{"id":22268,"date":"2019-12-26T11:00:57","date_gmt":"2019-12-26T11:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/strammer.com\/?p=22268"},"modified":"2020-01-08T14:50:44","modified_gmt":"2020-01-08T14:50:44","slug":"health-effects-of-working-too-much","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/strammer.com\/en\/health-effects-of-working-too-much\/","title":{"rendered":"Overworking and Its Health Consequences"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"fusion-fullwidth fullwidth-box fusion-fullwidth-1  fusion-parallax-none nonhundred-percent-fullwidth\" style=\"border-bottom-width: 0px;border-top-width: 0px;border-bottom-style: solid;border-top-style: solid;padding-bottom:20px;padding-top:20px;padding-left:;padding-right:;\"><style type=\"text\/css\" scoped=\"scoped\">.fusion-fullwidth-1 {\r\n                            padding-left: px !important;\r\n                            padding-right: px !important;\r\n                        }<\/style><div class=\"fusion-row\"><\/div><\/div><div class=\"fusion-title title fusion-title-center fusion-title-size-one\"><div class=\"title-sep-container title-sep-container-left\"><div class=\"title-sep sep-double sep-solid\" style=\"border-color:#&lt;strong&gt;5f80a0&lt;\/strong&gt;;\"><\/div><\/div><h1 class=\"title-heading-center\">Health Effects of Working Too Much<\/h1><div class=\"title-sep-container title-sep-container-right\"><div class=\"title-sep sep-double sep-solid\" style=\"border-color:#&lt;strong&gt;5f80a0&lt;\/strong&gt;;\"><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<p>When not a habit,&nbsp;<strong>working extra hours<\/strong> can be productive, but for many workers, overworking is a recurrent practice. Even if we are aware of the importance of our health and of a balanced work-life. Recent research by ADP showed that employees in the United Kingdom work around <strong>6.3 hours<\/strong>&nbsp;during the week without getting paid. In France,&nbsp;<strong>12%<\/strong>&nbsp;of the workforce work over&nbsp;<strong>10 unpaid hours<\/strong>&nbsp;per week.<\/p>\n<p>It is fundamental to recognise overworking&nbsp;<strong>symptoms<\/strong>, such as working more than the legal limit of hours, working more time than your contract requires, experiencing physical issues and mental disorders related to work.<\/p>\n<p>The worrying&nbsp;<strong>consequences<\/strong>&nbsp;of excessive workload and overworking are countless. Employees who work too much start feeling exhausted and&nbsp;<strong>stressed<\/strong>. This causes a decrease in work performance, productivity and can even contribute to health issues. A 2018 study from Perkbox showed that long working hours were&nbsp;<strong>the most common reason<\/strong>&nbsp;for work-related stress in the UK.<\/p>\n<p>When we feel stressed, our blood pressure rises, which can damage our&nbsp;<strong>hearts<\/strong>&nbsp;and lead to heart attack symptoms. Overwork can also interfere with&nbsp;<strong>hormone levels<\/strong>. Women may notice changes in the period cycle, while men can experience a reduction in their levels of fertility.&nbsp;Working more time than we should in the same position also damages our&nbsp;<strong>physical health<\/strong>. It can cause back pain, posture problems and harm the eyes if it involves looking at electronic devices.<\/p>\n<p>Stress and working too much can lead to&nbsp;<strong>sleep deprivation<\/strong>, which decreases work performance and enhances feelings of anxiety. It can also cause a&nbsp;<strong>lack of energy<\/strong>, which can stop us from having healthy habits, such as having a hobby or exercising.<\/p>\n<p>Another disturbing consequence of working too much is&nbsp;<strong>death<\/strong>. It is what Jeffrey Pfeffer reveals in his book \u201cDying for a paycheck\u201d. In the US,&nbsp;<strong>150.000<\/strong>&nbsp;deaths were caused by overworking. In China, it was over&nbsp;<strong>1 million<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>Overworking seems&nbsp;<strong>counterproductive<\/strong>, considering the many health effects. It will only cause a&nbsp;<strong>higher frequency<\/strong>&nbsp;of sick days. This means less productivity and more time off work; exactly what employees want to avoid when they overwork.<\/p>\n<p>It is crucial that overworking does not become the new normal. <strong>Companies and workers<\/strong>&nbsp;should work together to tackle this issue. Breaks, reasonable working hours, regular vacations\/ days off and learning to say no, are&nbsp;<strong>ways<\/strong>&nbsp;to avoid reaching the breaking point.<\/p>\n<p><u>References: <\/u><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>The Negative Effects of Working Too Much, May 2019, <a href=\"https:\/\/productivitytheory.com\/the-negative-effects-of-working-too-much\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Productivity Theory<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Why Working Overtime Is Never A Good Idea, October 2018, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.entrepreneur.com\/article\/322595\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Entrepreneur<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Health Consequences of Overwork, June 2019, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.counterpunch.org\/2019\/06\/20\/health-consequences-of-overwork\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">CounterPunch<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When not a habit,&nbsp;working extra hours can be productive, but for many workers, overworking is a recurrent practice. Even if we are aware of the importance of our health and of a balanced work-life. Recent research by ADP showed that employees in the United Kingdom work around 6.3 hours&nbsp;during the week without getting paid. In [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":20573,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_editorskit_title_hidden":false,"_editorskit_reading_time":0,"_editorskit_is_block_options_detached":false,"_editorskit_block_options_position":"{}","myguten_meta_block_field":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[98],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22268","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/strammer.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22268","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/strammer.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/strammer.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/strammer.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/strammer.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22268"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/strammer.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22268\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22338,"href":"https:\/\/strammer.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22268\/revisions\/22338"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/strammer.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20573"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/strammer.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/strammer.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/strammer.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}