16-05-2025
Employers of the world unite: Time to safeguard brains
Even if unevenly, Karl Marx stays in popular memory for his 1848 clarion call asking workers of the world to unite as they had nothing to lose but their chains. Unevenly because we have come a long way since the days of chimney sweeps in Europe. Or have we? Uneven workloads persist.
A recent study by South Korean researchers, published in the journal Occupational Health and Environmental Medicine, says some of us may be working too many hours for our own good. This is not just work-life balance stuff. These scientists, from South Korea's Chung-Ang University and Yonsei University, who followed 110 healthcare workers split into 'overworked' and 'non-overworked' groups, found basic shifts taking place in the physiology of those who had their noses to the grind.
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Workers putting in 52 hours or more per week, who were also younger and more highly educated on average than the other lot, showed structural changes in their brain volume, as mapped over time.
The parts of this vital organ that control our cognitive abilities, executive functions and emotional processing were found to be enlarged among them. This indicates a likely link between overwork and brain work—which could include anything from our short-term memory and attention span to our ability to solve problems at hand. The study's authors suggest further research to grasp 'the long-term cognitive and emotional implications of overwork."
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The study's sample was tiny and drawn from a single field, but any correlation between weekly work and altered brains must push science to delve deeper for answers that can inform policy. Just how safe or unsafe is it? Apart from what these brain changes might imply, whether and how they can be reversed need to be explored too. The study nudges future studies to explore the risk of cognitive decline or mental health disorders.
In general, long hours are observed to have adverse effects and face legal limits in many countries. In South Korea, a work-week longer than 52 hours is illegal. This is rather high in global comparison. The International Labour Organization (ILO) standard is a 48-hour week. The legal limit under India's Factories Act of 1948 is 48 hours per week, with a maximum of nine hours per day and one day off per week.
Also Read: Four-day work week: An idea whose time is all but sure to come
The South Korean finding needs to be read alongside other research. A study by Oxford academics examined the relationship between long hours and middle-age cognitive function among British civil servants working full-time. Compared with those doing 40 hours per week at most, those putting in 55 hours plus scored lower in vocabulary and reasoning tests. A study of 194 nations by the ILO and World Health Organization, published in 2021, said that 488 million people in 2016 were exposed to 55-hour work weeks, resulting in 745,194 deaths from heart disease and stroke. The Western Pacific, South-East Asia (including India), men and older folk bore the brunt of it.
Today, trade unions have mostly withered, Marx's economic ideas have failed and market forces play a key role in the expansion of our economy. India Inc must never unite in pursuit of profit, as the implied lack of rivalry would serve markets badly, but on the issue of overworked workers, it well could. If India Inc's work debate tilts in favour of people's health, as this new study suggests it should, business self-interest could spell better self-regulation of work hours. It might be a good time for employers to unite, but to safeguard brains.
