Are you a work martyr? While you might think it shows commitment and a solid work ethic, overworking is likely doing yourself, and your company, more harm than good.
Are you first to work in the morning and last to leave?
Permanently attached to your mobile and logged on to email, even on the weekend?
You might feel like you’re single-handedly keeping your company afloat, but there’s a large body of research to show less really is more when it comes to the hours you work.
A recent poll of Australian workers showed unpaid overtime is on the rise compared to the pre-Covid-19 era.
We’re “donating” an average of 7.3 unpaid hours each week, almost a whole day’s worth, up from 5.8 before the outbreak.
“We’ve been hamsters on a wheel for the past couple of years, all we do is work, work, work,” Ignite Global future of work expert Kim Seeling Smith says.
“Everybody I know is slammed with workload.
“The critical skills shortage and ‘the great resignation’ are playing off each other at the same time and the work isn’t going anywhere.”
RUOK? Board member and mental health expert Graeme Cowan says people tended not take holidays over the pandemic.
“We have a culture of busyness, it’s like a badge of honour to be busy and think your team or company won’t be able to function if you’re away,” Graeme, co-founder of WeCARE365, says.
Despite being overworking, Graeme says our productivity isn’t improving, with the recent Productivity Commission report finding the decade ending in 2019-20 was the worst for growth in 60 years.
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The dangers of overworking
Being constantly “plugged in” and sacrificing late nights, weekends and holidays to prove ourselves is bad for our health, science has found.
Overworking can lead to stress, burnout, disengagement and poorer performance.
It can also kill creativity and innovation.
In Japan, dying from overworking (known as karoshi) is even recognised as an official cause of death.
According to the World Health Organisation, working more than 55 hours a week increases your risk of stroke by 35 per cent and the risk of heart disease by 17 per cent.
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How many working hours is healthy?
Research Stanford University found productivity falls sharply when a person works more than 50 hours a week and drops off a cliff after 55 hours.
A 2021 Japanese study found working shorter hours boosted productivity due to employees recovering from fatigue and coming into work with increased concentration and more energy.
Many companies around the world are now following the example of countries such as Sweden, Germany, the Netherlands and Iceland in introducing shorter work weeks.
“On my podcast The Caring CEO I recently interviewed two managing directors, both women, one who introduced a four-day week at her company and the other a nine-day fortnight and the employee net promoter score (a measure of how employees feel about your company) went up considerably,” Graeme says.
“Caring for your employees holistically is the answer to high performance.
“The pressure to be on the job is intense, and now even greater with remote working, but reducing the causes of ‘presenteeism’ dramatically improves morale, culture, and productivity.”
Kim agrees: “We’re absolutely better workers when we take a break,” she says.
“It’s proven from a neuroscience perspective that when we let our brains and bodies rest, we’re more creative, more innovative, more engaged.
“The challenge is that this is a habit now.”
If you feel like you’re working all day, every day, stop and think about what’s causing you to overwork, say our experts, and look at how you can switch off and embrace healthier hours.
“Take a step back and think about the last place that you went where you really enjoyed yourself and then visualise yourself back in that spot,” Graeme advises.
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