Anita and Cara were considered model employees at Weyco, an insurance consulting firm outside of Lansing, Mich., both having worked at the company for years. The women sat side-by-side, sharing workloads – and after work – sharing the occasional cigarette.

But at a company benefits meeting two years ago, the company president announced, "As of January 1st, 2005, anyone that has nicotine in their body will be fired," Anita remembers. "And we sat there in awe. And I spoke out at that time. 'You can't do that to us.' And then he said, 'Yes, I can.' I said, 'That's not legal.' And he came back with, 'Yes, it is.'"

And it was legal: in Michigan, there's no law that prevents a boss from firing people virtually at will. At Weyco, that meant no smoking at work, no smoking at home, no smoking period.

Weyco gave employees 15 months to quit, before subjecting them to random nicotine testing. If you fail, you're out.

ZoomInfo has devised a search engine to ferret out job candidate, even if they aren't looking for a job. Subscribers insert their requirements--need a vice president of marketing, experience in networking in California-- and the search engine comes up with a list of potentials and assembles a roster of their educational background, experience and email address. It's part of a wave of vertical search apps that venture capitalists are funding.

"The best people aren't necessarily on the hiring boards," said Russ Glass, vice president of marketing. "We look at SEC filings, corporate web sites...In general, if people are on the web, we will find them."

But errors are common. It says Intraware CEO Peter Jackson went to undergrad at Stanford (uhhh-Berkeley) and worked at Accenture and EDS (that would be Intraware's COO). It couldn't find my wife by job title, but it found her by name. My brother was a complete no-show, although on Google I found his office and a quote in an article about treating patients with incontinence. I popped up, although my current job and educational bio didn't despite the fact that it's posted in several articles.

A bad boss can drive you nuts! Long hours, low pay. Hard work, no health insurance. The boss gets a golden parachute, you get no pension, no respect. You need a break.

Do not include the name of the company or any personal names or other personal identifiers with the story. For legal reasons, stories including this information will not be posted.

While stress is one cause of high blood pressure, there are a number of other things that can contribute, such as a poor diet, drinking too much alcohol, being overweight or obese, eating too much salt and not doing enough exercise.

Dr Chantal Guimont and colleagues who carried out the latest study acknowledge that other factors may have contributed to the high blood pressure found in the white-collar workers that they studied.

However, they believe job stress is important and may chronically activate the nervous and cardiovascular system.

Dr Guimont said: "Our study supports the hypothesis that job strain, particularly in workers with low social support at work, may contribute to increased blood pressure."