Long working hours lead to depression in women, but not in men says study

Long working hours may lead to depression among women but not in men according to a new study just out. A new study led by University College London, has found that women are more vulnerable to stress and depression than men, if working for more than 55 hours a week. Who would think this is a statistic of the 21st century where many women go to work and hold long days.

Add to this the Indian context, a recent 2018 report from NSSO (National Sample Survey Office) has shown that working hours in India are the longest, with people in cities working 53-54 hours in a week on an average and those in the villages working for around 46-47 hours in a week.

The important takeaways of the research are as follows:

• According to the study, women who worked for more than 55 hours a week displayed more depressive symptoms than women working in the normal range of 35-40 hours per week.
• In the study, 20,000 adults were studied for gauging stress that comes as a result of extra long working hours.
• Moreover, men who worked for additional long hours didn't display any such particularity in being depressed.
• The lead author of the study, UCL Institute of Epidemiology and Health Care PhD candidate Gill Weston, said that the discrepancy in the results might be due to the bias against gender roles and responsibilities.

When women are trying to establish their own identity in the working class, revelation that the Indian Women constitute the longest working class in terms of hours, has in itself the capability to hinder their aspirations. Long working hours might affect you and your work in many ways.

Number Of Hours Are Directly Proportional To Stress And Loss In Efficiency, If You're Not In Love With Your Work

Work Becomes Stressful, More Of It Leads To Depression

We asked Kiran Manral, Indian author and Ideas Editor at SheThePeople.TV as if she ever went through such a phase. She says," When I was working for the briefest of time in PR, the hours were unpredictable and the work was a drudgery. That was perhaps the only time I was really depressed on the job and I think I quit in a few months." Working nonstop hampers a person's mental state. After all our mind too needs rest and on failing to get so, it starts dysfunctioning.

Loss Of Efficiency

We asked women working more than the normal hours as to how is their efficiency affected because of this. No matter whether they experienced stress or not, one thing was common that efficiency was affected in every woman's case.

Ways To Cope With Long Working Hours

•  Sometimes, to keep your brain functioning, you need to take small breaks amidst your work.
• The key to proper and perfect productivity is loving what you do.
• As soon as you feel your efficiency is being hampered, STOP. Continuing even when you feel you're not giving your best will decrease the quality of the work you do
• Try to be calm and composite. When you're stressed, you harm the functionality of your brain, and therefore negatively affect the quality of your work also, which is obviously, unacceptable.
• Take Proper Sleep.

Read More: Millenial Women Working More, Doing Household Work Too

Anushika Srivastava is an Intern with SheThePeople.TV