What does working for 70 hours a week do to the body? – Firstpost

Karnataka techies are fuming. After a huge uproar over the state government’s proposal to reserve jobs for locals in private industries, another proposal has got them angry. The Karnataka government is now mulling a 14-hour working day for techies.

The Chief Minister Siddaramaiah-led government has so far not said anything on the issue.

But the move, which has been dubbed by some as the “biggest ever attack on the working class in this era”, also prompts the question: how much work is too much? And what do extended hours of working mean for a person’s physical and mental well-being?

What is the new proposal in Karnataka?

Reports state that the government is looking to amend the Karnataka Shops and Commercial Establishment Act to enable employees to work for 14 hours a day, amounting to 70 hours a week if it’s a five-day working week.

According to Karnataka State IT/ITeS Employees’ Union (KITU), this change if implemented would have the biggest impact on Bengaluru — known as the IT hub of the country.

KITU, opposing the amendment, said it poses an “attack on the basic right of any worker to have a personal life”. It further pointed out that this move comes at a period when the world has started to accept the fact that increased working hours are negatively impacting productivity and more countries are coming with new legislations to accept the “
right to disconnect” as a basic right of any employee.

Interestingly, this proposal comes after Infosys co-founder
Narayana Murthy had last year suggested that India’s youth should be prepared to work for 70 hours a week, sparking a storm.

How many hours of work is too much?

The Karnataka government’s move once again puts the focus on what is the right amount of hours to work. While some CEOs and workers would point out that longer hours mean more productivity, scientific research has proved otherwise.

One study has shown that the ideal number of hours to work is 7.6 hours a day — which comes up to 38 hours a week. Another research shows that five hours is about the maximum that most of us can concentrate hard at work. That means a 25-hour working week.

On the five-hour working week, the research showed that employees became so focused on maximising output in order to have the afternoons to themselves, that turnover increased by 50 per cent.

Also read: Greece is introducing a six-day work week: Where do other European countries stand?

In India, the average working hours is eight — making it a 40-hour workweek. Compare to countries: the US works 38 hours a week, China clocks in at 46.1 hours, Japan at 36.6 and Canada at 32.1, as per recent statistics shared by the International Labour Organisation.

What happens physically when you work too much?

The call to work longer hours by some industrialists and employers also goes against science. Various organisations and independent researchers have looked at the physical, mental, emotional, and social effects of working beyond the standard 40 hours a week. And the results are not pretty, and in drastic cases, could also lead to death.

Firstly, a job over 40 hours implies
sitting for long hours. Remaining seated for extended periods means a person is only getting
obese. It also can increase the likelihood of developing varicose veins, a condition characterised by enlarged, swollen veins in the legs. It can also lead to muscle stiffness, fatigue, and poor posture.

Dr Padmini Narahari, general physician at The Family Doctor and a practising physician in industrial health told Deccan Herald that working 70-hours a week in the long run will “definitely” affect the posture of an individual “especially in the IT sector when they are glued to the system for 3-6 hours straight and do not get to move around.”

Youngsters may also develop spondylitis and other problems such as pain in their back, neck and shoulder leading to a decline in the productivity of the company.

For individuals engaged in desk-based occupations, prolonged computer use can also have adverse effects on eyesight. Staring at a screen for extended periods can strain the eyes, causing blurred vision, headaches, and eye dryness. Furthermore, prolonged computer use can contribute to stress and anxiety.

Longer working hours are also breaking your heart, quite figuratively. A study has shown that working more than 10 hours a day is associated with a 60 per cent jump in the risk of cardiovascular issues. A physician also noted that overworking is associated with a higher risk of stroke, ischemic heart disease, overweight, pre-diabetes, depression and other serious illnesses.

Research has also shown that people working for more than 40 hours a week are at higher risk of Type 2 diabetes.

Dr Sudhir Kumar, a neurologist from Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals in Hyderabad, said on X: Working long hours is associated with an increased risk of multiple serious diseases and even premature death.”

Citing several scientific studies to support his warning, he said: “Working 55 or more hours per week is associated with a 35 per cent higher risk of stroke and a 17 per cent higher risk of dying from ischemic heart disease, compared to working 35-40 hours a week.” He further emphasised the staggering toll of overwork, noting that “working for more than 55 hours a week kills more than 800,000 people every year.”

What about the mental toll?

But it’s not just the physical well-being of a person that is affected by working more than 40 hours a week. It also takes a toll on an employee’s mental well-being. Research has shown that long work hours, over 40 hours a week, can double your risk of depression. A Gallup poll of nearly 240,000 full-time workers found that 10.8 per cent of US full-time workers have received a depression diagnosis.

Dr Rachel Jayaseelan, founder of Wellness Within and a mental health trainer for corporates, told Deccan Herald that a 70-hour work week is not healthy in the long run. Matters like relationship, health, and financial planning require a better work-life balance which may not be possible if one were to work for a longer time period.

Also read: How work exhaustion can kill you

Long working hours can also lead to
burnout, diminished job satisfaction, and a strained work-life equilibrium, said Dr Honey Savla, internal medicine consultant, Wockhardt Hospitals in Mumbai to Indian Express.

Constantly working over 70 hours a week can also lead to anxiety, and frustration, which, in turn, can push people to food, alcohol or other substances to find some sense of the joy that has been lost from one’s life.

Mental health experts also note that if the sense of frustration doesn’t ebb, it could also lead to violence. An employee would choose to resort to violence in the office in order to vent his frustration — making it a dangerous workspace.

Shilpi Saraswat, clinical-psychologist at Sakra World Hospital in Bengaluru, told Hindustan Times that an increasing number of young people in the age range of 25-48 are getting referred from different departments due to underlying stress, anxiety and mental health problems.

“Commonly, they have more anxiety problems and lack of skills to deal with bad stress. Most common disorders are GAD (generalised anxiety disorder), illness anxiety disorder, panic disorder, phobias etc. Long working hours put pressure and impacts quality of work and increases absenteeism at workplace, which leads to other issues for organisations as well as employees. The health concerns are definitely rising due to stress which is increased due to long work hours poor support facilities and no work-life balance. It is an interference in the family and social life as well.

But despite the data and the science, the debate on how many hours should a person work will continue. We, on the other hand, are all for a five-hour work-day.

With inputs from agencies