Higher Risk from Overtime
The European Heart Journal has just published some research on overtime from a study of 6,000 British Civil Servants.
The survey found that those who work three to four hours a day of overtime have a 60% higher risk of catching heart disease.
It seems that the amount of overtime you put in is in direct relation to the incidence of heart disease and angina. It stands to reason that it would. Stress is the great killer. Working copious amounts of overtime adds to stress and gives you less time to become unstressed.
Bit of a Downer
That would be a bit of a downer – working all the hours under the sun and then having no retirement time to enjoy the fruits of your labour. Not only is your boss taking some time out of your free time, he, or she, maybe taking time off the end of your life.
The study only looked at overtime.
However, what about those that worked 5 hours a day on average compared to those who worked 7 or 7.5 hours a day?
Is there a perfect number of hours to work in the day which is healthy for you?
Or is work, in itself, bad for your health and no hours a day are the healthiest?
Unhealthy Poor
However, those that don‘t work may not be too healthy as they can‘t afford it.
Are the lifetime unemployed more healthy and do they live longer than the rest of us?
Other surveys have shown that poverty is a major factor in longevity of life. People from middle class areas live longer than those from working class areas.
Perhaps there is a perfect number of hours in the day to work. However, it would depend on what you got paid for that number of hours.
Maybe sometime in the future they will have worked out how many hours in a day is best for us.They can change the laws so that it is illegal to work after that.
Next time your boss or client wants you to work overtime remind him that he may be asking to take time off the number of years you are likely to live.
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