Impact of late working hours

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Impact of late working hours

Most of us spend a lot of time in the office. The long working hours are greatly influencing our lives, especially its strong impact on health is enormous. The stress caused due to late working hours also needs to be managed in order to keep healthy.

CJ: Pallavi Borgohain ,
24 Jul, 2008
IN THIS highly competitive modern day world, late working hours have become a norm. People in offices generally stay till 8pm and the trend of working late is growing every year. The reasons for working late hours are varied.

There are myriad reasons to stay behind and finish the work. Some prominent reasons for working late include meeting deadlines, crisis management, working for different time zones and immediacy. Very often people become workaholics and they have a tendency to work late. Without their laptops and cell phones they are like fish out of water, and would return home just to hit the bed. Some people take the route of staying late hours at work to impress their bosses in an effort to prove their hardworking ability. Moreover, the necessity of working late in startup organisations is very high. In such organisations, effort and dedication from its employees, no matter what position they hold, need to put extra hours to make the venture a success.

Another significant reason for working late is the lack of proper technology. Since employees have to do their work manually and on paper, they are unable to deliver their services according to the demands. But now that companies are transforming their offices to a paperless environment as they are slowly cutting down their working hours.

Whatever may be the reason for working late, working late has serious consequences. Although, these extra working hours are loaded with golden clinks, we cannot ignore its impact on our life, our health and the company. Some of the most common consequences that an employee faces by working late hours include:

Health problems: Late working hours create stress and tension. When people are burnt out, they start experiencing insomnia, loss of appetite, BOSS (burn–out stress syndrome), which further leads to hypertension, ulcers and anxiety disorders. Researchers are of the opinion that continuous stress could severely damage major organs and lead to heart attacks, kidney disease and dementia. Moreover, stress may lead to unhealthy habits such as smoking and drinking which contribute to developing high blood pressure and heart problems. The person’s health and constitution indirectly affects the company.

Impact on company: Late working hours has great impact on the organisation. Since the employees are the backbone of the company, their wellbeing is directly related to the company’s activities. The employees’ productivity level drops when they are tired and overworked. It is true that when the brain is tired, concentration level goes down then people tend to make mistakes. Since they are exhausted they are unable to give better output thereby affecting productivity. This adversely affects the company and may lead to staff resignation, retention and recruitment problems.

Impact on personal life: Late working hours also impact personal life.
Since the maximum time is spent with colleagues at work by those working late, whatever be the reason, find very little quality time with their friends and family.

We cannot ignore the fact that work is an important factor in our life as we need to earn money for livelihood. But, that does not means that we should work late and sacrifice our health and time. Proper time management is essential to avoid frequent and unnecessary late working hours.

The stress caused due to late working hours also needs to be managed in order to keep healthy. For this people should go for various stress-relieving techniques like doing yoga, pranayama and meditation. In addition to it the work atmosphere needs to be improved, by keeping the tables clutter-less and free of paper. So, going paperless way of doing things can give a feel of calmness, and technology used in lieu of paper can actually help in increasing efficiency and saving time.

So, in order to avoid late working hours one should find better and easier means to do their work.