Working outside of office hours should be banned!

“Using mobile to check work emails outside of working hours can hugely increase [a person’s] stress levels – but 62% of employees do it anyway because the boss expects them to.” (Lewis)

In today’s economy, finding a job in a good organization is getting more and more difficult with increasing unemployment rate and growing competition. Jobs are becoming more complex and demanding, causing more pressure on employees. In such conditions, those who have acquired jobs consider themselves lucky, and are willing to do anything to hold on to their jobs. Employers, being well aware of this fact, do not hesitate to exploit their workers. They make them work outside of office hours, which conflicts with employees’ personal lives, leaving them socially isolated and frustrated, which eventually reflects in their job performance as well. Working longer hours can have negative impact on a person’s personal and professional life, therefore, employers should not be allowed to make their employees work outside of paid office hours.

Working long hours is detrimental for the health and well-being of employees. It not only causes fatigue and distress, but also comes with numerous health hazards. According to a recent study from European Heart Journal: “people who worked long hours were more likely to develop a condition leading to blood clots, stroke, or heart failure. That condition was atrial fibrillation, an irregular or quivering heartbeat, and the long hours corresponded with a 1.4-fold increased risk of getting it, when participants were controlled for age, sex, and socioeconomic status. To add insult to injury, those who worked long hours were also more likely to be obese, inactive during their free time, depressed, and anxious. They were also more likely to smoke and riskily drink. More than 85,000 people were included in the study.” (Rense) Work pressure can mess up a person’s routine and disrupt his eating and sleeping habits. Some employers give unrealistic deadlines to employees, which puts them under pressure and can be extremely harmful for a person’s morale. By doing this, employers set their employees up for failures. For example: If a person is not given enough time to complete all the tasks, he will feel like he has under-performed because he has failed to meet the deadline, and to save himself from that failure, he would compromise on his sleep and diet. “The Australian Diabetes, Obesity and Lifestyle Study, a mammoth study cataloging the health and fitness habits of 12,000 Australians, found that people with the "highest sedentary behavior" had a 112% increase in their relative risk of Type 2 diabetes, and that was only with four hours of watching television per day. A similar study of more than 4,000 civil servants found that those who spend less than 12 hours sitting down a week can decrease their risk of diabetes by 75%, and that those who sit more than 25 hours per week increase the chance developing metabolic risk factors like "bad" cholesterol and insulin resistance.” (Bixby) Stress can also cause some people to overeat or under eat, resulting in an unsatisfactory body image. For example: If a person has to submit a report by the end of the day, he will stress about it and may decide to skip lunch to rather work on the report to be able to finish on time. Apart from that, people working long hours are more likely to sit in front of a screen the entire day without any physical activity, making them dull and lethargic. Researchers at Columbia University Medical Center recently found that employees who were sedentary for more than 13 hours a day were twice as likely to die prematurely as those who were inactive for 11.5 hours. The authors concluded that sitting in an office for long periods has a similar effect to smoking and ought to come with a health warning. (Fleming)

Employers should realize that they are doing a great disservice to themselves and the company by making their employees work outside office hours. First of all, employers lower the morale of the employees by making them work for longer hours. A regular 8 to 5 job requires a person to spend 9 hours in office per day. And if 6 hours of sleep are subtracted from the 24 hours of the day, then a person is only left with 9 hours to spend time with his family, friends, and on himself. So when he is expected to work in those 9 hours as well, then it results in a work life conflict. This can lower the morale of the workers and can cause stress and frustration. Many people complain that they are unable to spend time with their families and friends due to work pressure. This pressure can negativity impact a person’s attitude towards work, resulting in low productivity. “Research has shown people who responded to work communications in the evenings have worse quality sleep and are less productive the next day.” (Agerholm) Secondly, making employees work outside of office hours can increase attrition which increases the overall cost of organization. Stressful working environment can result in job dissatisfaction and decreased productivity. It is important for employers to provide a conducive and positive working environment to retain the employees. Working outside of office hours increases stress and frustration in employees, and can get overwhelming at times, which can result in burn outs and resignations. Companies having stressful working environment usually have higher attrition. As a result, the cost of hiring and training new employees increases. “Arguably, employees’ not taking advantage of their rest periods risk suffering from burnout, affecting their overall performance and having a significantly negative impact on employee morale. This can potentially lead to high levels of employee turnover, something which can be very costly for a company and foster a poor reputation.” (Price) As Gretchen explains in her article; High levels of staff turnover can and will affect the value (and reputation) of your business in many different ways. One of the most important, is the cost it requires to employ a new staff member to replace your departing staff member. On average, studies show that this will cost your business approximately 30-50% of your departing staff’s annual salary. High employee turnover can have a negative impact on a company’s brand image. To attract high potential candidates, employers have maintain a certain brand image in the industry. If people are not willing to stay in an organization due to its working environment, then high potential candidates will not be willing to join such a place. “Large amount of employee turnover can, simply put, ruin your business. The reason isn’t the number of employees who leave, but the reasons and circumstances surrounding their hasty exit.” (Gretchen)

