The Impact Of Long Working Hours On Employees’ Physical, Mental And Social Health

Long working hours: A physical problem

The essay has been prepared to discuss and argument on the various statements made related to the longer hours of work for employees within the organizations. The first argument states about the impact of longer hours of working on physical health conditions while the remaining statements stated about the increased working hours creating adverse effects of mental health and decline in business productivity too. To provide argumentative statements, it is to be believed that the employees need to select their job roles according to their physical abilities and at the same time, remain aware of the laws, rules and regulations that are implemented within the workforce by regulatory bodies regarding limit to working hours.

Long working hours: A physical problem

Based on various arguments and counterarguments, it has been found that long hours of working by the employees or working overtime experience multiple physical problems. It becomes difficult to overcome stress, lack of free time and improper work life balance and risks associated with health conditions. The performance level also deteriorates and this could further lead to tiredness, lack of energy at work for next day and poor attentive ability. Cardiovascular problems and long-term smoking habits and alcohol; consumption further degraded the worker performance and productivity (Smart et al. 2014). The employees nowadays are more concerned in UK about maintaining careful work life balance while business organizations may also be prone to declined performance from inflexible hours of working. As stated by Caruso  (2014), the longer working hours results in lower wages, places more demands on the employees and even has affected business culture, which deteriorates its performance too (Caruso  2014).

As per the arguments of The Guardian, long working hours can cause physical problems. While on the other hand, the physicians need to be provided liberty in terms of choosing the workplace according to their physical conditions. This is in terms of complying with the harsh (Fleming 2018) regulations, which shapes the workplace conditions. This allowance reflects the liberty, which the employees in terms of exposing the skills, abilities and expertise.

However, according to some of the business critics, Zero Hours Contract deprive some of the employees from the terms and conditions of the employment legislations. In this type of contract, the employer is exempted from the provision of working hours. Along with this, the workers are not compelled to expose acceptance towards the proposed offers.

Excessive time working at the office made people experience mental health issues, which further contributed to hypertension, anxiety, depression, etc. The longer hours of working have made people subject to harm such as work abseentism, not interested in the job roles and decreased quality of life too. However, Hanna and Oliva (2015), on the other hand stated that longer working hours at work can make people work and commit themselves more to the organization and gain the desired outcomes. There are many cases where the employees have worked for long and due to this, their performance has been at its peak, which directly impacts business performance. There are no such major proofs that working longer could decline productivity, rather the fact is working dedicatedly and in a committed manner holds more responsibilities for the workers to perform their tasks.

Long working hours: A mental problem

While, on the other hand, according to the revelation of BBC, long working hours compel the employees to encounter mental problems (BBC News. 2018). On the contrary, the psychologists are of the view that mental problems arise due to family problems. However, some of the employees need to be applauded for maintaining the balance between the personal and professional sphere. The major drive behind this is the assessment of their treatment in the workplace. Some other psychologists have discovered depression within the employees due to the degradation of family relationships. This has created heavy impact on their performance (BBC News. 2018). 

According to the arguments of Hanna and Oliva (2015), the employees should be satisfied with their job roles and make sure to assess whether their needs and preferences are being fulfilled or not (Hanna and Oliva 2015). The employees must be provided with various monetary and non-monetary benefits that could create mental satisfaction among them. Longer working hours thus contributes to benefits obtained due to high performance and commitment to work, furthermore has encouraged people to give their best and commit much more than what is expected. The normal hours of working though should not go beyond 54 hours in a week. In case, the employees do not feel over-burdened and can work for longer hours without any major mental health issues, rather be satisfied and committed towards organizational excellence, he or she should be provided with additional incentives and benefits, thereby influencing their behaviors and creating positive mindsets too. This would be inclined with the business goals keeping in mind that the tasks are allocated and done according to the time durations set.

Evidences from BBC News showed that the alignment of working hours with legislations and laws set by Government to limit working hours. The Working Environment Act enables defining the working hours at certain time and thus the per day working hour is stated in the employment contract and in collective agreements. The limits prescribed in the contract, based on the Act, are 8.3 to 9 hours per day and 40 hours a week. There must be a proper limit, according to the laws about the limitation of 48 hours per seven days that are calculated based on the fixed average over time duration of eight weeks. Bjorner et al. (2015) argues that that the mental health issues vary from person to person based on their hours of working though, results showed with the increase in working hours, their satisfaction with their job roles have decreased. Based on the Mental Component Summary of the Short Form 36 (SF-36) measurement, nearly 50 percent increased probability is obtained related to mental health issues faced by the workers who work between 49 to 59 hours every week. Suicidal intentions appear and many have been the victims as well (Bjorner et al. 2015).

