Grinding through those 40 hours of work a week can really take a lot out of you especially if the nature of your job is already stressful, to begin with.
And that’s not even counting the times when you need to do overtime. And if you add in the commute, rush hour, and forced “team building” sessions, it’s easy to see why not many people are fans of the regular work week.
If you thought only slackers don’t want to work 5 whole days a week, you may have to revise that opinion because now science seems to back up why people are naturally resistant to the thought of working so hard for so long.
In a report that was published in the Melbourne Institute Worker Paper, people attain their most productive levels when they only work for three days a week or even less. But before you start shouting hallelujahs, this only applies to those who are over 40 years old.
The surprising conclusion came after the researchers followed 3,000 male and 3,500 female volunteers, Newser reported. For purposes of the study, researchers had the participants complete cognitive tests while analyzing their work habits, executive reasoning, memory, and abstract reasoning.
These cognitive tests were comprised of challenges such as reading text backward, reading words aloud, and matching letters and numbers while under time pressure. The researchers observed that cognitive performance got better as researchers increased the participants’ work hours up to 25 hours. But beyond that point, diminishing returns were noted for both male and female participants, HuffPost reported.
But perhaps more surprisingly, those participants who were made to work 55 hours a week displayed worse cognitive results than people who were unemployed or retired.
Colin McKenzie, Keio University professor and one of the co-authors of the study, told
thetimes.point 9 | co.point 12 | uk/tto/career/article4734612.point 41 | ece?CMP=OTH-gnws-standard-2016_04_17">The Times
, “Many countries are going to raise their retirement ages by delaying the age at which people are eligible to start receiving pension benefits.point 214 |This means that more people continue to work in the later stages of their life.point 65 | The degree of intellectual stimulation may depend on working hours.point 123 | Work can be a double-edged sword, in that it can stimulate brain activity, but at the same time long working hours can cause fatigue and stress, which potentially damage cognitive functions.point 283 |
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McKenzie also said the study underscored the fact that “differences in working hours are important for maintaining cognitive functioning in middle-aged and elderly adults” and that part-time work can “be effective in maintaining cognitive ability.”
Of course, while the science may back up this fact, convincing your boss to make this paradigm shift is another story entirely!
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