If work too hard is spoilt for your mental and physical health , how many hours is too many ? The optimum number varies by soul , but on ordinary it ’s best not to function more than 39 hours a workweek , according to a cogitation bring out inSocial Science and Medicine .
There was a time when workershad to strikefor the radical approximation of a 48 - hour workings week , later reduced to 40 . Yet in more late ten the trend has reversed , with a mix of pay and unpaid overtime increase the hours people , at least in the developed humans , put into their jobs .
Dr Huong Dinhof the Australian National University set out to measure the effect of this using the Household Income Labour Dynamics of Australia Survey ( HILDA ) . HILDA is a subject of almost 8,000 workers examining the work they do in their utilisation and at home , along with various aspects of their wellness and well - being . HILDA does n’t just take a snapshot but follows participant through their work lives , establish retentive - term effects visible . Dinh told IFLScience the data allowed the researchers to verify for factors such as income , time flexibility , and type of employment contract .
The graph of happiness compared to hours worked looked like an inverted uracil , Dinh explained . That is , people working too few hour suffered , either from deficient income or a lack of feeling useful , but those who worked too long had job as well . Dinh said , there is “ a tipping point of 39 hours for an average person , beyond which their genial wellness jump to refuse . ”
Naturally work capacity varies with individual factors such as people ’s need for eternal rest , but an equally crucial factor is how much else people have on their plate . A recollective commute eat away at the prison term one can spend at work before health consequence show up .
In picky , cleaning woman , who are generally still doing more unpaid housework and childcare , could only average 34 60 minutes of paid work a week before suffering consequences , while the average man could top the 39 time of day . “Given the superfluous need set on women , it ’s out of the question for woman to work prospicient hour often gestate by employers unless they compromise their wellness , ” Dinh said in astatement . domesticated workplace was not the only sex - base conflict , as women often have roles with less autonomy , which be given to produce more stress .
To anyone who retrieve the standard working week is still 9 to 5 and home again , these findings might seem a small concern , but the investigator point out that two out of every three Australians working full - time chore are doing more than 40 hours a calendar week , and most nations work longer still .