Long working hours: A social problem

As per other arguments, long working hours can compel the employees to encounter difficulty in leading quality social life. Poor quality social life is experienced by individuals when they spend lesser time with families and friends and rather spend more time at work. This often creates negative mental health and thus they suffer with their performance level deteriorating from time to time. Job satisfaction is an important thing and thus firstly, the employees should be satisfied with their job roles and then check whether their needs are being taken care of or not by performing their best at the organization.

On the contrary, the employees should have the liberty to choose the working hours in which they are comfortable with. They could even choose not to work for longer hours and do the needful only, which can also keep the business performance consistent as well as theirs along with maintaining good physical, mental health and social wellbeing. This contradicts the compulsion of working for long hours. However, the psychologists point out that social isolation creates depression within the employees. This depression generates the feeling of causing self-harm or harm to others. This tendency is a threat in terms of the performance of the employees. In order to avert these instances, counselling and therapies need to be conducted. Therapies prove effective in terms of enhancing the communication skills between the employees, employers and the managers.

With the social issues arising, the employees could feel socially isolated and deprive from being part of their friends circle. This could increase the chances of mental depression and thus the workers might get panic attack, which might even lead to severe consequences. Thus enjoying some quality social life is important not only for refreshment but also for ensuring that they could feel interested in doing their job roles properly at the workplace. The satisfaction with the job role is more important and when employees feel interested with his work role, he can work for longer hours and it is purely based on his wishes. While Nankervis et al. (2016) argued that checking whether the employees’ need and requirements is essential, which shall lead to satisfaction with the job, Smart et al. (2014) stated about how relationships and bonding are formed with higher level of satisfaction with job and by working for longer hours.

According to the evidences from The Guardian, it is a fact that the minds get refreshed and they are much happier and interested in committing themselves fully to the organizational functioning. As stated by Vandello et al. (2013), employers must communicate with the worker and guide them properly so that the work can be accomplished within quick time. There are evidences that showed that employer should provide flexibility and allow them to work remotely though keep connected with each other and reduce the workload, furthermore stop any need to work for non-traditional hours. Allowing them to make their individual choices to work for longer hours or not could create mental; satisfaction, lift their morale and make them work freely. 

Conclusion

There were arguments showing about how the longer working hours are not only responsible for mental or physical issues, but also there had been other causes of lack of organizational productivity, poor implementation of laws regarding limitation of working hours, etc. The counter arguments showed the opposite sides of the arguments and evidences showed that the longer hours of working were responsible for enhancing communication and social circle within the workplace while it has often made them fetch additional benefits and rewards for their increased performance and high level of commitment towards work.  This was beneficial for creating positive mindsets among them and allowed them to perform with much dedication and commitment.

References

Allen, T.D., Johnson, R.C., Kiburz, K.M. and Shockley, K.M., 2013. Work–family conflict and flexible work arrangements: Deconstructing flexibility. Personnel psychology, 66(2), pp.345-376.

BBC News. 2018. Poor mental health at work ‘widespread’. [online] Available at: https://www.bbc.com/news/health-45470517 [Accessed 4 Dec. 2018].

Caruso, C.C., 2014. Negative impacts of shiftwork and long work hours. Rehabilitation Nursing, 39(1), pp.16-25.

Faragher, E.B., Cass, M. and Cooper, C.L., 2013. The relationship between job satisfaction and health: a meta-analysis. In From Stress to Wellbeing Volume 1 (pp. 254-271). Palgrave Macmillan, London.

Fleming, P. 2018. Do you work more than 39 hours a week? Your job could be killing you. [online] the Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2018/jan/15/is-28-hours-ideal-working-week-for-healthy-life [Accessed 4 Dec. 2018].

Hanna, R. and Oliva, P., 2015. The effect of pollution on labor supply: Evidence from a natural experiment in Mexico City. Journal of Public Economics, 122, pp.68-79.

Kivimäki, M., Jokela, M., Nyberg, S.T., Singh-Manoux, A., Fransson, E.I., Alfredsson, L., Bjorner, J.B., Borritz, M., Burr, H., Casini, A. and Clays, E., 2015. Long working hours and risk of coronary heart disease and stroke: a systematic review and meta-analysis of published and unpublished data for 603 838 individuals. The Lancet, 386(10005), pp.1739-1746.

Nankervis, A.R., Baird, M., Coffey, J. and Shields, J., 2016. Human resource management: strategy and practice. Cengage AU.

Smart, D., English, A., James, J., Wilson, M., Daratha, K.B., Childers, B. and Magera, C., 2014. Compassion fatigue and satisfaction: A cross?sectional survey among US healthcare workers. Nursing & health sciences, 16(1), pp.3-10.

Vandello, J.A., Hettinger, V.E., Bosson, J.K. and Siddiqi, J., 2013. When equal isn’t really equal: The masculine dilemma of seeking work flexibility. Journal of Social Issues, 69(2), pp.303-321.