London, Aug 5 (IANS): Employees buoyed up by their co-workers' support and goodwill tend to live longer and better.

"We spend most of our waking hours at work, and we don't have much time to meet our friends during the weekdays," explains Sharon Toker, a researcher in organisational behaviour at the Tel Aviv University.

"Work should be a place where people can get necessary emotional support. Those who reported having low social support at work were 2.4 times more likely to die sometime within those 20 years," says Toker, reports 'Health Psychology'.

Toker and colleagues Arie Shirom and Yasmin Alkaly, with Orit Jacobson and Ran Balicer from Clalit Healthcare Services, followed the health records of 820 adults, according to a Tel Aviv statement.

They were aged between 25 and 65 years and worked an average of 8.8 hours daily through a two-decade period.

Toker says that 53 participants died during the course of the study and most of them had negligible social connections with their co-workers.