Is Excessive Work Load Harmful to Human Health - Term Paper Example

EXCESSIVE WORK LOAD IS HARMFUL TO HUMAN HEALTH Excessive Work Load is Harmful to Human Health Excessive work or overwork is associated with too many roles that are assigned to a worker who cannot accomplish them effectively because of the limitation of time (Sims, 2002, p.116). As a result, one strains to have the responsibilities accomplished. It also involves an aspect of multi-tasking and forced overtime, even if it is paid. Workers could also be working on a normal schedule, but they are offered very few days off or break. In such cases, vacations and holidays are often few. It should be noted that different people can tolerate to different levels of stress and demands (Stricker, Widiger and Weiner, 2003, p.436; Mustafa, 2013). According to majority of the studies that have been carried out on the effects of work overloads, overworking employees develop workplace stress, burnout, and low levels of productivity, illnesses, job dissatisfaction and work-family conflicts (CDC, 2014, p.20). The employees also develop anger, leading to negative attitudes to their colleagues, and eventually conflict (The Boston College Centre, 2015). Generally, excessive work leads to chronic stress and may lead to early death. Excessive Work Load and Stress Overworking forces people to work or operate pressure. This leads to stress. Stress is a condition that results when people react to extreme demands for them from work related events (Salleh, 2008, p.16). Psychological health is affected by long working hours and work overloads because the brain is always jammed with thoughts of work. Consequently, individuals end up straining, spending sleepless nights, developing anxiety and tension and being frustrated to an extent of having problems with relationships. Anxiety and frustration and impatience levels go up for people who overwork themselves. People may be addicted to the feeling of stress that results from overworking (Brooks, 2013). They end up developing a feeling of anxiety whenever they are not working, such that they feel that they not complete or something is a miss when they are out of work. Overworking affects the brain negatively, leading to poor memory and poor problem solving skills (Skerrett, 2009). This is because the brain is so much occupied and exhausted from issues pertaining to work that its normal functionality is adversely affected. Consequently, people who cannot solve problems efficiently are at a higher risk of losing their lives because they may not be able to make life saving decisions when need arises. People who have been addicted to the stress of working are always anxious and they panic and exhibit sense of loss when they are not working (Korikki, 2007). It has been explained that overworking leads to overtiredness. Consequently, overtired people tend to depend more upon stimulants such as caffeine to stay energetic and carry on with daily activities (Brooks, 2013). It also becomes evident that exercising to keep fit is ignored while poor food choices are made, leading to poor health. Such people become irritable while their immunity becomes weak. More stress and anxiety get in as one continues to overwork and eventually, depression comes in (Brooks, 2013). According to Rahman (2014), stress is the principal effect of overworking. This is because one develops many thoughts about work or becomes obsessed, and whenever one is obsessed, stress strikes. Acute stress may lead to episodic stress. Consequently, chronic stress can develop due to a prolonged stressful lifestyle (Rahman, 2014). Prolonged periods of commitment and intense working normally lead to burnout because one develops bitterness and a negative attitude towards work (Casey, 2005). People of various ages are expected to exhibit different levels of stress and anxiety that results from overwork. Past studies have linked high levels of stress and anger to older people than younger people (Davis, 2009, p.110). This hypothesis lacks support. Instead, studies have been carried out to establish whether the levels of stress and anger among the youth surpass the levels exhibited by the elderly. Minimal support for this hypothesis has been found (Davis, 2009, p.110). However, the effects of stress caused by overwork are felt across all ages. This means that negative effects resulting from work related stress do not discriminate on the basis of age. Life spans are lowered by stress and other illnesses affect individuals, as long as they continue overworking (Davis, 2009, p.110). In Canada, 51% of the citizens reported that stress in their lives was caused by work, especially overload (Bickford, 2005, p.6). Therefore, work related stress is a growing problem among Canadians. The same case can be attributed to other countries. In case the worker or individual’s control capacity does not match with the work demands, overload related stress is inevitable (Bickford, 2005, p.6). The world’s concern about the ever increasing prevalence and cost of stress related disorders has become intense. Most of the stress related disorders develop among people due the nature of their work place (OECD, 2012, p.61). In essence, these disorders are caused by increased levels of stress, which is also caused by high levels of workloads or overworking. As a result, phrases like “work to death”, “work until you drop”, and “drop death” have emerged, especially during this twenty first century (Salleh, 2008). These phrases are used mostly in countries that are famous for long working hours. Countries like Japan and China are well known in the world for their long working hours. For instance, in Japan, death that results from overwork is referred to as karoshi while in China; deaths resulting from overwork are referred to as goulaosi (Salleh, 2008). In the United Kingdom, prevalence rates of stress and stress related conditions increased by more than double the amount from about 829 cases per 100,000 workers during the twentieth century to about 1,700 cases per100,000 workers during the twenty first century (Salleh, 2008). It was reported that in 2002, the country lost about 13.4 million working hours due to stress, depression and anxiety. There were 265,000 new cases of stress reported during that year. About 1.3% f the workforce is affected by stress, anxiety and depression (Salleh, 2008). It should be noted that overworking leads to fatigue and stress (Graaf, 2003, p.30; Burke and Cooper, 2008, p.66). At this point, a stressed and fatigued worker loses basic reflective responses, which can help him or her to avoid accidents. This is the main reason of increased levels of industrial accidents. For instance, between 80% and 90% of all the industrial accidents are as a result of personal problems or the inability of workers to handle stress that results from overworking. Nearly half the cases of job absenteeism are attributed to stress, according to the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (Salleh, 2008). In the United States, morbidity and mortality level are high due to stress related illnesses. Among the leading causes of death in the country, it was found out hat emotional stress contributes significantly. Stress and illness are closely linked. Similarly, stress and overworking are positively correlated. Therefore, overworking or heavy workloads, illness and stress are related (Salleh, 2008). It is also well known that illness leads to death. Therefore, if someone overworks, s/he might develop chronic stress, which in turn, will lad to illness and early death will occur consequently. Stress is critical because of its chronic effect that it causes as time goes by (Salleh, 2008). Work overload is among the well known chronic stressors. According to research findings, chronic stress influences almost every system within the body. Chronic stress causes illnesses when it is not released because it suppresses one’s immune system by tempering with production of hormones and metabolic processes (Salleh, 2008; Khan, Vanderburg and Nakajima, 2004, p.118; Shipp and Fried, 2014, p.213). Excessive Work Load and Psychological Well Being There is a relationship between multiple role demands and psychological well-being. For instance, work and family overload actually leads to psychological distress (Coverman, 2001). An individual’s time and energy are exhausted when he or she has to perform many roles in the work place and at home. Straining leads to diminished psychological well being. For instance, housewives have been linked to an increased likelihood of depression due to housework overload (Coverman, 2001). These women have lived with this chronic stress, which has led to them developing other medical conditions, leading to shortened lifespan. Given that women engage in multiple tasks where they have to perform household chores and take care of children, most of them feel like they perform a greater job than the total workload of their men (Coverman, 2001). This has been cited as the main reason why women, especially housewives who strain in performing family chores have greater health problems (Fink, 2010, p.723). According to Blaug, Kenyon, and Lekhi (2007, p.19), a variety of mental and physical disorders are related to work related stress. The relationships are either direct or indirect. Direct linkages include the direct cause of stress by work related stress. On the other hand, indirect linkages of stress and physical and mental disorders include the contributions of stress to those affected to engage in vulnerable behaviours that can subject them to diseases and illness (Blaug, Kenyon, and Lekhi, 2007, p.19). Excessive Work Load and Physical Health There is a relationship between multiple role demands and psychological well-being. For instance, work and family overload actually leads to psychological distress (Coverman, 2001). An individual’s time and energy are exhausted when he or she has to perform many roles in the work place and at home. Straining leads to diminished psychological well being. For instance, housewives have been linked to an increased likelihood of depression due to housework overload (Coverman, 2001). These women have lived with this chronic stress, which has led to them developing other medical conditions, leading to shortened lifespan. Given that women engage in multiple tasks where they have to perform household chores and take care of children, most of them feel like they perform a greater job than the total workload of their men (Coverman, 2001). This has been cited as the main reason why women, especially housewives who strain in performing family chores have greater health problems (Fink, 2010, p.723). Also, women engage in multiple tasks where they have to perform household chores and take care of children. Therefore, most of them feel like they perform a greater job than the total workload of their men (Coverman, 2001). It was established that strenuous activities among pregnant mothers, performed for long periods, increase the risk of low-birth weight babies in a study that was carried out for three years on expectant women at the University of California (USA Today Magazine, 1995, p.9). Such activities include heavy lifting at home or at the workplace and standing for long periods in the workplace. Other detrimental activities that affect pregnant mothers’ health, and are related to overwork include frequent bending and getting up and down. Vulnerabilities are high during the second trimester of pregnancy and mothers are warned to avoid workloads by taking frequent work breaks (USA Today Magazine, 1995, p.9). For people who