Longer hours, shorter life

Seems to concentrate mostly on long hours but stuff like split shifts and/or working mixed night and day rotas, etc. can be just as bad or even worse especially when mixed with long hours.

Personally I think the work/life balance is way out of whack.
 
I always knew my parents were lying to me when they used to say hard work never killed anybody, my life of lazy indolence is looking to pay off! :cry:
 
So you're saying me routinely working 100+ hours a week might be to my detriment?

Well I never!

I think there is prob more a correlation between the type of work rather than just hours. I might work longer than average but can eat some healthy made overpriced ****. Where as someone in a factory working maybe only 70 hours might have to eat junk and work more anti social hours/stress etc
 
Depending on your job, the WHO will not have the data to corroborate half of this. Only workers who "clock in and clock out" would have reliable data but jobs like that are typically going to be manual/labour intensive/not require too much brain work. I can't vouch for anyone in my organisation who reports actual hours worked as it is irrelevant, we are all salaried. And for every week I have of 60/70hrs, I'll have a week of 35. Also, I enjoy my job, as it is a vocation I can always do better in. You don't see people telling Usain Bolt to cool it down and have a break whilst he hones his skills, do you? Just because my job is a desk job, doesn't make it anymore unfulfilling or meaningful. Get bent if you want me to arbitrarily reduce my hours to please your viewpoint of what is healthy. Enjoy your job and you won't work a day in your life and all that.
 
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Orangeade said:
I think there is prob more a correlation between the type of work rather than just hours. I might work longer than average but can eat some healthy made overpriced ****. Where as someone in a factory working maybe only 70 hours might have to eat junk and work more anti social hours/stress etc
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An initial look at the study seems to suggest it's more complex than that. Those kinds of factors would have been the first things they looked at I imagine.
 
I used to work crazy hours. Then I thought to myself, why? The extra money doesn’t offset the impact on my health and I’m only making those I report to look better. Ultimately you only live once and I’m not living to work. I’m much more sensible about my working hours now.
 
Nice how the BBC managed to insert a racial element into an article about working hours. Just can't help themselves, can they.

That aside, this is really about stress, isn't it? And prolonged periods of stress and pressure.
 
Lysander said:
That aside, this is really about stress, isn't it? And prolonged periods of stress and pressure.
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Pretty much, long hours in even the most basic jobs add a simple physical stress to the body which isn't being allowed to properly recover. Last time I did bouts of long hours I was stressed to the point of getting nosebleeds in the office. I've since left that job mind (and a long time ago now).
 
Think its got to be more complex than just long hours.

A farmer working 50 hours doing work he enjoys is gonna be better off than the factory/office drone that dont enjoy what they do.

If your work over or under strains your mind or your body then it's not gonna be sustainable.
 
I try to do as few hours as possible.

I am contracted to full time work (37.5 hours a week) and I do about half of that, particuarly working from home.

I am fortunate I am experienced and quick at my job, and my piers are.... quite frankly ******* useless, so the bar is set very low.

And I dont even try to be the best either, just do well enough to keep the wolves away.

No one sat on their death bed wishing they had spent more time at work.
 
BUDFORCE said:
I try to do as few hours as possible.

I am contracted to full time work (37.5 hours a week) and I do about half of that, particuarly working from home.

I am fortunate I am experienced and quick at my job, and my piers are.... quite frankly ******* useless, so the bar is set very low.

And I dont even try to be the best either, just do well enough to keep the wolves away.

No one sat on their death bed wishing they had spent more time at work.
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You're contracted to 37.5 hours, doing half of that, and not breaching your contract? How?
 
Tbf I work with a lot of folk like BUDFORCE. They can have a lot of potential but most of the time they excel in making everything seem worse than it is, and would much rather be benign than drive any change. They are often applauded when they leave as it frees a spot up for someone who wants to make a difference.

See: drifter.
 
FoxEye said:
You're contracted to 37.5 hours, doing half of that, and not breaching your contract? How?
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Probably a poorly run business, as long as the work gets done by the end of the week then management don't care. Tbh there are loads of people who take the **** working from home. A mate of mine spends half the day playing games and whatnot as he can do the work in 4. They don't want to ask for more work or take initiative as they are so used to doing the bare minimum that more work would feel like an injustice.
 
BUDFORCE said:
I try to do as few hours as possible.

I am contracted to full time work (37.5 hours a week) and I do about half of that, particuarly working from home.

I am fortunate I am experienced and quick at my job, and my piers are.... quite frankly ******* useless, so the bar is set very low.

And I dont even try to be the best either, just do well enough to keep the wolves away.

No one sat on their death bed wishing they had spent more time at work.
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I had a cushy job like that, could easily do a days work in a few hours and remain ahead of my colleagues. Then they put a load of tracking software on our devices so they could see what we were doing which put an end to it.

I hate the idea of being in the office just to be seen to be doing something. I much prefer being given my allocation of work and cracking on with it, if I can get through it quickly to the standard asked for then what's the problem.

The trick like you say is to meet targets but not go to far over the top. If you keep exceeding targets then they just give you more and more work with no prospect of a pay rise. Plus your colleagues won't appreciate it as you'll increase their work load as well, we never discussed it but I was pretty sure they were doing the same. :o

I left in the end anyway as the work was so dull and just drained the life out of you.
 
Ayahuasca said:
Probably a poorly run business, as long as the work gets done by the end of the week then management don't care. Tbh there are loads of people who take the **** working from home. A mate of mine spends half the day playing games and whatnot as he can do the work in 4. They don't want to ask for more work or take initiative as they are so used to doing the bare minimum that more work would feel like an injustice.
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Dingdingding. The final sentence being the killer blow.

These are the same folk who complain about no pay rise and being overlooked for promotion as a newcomer takes the spot.
 
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