Working harder, especially for women, does not always pay off; they put their mental health at stake.
According to a study, women who tend to work for more than 55 hours a week are at an increased risk of developing depressive symptoms.
A British study, which was published Monday in the Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health, has found that women who worked extra-long work hours experienced 7.3 percent more depressive symptoms like feeling incapable or worthless than women who worked a normal workload of between 35 and 40 hours a week.
Typically, women who worked for most weekends experienced 4.6 percent more depressive symptoms than women working only weekdays.
Gill Weston, a lead author of the study and researcher at University College London, said, “This is an observational study, so although we cannot establish the exact causes, we do know many women face the additional burden of doing a larger share of domestic labor than men, leading to extensive total work hours, added time pressures and overwhelming responsibilities.”
Weston added, “Additionally women who work most weekends tend to be concentrated in low-paid service sector jobs, which have been linked to higher levels of depression.”
It has also been found that working mothers put in fewer hours than women without children, and fathers worked longer hours than all men and women without children.
More than half of women worked weekends. The study found that women who worked extra-long hours on all or most weekends were into low-skilled jobs and had less job satisfaction. Plus, they earned less. Weston noted, “Women, in general, are more likely to be depressed than men, and this was no different in the study. Independent of their working patterns, we also found that workers with the most depressive symptoms were older, on lower incomes, smokers, in physically demanding jobs, and who were dissatisfied at work. More sympathetic working practices could bring benefits both for workers and for employers – of both sexes.”
