A global study found that in 2022 the average employee worked 8.5 hours (more than an extra work day) of unpaid overtime every week. That's an entire extra day of work each week!
Working long hours isn't inconsequential. Working causes stress, which leads to chronic stress, which leads to burnout. A survey of American employees of different age groups, experience levels, and industries found that 52% of employees experienced burnout in 2021 (up 9% from before the COVID-19 pandemic). Chronic stress can also have other serious consequences such as depression, anxiety, sleep problems, obesity, gastrointestinal problems, sexual dysfunction, alcohol and drug abuse, cardiovascular disease, and even death.
A World Health Organization 2016 global study found that 488 million people were exposed to the risks of working long hours and more than 745,000 people died in 2016 from overwork which resulted in stroke and heart disease. In other words, more people died from overworking than from for example malaria, homicide, meningitis, or alcohol and drug use disorders.
Overworking is the new smoking.
How can you kick the habit of overworking?
Take breaks. According to the Effort-Recovery Model (see image below), our natural resting state is one of low stress. But, when we work we experience short-term stress which can result from any number of stressors: an argument with a co-worker, pressure to meet deadlines, discrimination, an uncomfortable work chair, or a boss’s bad breath. Then, when we take breaks we recover from work stress and return to a state of low-stress. This work-recovery cycle repeats over and over again: work/short-term stress, take a break/low-stress resting state, work/short-term stress, take a break/low-stress resting state, and so on.
The Effort Recovery Model (adapted from Meijman, 1989)
So, make sure that you are taking sufficient breaks to recover from stress. And my recommendation is to take frequent vacations so stress doesn't accumulate and push you into a state of chronic stress. The more often you can vacation the more often you can clear out accumulated stress and return to a resting state of low stress.
Don't wait until you feel like you need a vacation to take one. If you wait until you are thirsty to drink water, you will already be dehydrated. If you wait until you feel like you need a vacation, you will already be burned out.
Happy Vacationing 🏝