How Many Job Hours To Have A Healthy Work-Life Balance?

Besides, alarmingly, concepts like flexible overtime, allowing employees to increase work hours but with reduced wages, and efforts to amend the Factories Act 1948 to increase permissible work hours were also reported. And these are being thought of at a time when many countries are embracing a four-day workweek.

The problem with these moves is that longer working hours have not made Indians more productive. India ranks 145th in the global productivity index with a productivity rate of just US $ 8 per day, according to ILO.

All these statements and moves mirror larger attitudes in the Indian sub-continent motivated by the desire to increase employees' monetisable time, or time spent performing tasks generating revenue directly.

Indians Work More Anyway

As per International Labour Organization statistics, the average weekly worked hours by employees range from 24.7 to 54.4 among countries worldwide, marking a more-than twofold variation in hours worked. Indians work 46.7 hours per week compared to 39 for Brazil, 42.6 for South Africa.

The developed countries have far lower working hours - USA works 38 hours on average and workaholic Japanese and Germans average 36.6 and 34.2 hours respectively. 

In 47.6 percent of the 170 countries from where data has been displayed, average weekly worked hours per employee exceeded the standard 40-hour mark.

The proportion of employees working more than 49 hours per week is highest in Bhutan followed by India, Bangladesh, Mauritania, Congo, Burkina Faso, Pakistan, United Arab Emirates and many other countries. It is evident that in many countries, employees are overworked.

Studies show that long working hours, typically more than 55 worked hours per week, as compared to 35-40 hours, increase the risk of ischemic heart disease and stroke.

Hours Vs Productivity

Research also shows that employee health affects performance and productivity. As per the World Health Organization, the health state is not simply the absence of any disease but encompasses physical, mental and social well-being. Wellness, on the other hand, is understood as a dynamic process towards a healthy lifestyle and holistic health.

Employee wellness programmes have been instituted in many organisations. The workplace mental health and well-being document issued by the US Surgeon-General's office in 2022 is a useful guide in structuring such programmes.

Workplace trends supporting employee health increasingly focus on employee wellness, which goes beyond health insurance and annual health check-ups. Instead, they include physical activity monitoring, mental wellness, encouraging overall transparency, flexibility in work hours, a sense of belongingness with respect and networking.

In line with this, employee wellness has reemerged as a research trend. The number of research reports from different countries show that the US ranks top in the list with more than 300 publications. Other countries had less than 25 publications in the same period.

Right to Disconnect

If both the employee wellness and Right to Disconnect movements work in synergy, employees can benefit better. Nations like France, Belgium, Ireland, Spain, Italy and now Australia have realised the need for balance between employees' time for monetisable purposes versus time for their personal care.

Although in principle, these experiences could be widely useful, each culture has its specific characteristics that may require consideration, such as organisations being culturally sensitive to the unique needs of employees while tailoring health and wellness programmes.

Countries can also benefit from conducting research to reveal their employees' specific strengths and weaknesses to implement tailormade and holistic wellness programmes.

Research has already established the toll of long working hours on health. Industrialists may do well to look at a balanced approach instead of tilting towards monetisable time as the healthcare burden is likely to fall upon the workplace health programmes or national resources.

A recent survey shows that a majority of employees across the globe are either struggling or suffering and highlights the numerous factors affecting employee performance in relation to their well-being.

Whether these dynamics lead to a winning situation for both employees and the organisations employing them may not be clear now but learning from other nations' experiences can be beneficial.

Health Screening Measures Needed

Mental health, obesity and professional burnout are the top-featured afflictions in the employee wellness research literature. Health screening programmes can focus on these maladies and employee-specific needs.

A big data analysis of 353,000 patients has shown that digestive disorders, endocrine disorders and skeletal disorders dominate, particularly with age. Another study of 204,912 patients' symptoms and medical conditions showed that fever was the most common symptom followed by digestive system symptoms.

These reports can guide the appropriate design of employee wellness programmes.

Training employees in time management and prioritising wellness alongside productivity can avoid burnout and promote improved health care attitudes, thereby reducing leave of absence, attrition and insurance claims. Companies that do not prioritise employee wellness could end up with losses to the tune of more than $USD 200 million for medium-sized companies.

Staff in leadership positions can encourage employees to take breaks, do physical activities and practice mindfulness.

Overall, caring for employee wellness is in the interest of benefits for organisations towards productivity as a balanced approach with number of work hours with holistic wellness of employees.

(Srinivasan Ramachandran is Emeritus Professor, Manav Rachna International Institute of Research and Studies. Views are personal.)

(Originally published under Creative Commons by 360info™.)