Inc.: How to work long hours and still be healthy, according to science

Originally found at Inc., by Geoffrey James

“As I’ve pointed out in previous columns, working long hours can be bad for both your health and your productivity. However, according to a recent study from the Academy of Management, working long hours won’t necessarily damage your health, providing you’re doing it for the right reasons.”

Researchers at Simon Frasier University, the University of Pennsylvania, and the University of North Carolina at Charlotte surveyed 1,277 workers at a large international financial consulting firm, measuring their work hours and asking them to rate on a 1 to 5 scale their agreement with statements like:

• "I feel guilty when I am not working on something."
• "I put myself under pressure with self-imposed deadlines when I work."
• "It is hard for me to relax when I am not working."
• "At my job, I feel strong and vigorous."
• "I am enthusiastic about my job."
• "When I am working, I forget everything else around me."

The survey also included behavioral and physical data, including headaches, stomach upsets, sinus problems, depression, sleep troubles, and fatigue.

One to two months later, 763 of the original study group were medically screened for the four primary risk factors for heart disease and diabetes: obesity, high blood pressure, cholesterol and triglycerides. The researchers

"found no association between work hours per se and either stress-related physical complaints, such as headaches or stomach upsets, or the four risk factors for heart disease and diabetes."

The researchers did, however, find health problems among people who worked long hours due to anxiety about the job, pressure from bosses or peers, or obsessive ambition that was tied to their sense of self-worth. These workaholics were:

"More subject to depression, sleeping problems, and fatigue than other workers and to such psychosomatic complaints as headaches, sinus congestion and stomach upsets... obesity, high blood pressure, and worrisome levels of blood cholesterol and triglycerides."

Continue reading original article at Inc.

Learn more about the AOM Scholars and explore their work:

• Lieke L. Ten Brummelhuis, Simon Fraser University
• Nancy P. Rothbard, University of Pennsylvania
• Benjamin Uhrich, University of North Carolina – Charlotte