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| Tuesday, 16 March 2010 00:24 | |||||
A couple of weeks ago, I stopped by to say goodbye to one of my colleagues at work. It was already past 5:00 pm and she was still working away on the computer and filing papers. She looked really swamped and overwhelmed. I thought to myself, it’s either she had a heavy workload that day or she simply did not have an efficient approach to managing her time and prioritizing her assignments. Which of the two do you think was the culprit? Whichever of the two caused her to stay late at work, we all know that the standard hours of work in Manitoba are generally eight hours in a day or 40 hours in a week. Work beyond the standard hours is overtime. According to the Employment Standards Code, employees who work overtime are entitled to be paid 1½ times their regular wage for the hours worked during overtime. While the employer must authorize overtime, using a lot of overtime can be a costly way for the employer to run a business. Some employees have a legitimate reason for working overtime, but some unfortunately do it on purpose to earn some extra dollars. Overtime is not only costly to the employer, it is not a healthy practice on the employees’ part. A new study published by the American Journal of Epidemiology shows that middle-aged people who work longer hours have lower scores on mental function tests. The study involved an analysis of the performance of 2,214 middle-aged British civil servants on a battery of thinking tests (also known as aptitude tests) administered in two time periods from 1997 to 2004. The subjects were given cognitive tests and those who laboured for more than 55 hours per week scored lower on vocabulary and reasoning exams compared to those who only worked 40 hours at most. Long working hours also resulted in lower reasoning and lower vocabulary scores on the follow-up tests given at the end of the study period. This particular study showed that long working hours may have a negative effect on cognitive performance and it held true regardless of age, sex, marital status, education, income, physical health and occupation. Dr. Marianna Virtanen of the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health in Helsinki commented that long working hours are common worldwide. According to her and the other authors of the American Journal of Epidemiology, long working hours have been found to be associated with cardiovascular and immunologic reactions, reduced sleep duration, unhealthy lifestyle and adverse health outcomes. It has also been found to negatively affect cognitive performance, grammatical acumen, and alertness. So now, ask yourself, is overtime really worth your time? Perhaps look carefully at the way you work. A systematic approach will help you determine and identify where improvements can be made. Keeping a diary is a handy little tool to track projects and assignments. Also, think about how you spend your time at work and whether or not you use it productively. List the things you have to do and once you have established your tasks, prioritze from the most important to the least important to-do’s. The aim is to avoid overtime by managing your time and spending it doing the things that help you achieve your goals at work. Sources: Michele Majul is an HR Professional with Canada Post Corporation in the Prairie Region. She graduated from the University of Manitoba with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Psychology and a Certificate in Human Resource Management. Have a comment on this article? Send us your feedback
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