Putting your body through extremely long hours of work is dangerous to your health
Angered by what they described as “inhumane and abusive” working hours, GoldmanSachs employees recently went public to protest how they are consistently being subjected to more than 100 hours of work every week.
Of course, Goldman Sachs isn’t the only company where employees are being made to work for longer hours. A Harvard Business Review survey across 46 countries showed that nearly 90% of workers say they routinely overworkthemselves.
It matters little whether working for long hours every day is by choice or company rules. What’s how not in doubt is the potential threat to health and well-being that it continues to pose to too many people.
First, how do we measure long working hours? It occurs when a person consistently logs in more than the standard or acceptable 40–50 hours of work per week.
People who engage in long hours workweeks put it 60-hours of work and above per week. This translates into leaving the house at 7 am and getting home at 9 pm five days a week. But while being a workaholic may make help you earn more money, there are, however, several scientific pieces of evidence showing that it ruins your health over time.
Let’s keep it straight to the point: working more than 55-hour per week leads to early death from stroke and heart-related problems.
A global study by the World Health Organization (WHO) shows that long hours workweeks account for more than 745,000 deaths from stroke and heart disease everysingleyear.
In 2013, Japanese journalist Miwa Sado died after working 150 hours of overtime in asinglemonth. Also, a 21-year-old intern at the Bank of America Merrill Lynch who averaged 20-hours per day died from a seizure while in the shower. Both deaths were from heart attacks.
Researchers at the University College London have confirmed that people who work for extremely long hours expose themselves to a higher risk of strokes due to stress and a sedentary lifestyle. Specifically, working 55 hours per week…
