How Overworking Is Hurting Your Health: A Workaholic's Labor Day

Labor Day in America has become the “last hurrah” of summer. The first Monday in September is a day to relax… for those of us lucky enough to have the day off. Oh, and sales! Seems pretty random and lovely.

Though that’s not how the holiday started out, let’s allow ourselves some relaxation, and some reflection. You deserve to know how overworking might be hurting your health. And how to stop the damage in its tracks.

How We Got Here

Originally, Labor Day came out of a movement spurred by the changes to American working life during the Industrial Revolution. Once industry began thriving on mechanization and automatization, workers’ rights took a hit.

Labor workers began advocating for better conditions and benefits. On September 5, 1882 they rallied for an 8 hour work day in New York City. Gradually, annual parades centered around better working conditions took off across the country. Labor Day didn’t become a federally recognized holiday until 1894, however. Still, this early September day continued to be a day of rallying for change for the working class.

We're Not Done Yet!

America has come a long way towards fairer, safer, and more equal labor laws (though we continue to have work to do on the equality front). I personally haven’t given Labor Day much thought beyond a much appreciated day off… until this year.

This year, I got to thinking. We may not be petitioning for fair hours, reasonable benefits, and adequate working conditions. But, maybe we should take this day to give our work habits some thought. I wouldn’t say our modern working culture is one that prioritizes health and well-being, but why shouldn’t it?

Workaholics Are Mainstream

How many of you reading this are self-proclaimed workaholics? Side note: being a workaholic is so mainstream that the word is not flagged as a misspelling or non-word in a word processing application. That surprised me, but maybe it shouldn’t.

I hesitate to use the word “workaholic” because I think it puts people on the defensive. There’s a negative connotation to it that makes people think, “This is someone who consciously chooses work over family.” Let’s not go there.

For the remainder of this post, we’re defining a workaholic as someone who has difficulty leaving work at work. Someone who finds that work is limiting his or her ability to enjoy other meaningful aspects of life. A workaholic can’t help checking her emails late into the day or volunteering his time beyond the job’s designated hours. This overworking can have serious consequences.

Service of the Heart

When you maintain an overworked lifestyle, the negative influences on your well-being can snowball into serious health problems.

For example, one study looked at the impact of working overtime on your heart. It turns out, working 3 extra hours per day puts someone at a 1.6-fold increased risk of developing heart disease.

The lifestyle habits that arise from such a rigorous work schedule might be to blame for these heart problems. Think: eating convenient, less healthy foods, losing out on restoring sleep, indulging in substances that quick-fix your energy, skipping exercise, etc. But these problems can also be due to chronic stress levels that overwork your heart.

Heart & Brain Work Together

Stress to your heart in itself results in stress to your brain function. High blood pressure, for example, can eventually cause reductions in blood flow to the brain and subsequent cognitive decline over time.

Physical and Mental Overtime

Overworking, both in rigor and in time devoted, can directly influence the brain’s functioning.

Another fascinating study out of Australia looked at the number of hours we typically work in a week and how those hours impact our brains. For someone 40+ years old, working 25 hours per week supported positive cognitive growth. However, once work exceeded 25 hours per week, it was linked with declines in cognition (in this study: processing speed, memory, and attention skills).

Chronic Stress and Your Brain

It’s not just the hours you work though! Another study compared health markers in employees who had workaholic tendencies vs. those that did not, regardless of hours worked. They found that even employees who worked longer hours than their workaholic counterparts had lower reports of health problems and less objective measures of poor health.

When you’re stressed, your body reacts by increasing levels of cortisol, immune responses, and blood pressure. When you’re engaging in workaholic tendencies, you’re likely more chronically stressed as long as there’s work to be done. And I think we all know that in this day and age, work
never seems to be done.

So your body and mind are chronically stressed! Cortisol levels remain high. Blood pressure stays high. And your organs suffer due to this new normal.

You may be able to manage the more mild symptoms of chronic stress in the early years of workaholism. Unfortunately, though, it can catch up to you over time, resulting in more serious diagnoses.

Good News for Satisfied Workers!

There was a super cool positive finding from this study, though! The authors concluded that workaholics who enjoyed their jobs (“engaged workaholics”) had lower biological markers for health decline than their non-engaged counterparts. The engaged group also reported greater overall satisfaction and job performance.

Both groups had greater health problems than the participants who were able to leave work at work. However, the study found that being fulfilled in your role, receiving steady positive feedback, and being intrinsically motivated creates a buffer that slows the impact of chronic stress, if just slightly.

The Four Burners Theory

Most of us have to work and plenty of us enjoy work. We just have to be mindful of its impact on our lives. I came across “The Four Burners Theory” recently, and I can’t get it off my mind. This theory suggests that, like a traditional stove top, we have 4 burners of life:

As the theory goes, you have to choose the 2 most important burners to turn on, and cut the other 2 off. I understand that we can’t do everything at full force. But, I don’t fully agree that 2 whole burners need to be turned completely off.

I think you can make a few compromises and modifications that can allow you to use all of your burners, just at different intensities.

This visual of a stove burner can be really helpful when thinking about your work habits. If you have your work burner turned all the way up to “high,” you’re likely taking the fuel from your other burners.

Modern Day Labor Day: Time to Take Action

Instead of waiting until you start experiencing the eventual symptoms of overworking (cognitive fatigue and decline, high blood pressure and other cardiovascular problems, insomnia), take this weekend’s holiday as a time to reflect and check in. I suggest picking 1 small change to start with to help you stay committed and recognize progress.

Consider implementing a break every hour at work to help with productivity. Visit my post on time management at work to get started and find other productivity-boosting ideas

Put it in a box: when I first started out in my career, I had a really unhealthy work-life balance. I’d have dreams about my patients and ruminate on their experiences and on what I could do for them. My awesome therapist suggested I write down what I felt was “unfinished business” or whatever was still on my mind at the end of the day. She then told me to put the note in a box on my desk. That helped me to both physically and mentally leave work until I returned the next day.

Set time limit applications to stop yourself from checking emails outside of your work day. It may be hard at first and make you feel guilty. But once you start respecting your own boundaries, your colleagues will recognize and respect your boundaries and maybe even make changes for themselves.

Delegate tasks to turn the burner lower. Write a list of all the tasks you take on that cause your heart to race or your blood pressure to rise. Add the tasks that you tend to take on once the work day is over. Can any of these tasks be automated? Are all of them productive? When you can be efficient with your tasks and support your own health, you are showing up to work a better employee and also giving back to your other burners.

It Starts With One Change

Most of us have the best intentions of working hard and bettering our futures.

I look around at my friends and family and feel so inspired by their dedication and passion.

But, I also see many making sacrifices with their own health and well-being in order to continue getting ahead at work or just because they’re that dedicated. It starts out slow but can progress to a point of no return for your health. I don’t want that for anyone.

Taking small steps to check in with yourself and make a few adjustments will help you to feel more effective in your work and give more fuel to the other burners in your life. And, as we’ve discussed before, making changes is easier when you have the tools to evaluate your commitment.

Happy Labor Day!