher levels of depression more stress, the job involve longer hours and lower pay.
‘Doctors and solicitors often get paid less, some of the tradespeople get paid a lot.’
He continued: ‘ When you work in an office you don’t always get a chance to exercise, when are you going to squeeze that in if you have got a family? As the boys said you take your work home a lot of the time, when you work on a building site you leave it there.
Good Morning Britain also took to the streets to ask member’s of the public their thoughts on the subject.
One person said: ‘Physical work it physical work you’re left exhausted.’
Someone else said: ‘My partner works in an office and I can see it is quite gruelling, there are very long hours.’
While another said: ‘If you’re working in this weather, in an office you have AC and all the resources around you so it is quite different.’
Brad admitted he understands that office work is tiring but he disputes its more tiring than being on a building site
The debate comes after a study published in Current Biology Journal revealed that mental concentration leads to changes in the brain that really can wear us out, according to researchers from Pitie-Salpetriere University in France.
It claims when intense mental work is carried out over a period of several hours, it causes potentially toxic by-products to build up in a part of the brain called the prefrontal cortex.
This then has an impact on our control over the decisions we make, meaning we move to activities that don’t take as much mental energy.
In the study, the researchers took two groups of people and monitored brain chemistry over the course of a workday.
The study authors say their results support the notion that glutamate accumulation makes further activation of this part of the brain harder, to the degree that cognitive control becomes even more difficult after a mentally challenging day of work.