# Harvard Research Reveals: Long Hours At Work Are Not That Beneficial



## The Lawyer (Sep 28, 2015)

Harvard research shows that long hours at work and the resulting stress can lead to a variety of health problems, both physical and mental. Not only are these consequences bad on their own, they’re also bad for the company, causing an increase in absenteeism and turnover, and rising health insurance costs. 
Chronically overworked individuals are likely to burn out with time and lose the ability to see the bigger picture, which results in them progressively spending more time working on meaningless tasks - long hours can seem beneficial for the company's profit in the short run, but in the long run they result in diminishing returns.
https://hbr.org/2015/08/the-researc...p=Article-_-Links-_-Top of Page Recirculation

"While managers did penalize employees who were transparent about working less, Reid was not able to find any evidence that those employees actually accomplished less, or any sign that the overworking employees accomplished more."

"Considerable evidence shows that overwork is not just neutral — it hurts us and the companies we work for."

"Even if you enjoy your job and work long hours voluntarily, you’re simply more likely to make mistakes when you’re tired — and most of us tire more easily than we think we do. Only 1-3% of the population can sleep five or six hours a night without suffering some performance drop-off. Moreover, for every 100 people who think they’re a member of this sleepless elite, only five actually are."


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## fuliajulia (Jun 29, 2013)

Well, that makes a lot of sense.


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## bluefox91 (Oct 8, 2015)

This is pretty much the same as the studying thread. Over working and over studying leads to a decrease in efficiency. The solution is periodic breaks.


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## Hypaspist (Feb 11, 2012)

I could've told you that without the research. 14 hour days at a desk suck with a capital S. Two straight weeks of averaging 13 hours a day is absolute torture.


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## Biracial (Sep 8, 2010)

Long hours are just part of the culture at work. If you don't put in the long hours, you're lazy. Get money or die trying.


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## angelfish (Feb 17, 2011)

Hallelujah. 

I am 100% sure I am _not_ part of that 1-3% that can perform at the same quality with less sleep.


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## niss (Apr 25, 2010)

Meh, another study. I'm paid commission - I either produce or I starve. Seventy hour weeks are common. I like the money, but to each their own.


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## AriesLilith (Jan 6, 2013)

I'm a programmer and thing is, while I can work for many hours straight ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flow_(psychology) ), sometimes my productivity varies and forcing me on a desk is not getting more code out of me. Also, in the long term it can be very draining and tiresome, and mental jobs requires focus and ability to think that without them the job won't be really done, or done very slowly.

In Portuguese traditional companies unfortunately managers tend to not understand how programmers work, and they'd rather see them tied to their chairs for long hours to measure productivity. If you finished all your daily tasks, you'd just be flooded with more. Doesn't matter how fast you finished things, getting out in time can be seen as not committing enough to a project, which is not necessarily true. That can be worse as some people might have arrived earlier but still be expected to get out late.

But at least IT professionals has more choices, as there is so much market demand right now. I choose companies that won't expect slaves, I can dedicate extra hours from time to time but I'm not giving out for free and without justification. I expect managers to be efficient with their plannings too, not just programmers being expected to overwork just coz someone planned their projects with crazy deadlines to sell for cheaper to get clients.

Also, there are more companies now that values the well being of programmers and allow much more freedom. Even work from home and flexible schedules, as long as we finish our assigned tasks.

Because the tasks one can do is better measurement of productivity than the hours of butt on the chair.


Also, people without time for themselves is going to drain them a lot in the long run. People has to take care of kids and house chores, commute everyday to work and all, leaving so few time to pursuit anything else.

A long term effect on population is that they don't have time to cultivate and develop other pursuits specially intellectual, which reduces possibility for innovation and all.


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## Doktorin Zylinder (May 10, 2015)

I've never really understood this. It's well known that extended work hours for most people don't work and cause more mistakes that it's worth. Like @AriesLilith , I can work for extended periods of time, sometimes days without much need for anything.

The thing I've noticed about most offices in particular is there isn't enough work to span an eight hour day. I remember one place I contracted at, the drafting staff was bloated and they only did about two hours worth of work a day. It seems to be true for many other office staff, as well.


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## septic tank (Jul 21, 2013)

Mental health doctors: how many hours of work can we take until it's considered unhealthy, and we begin overworking ourselves?

US law states that once you work more than 40 hours a week you get paid over time, and a typical day is 8 hours long. But is it too long?


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## Handsome Jack (May 31, 2015)

It's sometimes not about efficiency, it's about billable hours. The longer we work, the more money we can charge the client regardless of output. As long as this holds true work hours will never get shorter.


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## Sava Saevus (Feb 14, 2015)

Biracial said:


> Long hours are just part of the culture at work. If you don't put in the long hours, you're lazy. Get money or die trying.


Leave it up to the 1% or .01% and they just want you dead. No competition if there's no one alive, right?


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## Arzazar Szubrasznikarazar (Apr 9, 2015)

The Lawyer said:


> "While managers did penalize employees who were transparent about working less, Reid was not able to find any evidence that those employees actually accomplished less, or any sign that the overworking employees accomplished more."


Managers like these belong to a human meatgrinder. It's horrifying that all that scum is allowed to continue to do damage to humanity.


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## Arzazar Szubrasznikarazar (Apr 9, 2015)

Doktorin Zylinder said:


> I've never really understood this. It's well known that extended work hours for most people don't work and cause more mistakes that it's worth.


I suspect it has something to do with the management elites being people that need only 3 hours of sleep a day... They do a lot of projecting when assessing capabilities of other people. So, to them someone who isn't working 14 hours a day and needs 8 hours of sleep is "lazy" and should be punished until they start working as much as them.



Doktorin Zylinder said:


> Like @AriesLilith , I can work for extended periods of time, sometimes days without much need for anything.


For me it's 4 hours of focused work (with pauses) and I turn into a zombie XD .



Doktorin Zylinder said:


> The thing I've noticed about most offices in particular is there isn't enough work to span an eight hour day. I remember one place I contracted at, the drafting staff was bloated and they only did about two hours worth of work a day. It seems to be true for many other office staff, as well.


In case of drafting, the introduction of CAD software created incredible increases in efficiency.
My mother used to do drafting with rapidographs together with do with a hired drafter. With CAD software I do in hours things that would take both of them days.


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