Are you among the statistics? Do you stay late or bring work home because you are a committed employee, a workaholic, or have bad time management skill? Or you simply can't help it as the workload continues to mount.
In its recent findings, Regus, an international provider of flexible workplaces, attributed the long working hours - a common trend worldwide - to slow economic recovery in mature economies; and in the emerging economies it is due to rapid growth.
As Malaysia targets to achieve a developed nation status in 2020, everyone in the public and private sectors - guided by roadmaps and transformation plans - are expected to work harder to achieve the goal in nine years.
Regus, which canvassed the opinions of over 12,000 people in 85 countries, found that in Malaysia, about a third of the working population, compared with about two-fifths of global workers, usually work between nine to 11 hours a day.
More Malaysian workers, at 15 per cent, regularly work over 11 hours a day, compared with 10 per cent globally.
About 47 per cent of workers in Malaysia take work home more than three times a week compared with 43 per cent globally.
The survey also found that only 5 per cent of women work 60-hour weeks compared to 12 per cent for men. This is possibly because women are more likely to find part-time work.
The increasing pressure from working long hours and heavier workload, if not handled pro-perly, can lead to acute stress. And poorly managed stress can result in physical, emotional and psychological problems.
This not only affects the worker's personal and family lives, but also his or her employer when stress-related sickness contributes to inferior work quality and lower productivity.
It has been reported that about 90 per cent of doctor visits by workers are for symptoms partially related to stress.
Studies have found that stress can lead to, among others, depression, hypertension, migraine and gastritis. In a worst case scenario, it could result in stroke or a heart attack.
A sedentary lifestyle, heavier workload, longer working hours and bad traffic are already contributing to emotional and physical strains among Malaysian workers.
According to health experts, the first physical symptoms of chronic stress are quite mild, like frequent headaches and increased susceptibility to colds.
However, more serious health problems may develop with long-term exposure to stress. These include depression, diabetes, hair loss, heart disease, hy-perthyroidism, obesity, obsessive-compulsive or anxiety disorder, sexual dysfunction, tooth and gum disease, ulcers and possibly, cancer.
Mental illness is another risk.
Health reports have shown that mental illnesses affect one in every five individuals, or 20 per cent of the global population every single year.
According to the World Health Organisation, depression will be one of the largest health problems worldwide by 2020.
The National Health and Mor-bidity Survey Malaysia, conduc-ted in 2006, revealed that 11.2 per cent of the adult population has some form of mental health problems as compared with 10.6 per cent in 1996.
Thus, it is essential for Malaysians to manage stress and pressures from all fronts. Exercise, enough rest and good eating habits are pillars of health that many know but some choose to ignore.
There is also an alternative that can help cut the stress from a poor work-life balance. Work from home, at places nearer to home, or be mobile workers.
from btimes.com.my
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