work in offices, where they sit for long hours, they risk untimely death, according to Watson (2014). A study of older women in The American Journal of Preventive Medicine established that sitting for long stretches of time increased the chances of untimely death. Heart diseases and cancer are associated with excessive sitting, especially when is seeking to complete work load. It was suggested that people should sit less and seek to work out to improve fitness (Watson, 2014). According to the NHS UK (2014), illnesses like heart disease, among others, contribute to early deaths among the victims. It has been found out, through studies that in England, British civil servants who worked more than ten hours a day had a 60% likelihood of developing heart disease or having a heart attack that those who worked seven hours a day (Haiken, 2011). Excessive Work Load and the Immune System There is a relationship between multiple role demands and psychological well-being. For instance, work and family overload actually leads to psychological distress (Coverman, 2001). An individual’s time and energy are exhausted when he or she has to perform many roles in the work place and at home. Straining leads to diminished psychological well being. For instance, housewives have been linked to an increased likelihood of depression due to housework overload (Coverman, 2001). These women have lived with this chronic stress, which has led to them developing other medical conditions, leading to shortened lifespan. Chronic stress has various effects on one’s immune system. For instance, it increases the chances of developing viral infections, metabolic syndrome. This includes high blood pressure, obesity and diabetes (BBC, 2013). In support of this, Salleh (2008) asserts that short term stress can boost the immune system of an individual, according to some previous studies. However, chronic stress is known to affect the immune system adversely and can lead to illness, which ultimately lead to early death (Phelps and Hassed, 2007, p.434). For instance, chronic stress can lead to development of heart disease and coronary defects, which may lead to death. Another adverse effect of chronic stress on human health gets in through the release of histamine. In turn, histamine initiates broncho-constrictions in asthmatics, which can be a severe condition (Johnson, 2006, p.768). As for overweight individuals, the risk of diabetes mellitus is increased significantly by chronic stress, especially if stress is related to overworking. This is because insulin needs are altered by psychological stress (Salleh, 2008). Peptic ulcers result from significant changes in the acid concentration of the acid, which is caused by chronic stress. Plaque building in the arteries is another harmful effect of chronic stress, which can lead to early death (Salleh, 2008). This condition is also referred to as atherosclerosis, and it mostly affects people who overwork themselves by having to sit all day or for long hours without exercising to stay fit, and if their diet contains high fat. Generally, stressful life events such as overworking have a strong correlation with psychiatric illnesses than medical or physical illnesses (Schroeder and Jenkins, 2010, p.746). This is because work overload affects one’s psychological processes such as thinking. Excessive Work Load and Cardio Vascular and other Problems In Japan and Korea, suicide is well known as an official condition that is work related that is even compensatable. Other countries in Eastern Asia that acknowledge death due to work overload include South Korea and Taiwan (Yang, Yang and Li, 2014). The phrases karoshi and goulaosi are public health terms. These terms explain the association between sudden deaths and work overload and are related chronic stress (Yang, Yang and Li, 2014). It has been noted, in these countries, that most of the karoshi related clinical conditions are cardiovascular diseases. These diseases are myocardial infection, subarachnoid haemorrhage and stroke. Given that Asians in the aforementioned countries tend to work for long hours, it is legally recognized that work related cardiovascular diseases have to be compensated (Yang, Yang and Li, 2014). Cases of compensation to people who die suddenly at their workplaces due to work overload have been increasing significantly each subsequent year (Yang, Yang and Li, 2014). Lack of sleep due to overload may lead to a significant decrease in the quality of work that one does, accidents in the work place, increased cases of moodiness, stress, illness, accidents and consequently, shortened life span (Coverman, 2001). It has been alleged that lack of sleep or sleep deprivation makes one literally stupid, unhealthy and consequently, shortens his or her lifespan. Overworking leads to fatigue. Fatigue is more of mental than physical. It is a kind of subjective tiredness and slowing of normal cognitive function. This means that alertness among those affected by the condition exhibit low levels of alertness. However, this does not mean that a person with work overloads does not experience physical tiredness. In essence, physiological effects are felt at first, and then followed by mental effects. Fatigue can also be intellectual in that an individual may fail to use his or her wits solve problems due to tiredness of the brain and slowed mental processes (Salleh, 2008, p.13). Overworking causes negative impacts to an individual through the accumulation of tiredness. For instance, a person can overwork during the day and get enough sleep, but fail to recover from the tiredness the following day. When such a person works again, the tiredness keeps on accumulating, and this leads to severe health consequences. Therefore, overworking, fatigue and ill health are closely related. Consequently, ill