Long Working Hours: What Research Links to 55+ Hours a Week

Abstract

This article is about long working hours and what research links to working 55 or more hours a week. Three pieces of research bear on it. A modelling study for the World Health Organization and the International Labour Organization (Pega and colleagues, 2021) estimated the burden of heart disease and stroke attributable to long hours. A meta-analysis of 189,729 participants in 35 countries (Virtanen and colleagues, 2018) found a small overall link between long hours and later depressive symptoms, which differed by region. A meta-analysis of 243 records (Wong, Chan and Ngan, 2019) found a pooled odds ratio of 1.245 for adverse health outcomes. All three rest on observational evidence and none was limited to finance staff. The three steps at the end are practical readings, not tested methods, and this article is not medical advice.

The fourth week of eleven-hour days

You add it up on the back of a notepad. Eight to eight-forty in the office, plus the emails after dinner, plus the Saturday morning you keep calling a quick look. It comes to about fifty-eight hours.

Nobody asked you to do this, and nobody told you to stop. You wonder what long working hours actually do, and whether the warnings are about people like you.

Long working hours: what is the evidence?

The research cited here cannot tell you what a given week of long hours will do to you. It covers a modelled estimate of deaths linked to long hours, a meta-analysis of depressive symptoms, and a meta-analysis of health outcomes in general. All three rest on observational data, so they show links and not proof of cause. The next three sections cover what each one found. None of them tested the three steps at the end.

What a WHO and ILO modelling study estimated

Pega and colleagues (2021) estimated the burden of ischemic heart disease and stroke linked to working 55 or more hours a week, compared with 35 to 40 hours. They did this for 194 countries, using data for 2000, 2010 and 2016.

They estimated that in 2016, 488 million people, or 8.9% of the world's population, were exposed to long hours. They estimated 745,194 deaths from heart disease and stroke, and 23.3 million years of healthy life lost. Long hours accounted for 3.7% of heart disease deaths and 6.9% of stroke deaths. The authors used relative risks from earlier WHO and ILO systematic reviews. This is summarised from the published abstract.

Read your own fifty-eight hours through this. At population level, long hours were linked with a measurable share of heart disease and stroke. This is an inference. These are modelled estimates built on earlier reviews, and they are calculated as if the link were causal. They do not predict what happens to any one person.

What a meta-analysis of depressive symptoms found

Virtanen and colleagues (2018) combined ten published cohort studies with unpublished individual-participant data from 18 studies. The analysis covered 189,729 participants from 35 countries, followed for 1 to 5 years, with 21,747 new cases of depressive symptoms. In most cohorts, long hours meant working 55 or more hours a week.

After adjustment for other factors, the pooled estimate was 1.14 (95% CI 1.03 to 1.25), where 1.0 would mean no association. The estimate was 1.50 in Asian countries and 1.11 in Europe. In North America it was 0.97, and in Australia 0.95, both close to no association. This is summarised from the published abstract.

Read the numbers through this. The overall link with later depressive symptoms was small, and it was not the same everywhere. This is an inference. The abstract does not explain the regional differences, and a link in the data does not show that hours caused the symptoms.

What a meta-analysis of health outcomes found

Wong, Chan and Ngan (2019) combined 243 published records from 1998 to 2018 on long working hours and overtime. They grouped outcomes into physiological health, mental health, health behaviours, related health and unspecified health.

The overall odds ratio was 1.245 (95% CI 1.195 to 1.298), where 1.0 would mean no difference. The highest category was related health, at 1.465 (95% CI 1.332 to 1.611). The authors name study method, the cut-off for long hours and country as possible moderators. This is summarised from the published abstract.

Read the pooled figure through this. Across many studies and outcomes, long hours went with somewhat worse health on average. This is an inference. The outcomes are broad, the abstract calls the items records and not studies, and an average does not tell you where you stand.

Long working hours: three steps

None of these is a tested method, and none was studied in finance teams. They combine what the research points to with ordinary practice. Where a step goes beyond the research, it says so.

1. Count your real hours for two weeks. Include work at home, on the phone and in the evening. Most people guess wrong, and the studies used 55 hours as a line. This is a judgement, and no study cited here tested this step. For instance: "Monday 8:15 to 20:40, plus 45 minutes of email after dinner."

2. Find what keeps the hours long. Separate hours the job requires from hours you choose, and name the biggest driver. Different causes call for different fixes. This is a judgement, and no study cited here tested this step. For instance: "Month-end reconciliations take nine extra hours. The Saturday morning is my own choice."

3. Fix a finish time on two days a week and tell people. A rule that others know about is easier to keep. Choose two days and a time you can hold. This is a judgement, and no study cited here tested this step. For instance: "Tuesdays and Thursdays I log off at 18:30. For anything urgent, call me."

If you cannot stop thinking about work in the evening, Why You Can't Switch Off From Work: What the Research Says goes into that. For the wider picture of exhaustion, there is Burnout in Finance: Why High Performers Hit the Wall. When the load comes with the role, see Finance Director Stress: Where the Pressure Comes From. If the hours peak around deadlines, Quarter-End Pressure: How to Get Through the Last Two Weeks looks at that. And Budget Season Stress in Finance: Why Planning Wears You Down is about the planning round.

Questions People Ask

Is working 55 hours a week dangerous?

The studies cited here used 55 hours as a line and linked it, on average, with higher risks. They do not show that 55 is a threshold or that any one person will be harmed. They are observational studies of groups.

Does it matter if I like my work?

The studies cited here did not test that. The abstracts do not say whether enjoying the work changes the picture, so neither this article nor the research can tell you.

Why did the depression link differ by region?

The abstract reports the differences and does not explain them. The authors describe a moderate association in Asia and a small one in Europe. In North America and Australia the estimates were close to no association.

Can coaching help me work shorter hours?

Coaching is educational support for work patterns. It can help you see what keeps your hours long and plan how to change them. It is not treatment. No study cited here tested coaching.

When it is more than a long stretch

A long stretch is one thing. It is more when you have chest pain, breathlessness or sudden weakness, in which case seek urgent medical care. It is also more when you cannot sleep, feel numb, persistently low or anxious, or notice other physical symptoms. In those cases talk to your doctor, your occupational health service or a qualified mental health professional. This article is not medical advice. Coaching is educational support for work patterns. It is not treatment and not a substitute for it.

Sources

• Pega, F., et al. (2021). Global, regional, and national burdens of ischemic heart disease and stroke attributable to exposure to long working hours for 194 countries, 2000–2016: A systematic analysis from the WHO/ILO Joint Estimates of the Work-related Burden of Disease and Injury. Environment International, 154, 106595. DOI: 10.1016/j.envint.2021.106595 (Summarised from the published abstract.)

• Virtanen, M., et al. (2018). Long working hours and depressive symptoms: Systematic review and meta-analysis of published studies and unpublished individual participant data. Scandinavian Journal of Work, Environment & Health, 44(3). DOI: 10.5271/sjweh.3712 (Summarised from the published abstract.)

• Wong, K., Chan, A. H. S., & Ngan, S. C. (2019). The effect of long working hours and overtime on occupational health: A meta-analysis of evidence from 1998 to 2018. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 16(12), 2102. DOI: 10.3390/ijerph16122102 (Summarised from the published abstract.)