Overwork Can Kill Faster Than Alcohol Or Cigarettes: More Hours Doesn’t Necessarily Mean More Productivity

A recent study published in the American Journal of Epidemiology, says that it is unhealthy and detrimental to your health to work beyond 8 hours each day. The study says that it increases the chances of heart diseases by up to 80 percent.

The study’s findings are ‘dis-heart-ening’ news for the American workers, who amongst fulltime employees across the world, reportedly clock in the most hours. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reveals that the average American employee works 8.6 hours a day on work and related activities – upwards of 43 hours each week.

The authors of the study said that they really could not pinpoint why the risk of heart disease increased so much, “There are several potential mechanisms that may underlie the association between long working hours and heart disease,” they wrote. “One is prolonged exposure to psychological stress.”

The study however, says that stress is not the only reason, the other equally important contributing factor is that workers tend to eat more and unhealthily during long working hours.

A lot of workers continued to work on work-related matters long after checking out time. Respondents said that they spent time checking emails, answering phones and filing papers, resulting on an average a little more than an hour each day – that totals to 7 hours a week or nearly 30 extra hours each month.

Since working extra-hard or being the last one to leave the office, can cost you heavily health wise, perhaps it’s time to treat work like we do alcohol and cigarettes. If we are addicted and just can’t quit, we must find ways of cutting back.

Recognize the three main reasons why working excessively is detrimental: They are increased levels of stress, unhealthy eating habits and lack of physical activity due to restricted spare time.

Deal with the stress first. Turn off your smartphone after checking out time. Stop checking email round the clock. Checking mail at night intensify your feelings of overwork. Just because someone has sent you a mail does not mean that needs to be responded to immediately. Prioritize your work and those things that can be delayed, delay them.

If the reason why you are putting in more work than you need to do, is to please the boss and ensure that you are not fired, then it’s time to do some soul searching and asking yourself: “Is this job really worth it?”

However, if your reason for putting in 15-hour days is because you love your job, ask yourself, “Are you putting your health at risk?” You could be in for some serious health problems that could cost you more than what the extra hours may be earning you now.

Talk to your boss and ask him how he can cut down on your work schedules. If it involves taking a pay cut, so be it, but your health is more important. Tell your boss that you are experiencing burn out and that lesser work will make you feel better and perform better.

Last but not the least, before you come to work make sure you have a healthy breakfast. Ensure that your hectic schedule does not mean reaching for a hamburger and eating at your desk. Eat balanced meals and reserve meal breaks, only for meals and – nothing else.

Figure out that you need to break from this workload schedule, before it’s too late. It may then become very difficult to recover the keenness, resourcefulness, and enthusiasm you’ve lost.