health leads to early death (Salleh, 2008, p.13). It has been alleged that prolonged fatigue, which is caused by failure to recover from previous fatigue, is associated with psychological stress. Prolonged mental effort is associated with serious mental fatigue and adversely impacts one’s health by continuously sustaining activation of physiological stress reactions system (Salleh, 2008, p.14). About one fifth of employees who overwork make lots of mistakes in their work places while those who do not overwork make no mistakes at work (Casey, 2005) According to White and Beswick (2003, p.5), work overload especially working long hours is associated with fatigue. This is because most people who get involved in accidents and those who make grievous mistakes at the workplace cite fatigue as the main cause. Secondly, work overloads lead to mental ill health and stress. This happens when an individual perceives that the control over work that he can manage is exceeded by the workload that he or she is handles (Bickford, 2005, p.6). Physically, working long hours or having piling workloads poses negative effects. It is through overloads in work that individuals develop cardiovascular disorders. Generally, overworking is associated with poor work-life balance. Majority of the reported cases of coronary heart disease involve people who have overworked in their lives. This includes those people who work during the day and attend to evening or night classes. It has been established that people who work for long hours have the potential of suffering a heart attack Overworking is a causal factor of stress. Consequently, this leads to social maladjustment among people with stress. This is what contributes to most mistakes in the work place and accidents. For instance, Ulleberg (2015) asserts that most road accidents are caused by people who are socially maladjusted and those who have a subconscious motivation to conduct errors and cause accidents to punish themselves. This is an instance of shortened lifespan due to workload. This finding is supported by Remington, Folk and Boehm-Davis (2013), who assert that human error is caused by workload, leading to accidents. For instance, in the aviation industry, 80% of aircraft accidents and incidents have linked to workload as the main contributing factor. Therefore, in workplaces that require high safety, workload has to be prioritised as a chief concern. Before the introduction of technology, it has to be gauged whether it contributes to workload or reduces it. The same attribution of accidents to human error at a rate of more than 70% is also cited by Salmon (2011, p.8). Human error related to workload as a causal factor of more than 90% of all traffic accidents is echoed by Bekiaris, Wiethoff and Gaitanidou (2011, p.192). Suggestions were made to assist drivers in situations, where workload was either too high or too low in order to increase safety in the roads. In Japan, where overtime work is prevalent and people overwork, the levels of mental illnesses have gone up significantly. The number of suicides committed in the country has also increased dramatically (Yamada, Yamada, Chen and Zeng, 2013, p.1). During the economic recession period in Japan in the 1990s, physical illnesses such as brain blood vessel diseases and ischemic heart diseases among others increased drastically. Deaths resulting from cardio vascular and cerebral vascular diseases have been recorded in high numbers, in the work places because people undergo job strains (Yamada, Yamada, Chen and Zeng, 2013, p.1). Summary It is evident, from this analysis, that overworking is harmful to human health. The adverse effects of overworking range from mental illnesses, through physical effects to social conflicts. These effects contribute to poor health in general. The contributions are either direct or indirect. For instance, it has been established that overworking subjects people to operate under pressure. Consequently, as they seek to meet the job or work requirements, they develop fatigue. Fatigue is associated to stress. Stress has many effects on human mental health and physiological functioning. It even affects the social aspect of an individual. For instance, stress is responsible for diminishing immune levels among individuals. Cardio vascular diseases are caused by stress. Intestinal problems such as ulcers are directly related to stress. Mental illnesses are caused by stress. Consequently, people become aggressive and can develop conflict between themselves and other people, especially colleagues and family members. The resultant adverse effect in this case, is that they may end up causing severe harm to themselves and others. Through such activities of increased risk of safety, the lifespan of an overworking person is shortened. An ideal example is a person who works in a place that requires extra care to avoid injury. However, given that stress leads to errors and poor judgements, such an individual can commit a grievous mistake that subjects life to premature end. Road accidents have been caused by overworked people, who are stressed. Therefore, excessive work leads to chronic stress and may lead to early death List of References BBC., 2013. April 19. What is Stress? [Online] Available at:[Accessed 4 April 2015]. Bekiaris, E., Wiethoff, M. and Gaitanidou, E., 2011. Infrastructure and Safety in a Collaborative World: Road Traffic Safety. New York: Springer Publications. Bickford, M., 2005. August. Stress in the Workplace: A General Overview of the Causes, the Effects, and the Solutions. [Online] Available at:[Accessed 4 April 2015]. Blaug, R., Kenyon, A. and Lekhi, R., 2007. February. Stress at Work. [Online] Available at:[Accessed 4 April 2015]. Brooks, S., 2013. July 22. 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