WHO is sounding the alarm! Working too long during the day damages health and can even lead to premature death from stroke or heart attack. The statistics do not lie. And all the indications are that we are spending more and more time working because of the pandemic.
A recent World Health Organisation report shows that excessive hours spent at work, contributes to more than 745,000 premature deaths each year. The study found that working 55 or more hours per week is associated with an estimated 35 per cent higher risk of stroke and 17 per cent higher risk of death from ischaemic heart disease compared to working 35-40 hours per week.
Despite the many legal regulations defining acceptable working hours for a given position, standards are not always respected. A separate problem is shift work or on-call time, because although the law prescribes absolute rest after a " day's work" of 12 or 24 hours, few people comply with it.
The best examples are medical professionswhere, after being on call 24 hours a day in hospital, an employee often continues to work without rest. Furthermore, it is clear from the WHO report that the pandemic has clearly exacerbated the risk of overwork. By staying at home, some people worked more, some under much worse conditions. It was also difficult to draw a clear line between work and rest, and places intended for relaxation such as gyms, swimming pools, cinemas, ect. remained closed, taking away the possibility of an effective break from the daily stresses. Some people, due to fears of losing their jobs, decided to dedicate themselves completely to work.
WHO expert Frank Pega confirms that remote working during the pandemic may have further exacerbated the effects of overwork. Observations made show that during the lockdown, the number of hours worked increased by 10 per cent on average
Research shows that working too long not only damages health but also productivity and creativity. In Poland, employers still pay too little attention to employee behaviour the right balance between work and leisure and to the organisation of work itself. Remote working has clearly highlighted this problem. The view still persists that devoting more time to the company is a reason for praise and a prelude to a further career. These attitudes are socially accepted and affirmed.
The WHO report does not count all causes of loss of life and health due to overwork in its statistics, and in fact one can certainly also take into account the following suicides committed as a result of fatigue, bullying, a lack of a sense of purpose or rewarding promotion, losing oneself in one's work duties without leaving room for family or social life. A cause for concern could be the increasing number of nervous breakdowns and depressionwhich eliminate a sick employee from the labour market for a long time.
Death from overwork is not a new phenomenon. The country that has always been at the infamous forefront is Japan. Although the government and many public health organisations are trying to get the problem under control, still more than 30 per cent of suicides are caused precisely by work-related difficulties and overwork. Due to tradition, changing this is very difficult.
Since the 1960s, the term karoshi (過労死) has been in use in Japan - death from overwork, which affects young and middle-aged people who subordinate everything to their careers. They have a record of countless overtime hours and unused holidays. The most famous victims are the Prime Minister of Japan Keizo Obuchiand the presidents of the Toyota and Honda corporations. Japanese society sees them as heroes anyway, because still death from overwork is a source of pride for the whole family there.
Fortunately, we have not gone that far in Europe and Poland. Nevertheless, according to the WHO, it is high time to revise the existing rules on the labour market. The pandemic has shown that a profound social and mental change is needed among both employers and employees. A transformation of thinking is needed regarding the organisation of working time in such a way that it does not lead to damage to health.
After all, no one needs to be convinced that the cost of treating diseases resulting from overwork is significant for health systems. The authors of the report emphasise that serious illness or death does not always occur directly during periods of intense work. The consequences are sometimes delayed and occur after the over-exertion has stopped, e.g. during the first days off on holiday, or even several years later.
Excessive hours spent working can also lead to the serious disorder of workaholism. It can occur when, under the influence of various stimuli, we start to feel a compulsion to work, and leisure time triggers remorse caused by a sense of neglecting duties.
Workaholism is a serious psychological addiction, the symptom of which is an inner need to do work at the expense of personal life, sleep, food and health. The substrate for falling into this state can be the biochemistry of the brain, inadequate levels of serotonin and dopamine but also many disorders related to self-perception.
Work addiction is as dangerous and debilitating as other addictions. In addition to deepening isolation, constant exaggeration of one's professional inadequacies, dissatisfaction with one's performance, an over-working person suffers from constant fatigue, headaches, gastrointestinal diseases, chest pains, problems with sleep and, over time, with concentration, sudden uncontrollable outbursts of anger.
Studies conducted in Poland on this type of addiction have shown that it leads not only to loss of health, but also to various life complications such as living beyond one's means, problems with intimate relationships, abuse of doping drinks and drugs. The tendency to workaholism is more often manifested by women.
The first symptoms of addiction are not always easy to spot, but when one starts neglecting one's passions, inability to hold a conversation on topics other than work, when there are more and more professional goals to achieve, one should seriously consider whether this is not a simple path to serious illness and, in extreme states, even death. Workaholism is treated as a disease of civilisation, so it is important to consider what prevention can be applied so that you do not lose control of your life.
Some researchers say that the coming post Covid-19 pandemic will extend working hours even further. Remote working has become the norm and many companies plan to continue this form of employment. Only that, despite the apparent comfort, anxieties arise among employees due to the fear of keeping their jobs. A subconscious need to prove one's efficiency and indispensability arises. This is all the more true given that in many companies the lockdown crisis has led to redundancies and in many industries there is no certainty about tomorrow.
The WHO stresses the importance of the problem and the need for governments, employers and workers to develop new models on working time. It is imperative to agree on new boundaries to protect workers' health. WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Alhanom Ghebreyesus notes that no job is worth the loss of health and life.
Source: medexpress.co.uk