Some people may argue that not everyone finds work stressful and unbearable, a lot of people enjoy their work, because it drives and motivates them to get ahead in life. Therefore, there is nothing wrong with working outside of office hours and there is no reason for it to be banned. Although it true in for people to enjoy their work, still spending too much time at work can have a negative impact on a person’s personal and social life. People must realize that by choosing to spend all of their time at work, they are giving up time with their families and loved ones. This decision always comes with an opportunity cost; sometimes that cost might be neglected family, neglected children or neglected social life. Many people who have spent too much time on their careers, end up with regrets, although they turn out to be very successful in their professions. They have regrets of either losing connection with their families or not having spent enough time on their health and fitness. A good example of that can be taken from the book by Robin Sharma “The Monk who sold his Ferrari”. It is about the journey of a successful Lawyer Julian Mantle, who despite having all the success felt empty inside. He gets so carried away with work that he neglects his health, family, social life, friends, and even his personal peace of mind. Eventually his body breaks down in the form of a heart attack, which makes him realize the importance of life, which he has been wasting away at work.

“On your deathbed you will never wish you spend more time at the office.”

(Robin Sharma)

There is a misconception that spending longer hours at work will increase the productivity, however, in reality, human mind stops being productive after a certain period. Quality of work cannot be judged from the number of hours spent on that task. In professional context, when a person is required to do a certain job, it won’t be better just because he took 4 – 5 hours to make it and it won’t be of poor quality just because he did it in half an hour. To perform better at a task, a person needs to be focused and dedicated towards it. And if he is constantly tired, feeling dull and lethargic, he will not be able to do well, no matter how many hours he spends working on it. And the same task can be performed in a better way in less time by someone with a positive and relaxed mindset.

According to research:

“Most people are only capable of six to eight hours of productivity in a work day. The brain and body are far from immune to the stresses of work, and if overworked for too long, employees fail to function optimally. This means employees are working less efficiently and making mistakes more frequently, mistakes that someone will eventually have to correct – on the company’s dollar.” (Jensen)

Therefore it is important for employers to understand that a positive and relaxed working environment can increase productivity: and a forced and demanding environment can be frustrating and stressful, and can lead to lower productivity, which is the opposite of what is intended by the employers. According to US researcher Alex Soojung-Kim Pang, “Most modern employees are productive for about four hours a day: the rest is padding and huge amounts of worry. Pang argues that the workday could easily be scaled back without undermining standards of living or prosperity.” (Fleming)

Working outside of office hours is a violation of work life balance. It is a basic right of every human being to be able to spend time with one’s family and friends and engage in social activities. And if someone is unable to do that because of high work pressure, it simply means he is unable to live his life properly. Spending time with family or loved ones can increase a person’s mental and emotional well-being, which can make him more positive and productive. It is important for people to keep the personal and professional lives separate. However, many people struggle to find a balance between work and personal life.

There is a famous saying:

‘Do not bring your personal problems to work and do not carry your professional problems home’

However, many people find it difficult to keep them separate. And as a result, the stress of work makes a person frustrated, and negative, which can leave a negative impact on his relationships. Many marriages fail because the partner is too busy at work that he/she cannot meet the emotional needs of the spouse. Employees who are overworked struggle to play an active role in the family because they lack the energy to engage in different activities. The children of overworked parents can feel neglected and insecure. “Now a day’s people work for longer hours to maintain their life styles and status, which is affecting the family and childcare bearing and rearing that leads to poor family connection. It is also negatively distressing their children such as deprivation of parents love, stress and depression, misuse of drugs etc. Such children try to spend most of their time at outdoor activities because they get fed up with the unfriendly environment of their homes. Commitment with the work is not only important but the married employees should show their commitment to their families as well and this can only be done if organizations and supervisors alike view them as humans with needs and not as mechanistic.” (Shoaib Akhtar) Money cannot replace family time. Some parents make this mistake of spending too much time on their careers that they forget to invest time on their children. They think that just by earning for their children they are full filling their duties. But parent’s responsibilities are much more than just providing for the kids. Children require love and attention, they crave for it. And those children who are neglected by their parents in the early years are impacted for the rest of their lives. They grow up to be insecure adults, who due to the lack of affection built shells around themselves and are afraid of letting people in. They have trust issues and they are most likely to cut people off because they fear rejection. The impacts of early childhood experiences can last a lifetime, it is the age where personalities are formed. “The research also highlight that the extended working hours have a negative impact on children There had been seen various negative impacts on the building of the character in the children; such as children join the gangs, misuse the drugs etc.” (Shoaib Akhtar)

