Health
Memo to boss: 11-hour days are bad for the heart
May 11, 2010
Francine Kopun
FEATURE WRITER
Eight is enough, when it comes to the number of hours in a workday, according to the results of a long-term study released Tuesday.
The study, published in the online European Heart Journal, found that people who consistently worked three or more hours more than a normal, eight-hour day, had a 60 per cent higher risk of heart-related problems, including death, heart attacks and angina.
The same people also reported sleep problems and feeling anxious and depressed, said researcher Marianna Virtanen, a Ph.D. in psychology and an epidemiologist at the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, Helsinki, Finland, and University College London.
Virtanen says those findings point to the need for more research to determine whether working overtime is also associated with higher rates of medically diagnosed depression and type 2 diabetes.
“There may be lifestyle changes among people who work overtime for years,” said Virtanen. “Perhaps they gain weight because they do not have time to do so much exercise.”
The Whitehall II study started in 1985 and has recruited 10,308 office staff ages 35 to 55 from 20 London-based civil service departments. Data have been collected at regular intervals for numerous studies since. The data for this study were collected from 4,262 men and 1,752 women, ages 39 to 61, over a period of 11 years.
Paul Moist, national president of the Canadian Union of Public Employees, with 600,000 members across Canada, says the negative health effects of working overtime are well-documented by research conducted by CUPE.
“Unions have historically placed a paid premium on overtime, to keep overtime to a minimum. We fought long and hard for the eight-hour day,” he said.
He said overtime tends to go up during recessions, when companies trim expenses by laying off staff, and those who keep their jobs must work longer hours to get the work done.
Virtanen said people may initially find working overtime rewarding and enjoy the extra money that comes along with it, but they should ask themselves if the long-term health effects are worth it.
The poor health outcomes were not associated with working one to two hours of overtime a day.
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