A lot of people think that the longer the number of hours worked equals the work done. But this isn’t true as research has shown that those who worked for 70 hours didn’t get more work done than those who worked for 56 hours. This is because working long hours only puts a person through more physical, mental, psychological, and emotional stress. Research also shows that an individual is more at risk of dying for working more than 55 hours.
This may come as a surprise to you but working too much has a negative effect on your health. Longer working hours mean less sleep, skipping meals, and putting your body and mind through more strain. The World Health Organization says that 745,000 deaths in the year 2016 were as a result of overworking. This shows a 29 percent increase since the year 2000.
It is expedient to safeguard yourself from overworking. It is literally a matter of life and death. The Corona Virus pandemic made going to work riskier and created the “work-from-home” jobs. While essential workers faced the risk of the virus outside, nonessential workers at home battled more workload. To stay afloat, a lot of companies downsized thereby creating more workload for workers retained.
The Direct-General of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus pointed this out in a prepared statement:
“Teleworking has become the norm in many industries, often blurring the boundaries between home and work. In addition, many businesses have been forced to scale back or shut down operations to save money, and people who are still on the payroll end up working longer hours.
The effect of overworking cannot be overemphasized. From psychological to physical to emotional, interpersonal and behavioral. You might find yourself experiencing one or several of the following symptoms:
- Feeling foggy headed, having troubles solving problems and a lower tolerance for work issues.
- Feeling fatigued, constant headaches, tensed, nauseas or sick in the stomach.
- Constantly worried, feeling worked up, having a sense of dread and feeling totally helpless.
- Getting into conflict with co-workers, loved ones and blowing up at little things.
- Drinking more, having less sleep and calling in sick more often.
The bullet points above are the symptoms that precedes something graver. Take care of your health and do not overwork yourself. In the advent that you feel overworked, you can do some of these:
- Take time to eat lunch.
- Go for a walk or meditate to unwind.
- Lean back from your computer and rub your eyes
- Take short breaks.
- Put a limit to the workload you accept.
Beyond all of these, read, listen to music and do those exercises that helps release stress.