Making employees work outside of office hours is infringement of their personal time, which comes with serious consequences like depression, failed relationships and even deaths. “Moritz Erhardt, the 21-year-old London intern died after working 72 hours in a row at Bank of America.” (Fleming) Governments are beginning to identify it as a serious offense now, and have started to take actions against such incidents.

Councilman Rafael Espinal of New York City has recently passed a Right to Disconnect Bill which would “ban private companies with more than 10 employees from requiring their workers to respond to electronic messages, including texts and emails, outside work hours.” Councilman explained the reason behind passing the bill in a twitter post as; “The lines between our work and personal lives have blurred. My bill will simply protect employees from retaliation when they choose to disconnect.” (Agerholm) Other legal actions have also been taken on such matters. For example: “A Business Executive at a subsidiary of meat producer, Kepak has been awarded €7,500 over being required to deal with out-of-hours work emails, including some after mid-night, that led to work in excess of 48 hours a week. At the Labour Court, Kepak Convenience Foods Unlimited Co has been ordered to pay former Business Development Executive, Gráinne O’Hara €7,500 over repeated breaches of the Organization of Working Time Act.” (Deegan)

In conclusion, expecting employees to work after office hours strips them of their basic right to live a socially active and full filling life. It comes with many consequences including failed marriages, poor upbringing of children and even suicides. Also instead of benefiting from longer hours of work, employers lose out on talent, bear increased costs of hiring and indirectly reduce productivity. Keeping all the factors in mind, it can be concluded that working outside of office hours is neither beneficial for the employees, nor the employers. Therefore, governments should ban working outside of office hours, and must take strong actions against those who violate these regulations.

a.Works Cited

Agerholm, Harriet. "Work email could be banned outside office hours by New York City." 27 March 2018. Independent. <https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/work-email-free-time-banned-new-york-rights-rafael-espinal-a8275336.html>.

Bixby, Scott. "What Working Long Hours Actually Does to Your Body." 19 November 2014. Mic. <https://mic.com/articles/104550/what-working-long-hours-actually-does-to-your-body#.bdaSk0iSd>.

Deegan, Gordon. "Business executive awarded €7,500 over out-of-hours work emails." 3 August 2018. The Journal.ie. <https://www.thejournal.ie/kepak-executive-out-of-hours-work-emails-4161362-Aug2018/>.

Fleming, Peter. "Do you work more than 39 hours a week? Your job could be killing you." 15 January 2018. The Guardian. <https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2018/jan/15/is-28-hours-ideal-working-week-for-healthy-life>.

Gretchen. "Is your staff turnover ruining your business reputation?" 31 January 2013. Gretchen Operations. <http://gretchen.com.au/2013/01/is-your-staff-turnover-ruining-your-business-reputation/>.

Jensen, Andrew. "Should You Work More Than 40 Hours a Week?" 9 September 2018. Andrew Jensen. <https://www.andrewjensen.net/should-you-work-more-than-40-hours-a-week/>.

Lewis, Rebecca. "Working outside office hours makes us more stressed, but happier." 14 5 2014. Human Resources. <https://www.humanresourcesonline.net/working-outside-office-hours-makes-us-stressed-happier/>.

Price, Alan. "Should Employees Answer Calls and Emails outside of Office Hours." 24 August 2018. Insights for Professionals. <https://www.insightsforprofessionals.com/blog/should-employees-answer-emails-and-calls-outside-of-office-hours>.

Rense, Sarah. "Working Long Hours Might Literally Be Killing You." 25 July 2017. Esquire. <https://www.esquire.com/lifestyle/money/a56547/long-work-hours-health-problems/>.

Sharma, Robin. The Monk who sold his Ferrari. HarperSanFrancisco, 1999.

Shoaib Akhtar, Ayesha Kashif, Ahmed Arif and M. Afzal Khan. "Impact of Long Working Hours on Family Wellbeing of Corporate Family." World Applied Sciences Journal (2012): 1302-1307.