Today, I just would like to share with you about how many hours should we work in a week. I have found the story that talks about working hours maximum for a person. Please, see the video and read the story that telling directly.
Working
more than 25 hours a week? Then you're doing your brain more harm than good.
And
if you're clocking up 60-plus hours a week, your brain is actually performing
worse than if you didn't work at all.
These
are the findings of a Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social
Research study of 6500 Australians aged 40 and over.
Researchers
used data from the long-term Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia
survey to ascertain how time spent working affects the cognitive functioning of
middle-aged and older people.
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They
cross-matched the number of hours people worked with the results from tests of
their working memory, linguistic skills, concentration and information processing
speed.
They
found that cognitive function steadily increased for every hour worked up to 25
hours a week. For every hour worked beyond that, cognitive function steadily
declined.
"This
suggests that in order to maximise your cognitive function of people, part-time
work is better," one of the researchers, Colin McKenzie, economics
professor at Keio University in Japan, said. There were no statistical
differences between the results for men and women.
Professor
McKenzie said he was surprised how the exact number of working hours that is
optimal for cognitive function was so clearly identifiable. "Most people
work full-time in Australia. They're working a lot longer than the number of
hours which we find the peak in work."
Nearly
8.2 million Australians work full-time, and a further 3.8 million work
part-time, according to the latest Australian Bureau of Statistics figures.
Most full-time employees work more than 40 hours a week. People in mining,
construction and agriculture are most likely to put in more than 50 hours a
week
But
their brains could be performing worse than those who don't work at all. The
study found people who worked extremely long hours had poorer mental function
than those who did no work. Professor McKenzie said this was because of the
physical and psychological stress associated with working long hours.
"For
cognitive functioning, working far too much is worse than not working at
all," he said. "In the beginning work stimulates the brain cells. The
stress associated with work physically and psychologically kicks in at some
point and that affects the gains you get from working."
However,
Professor McKenzie suspects working long hours isn't as damaging for people
under 40. "My personal guess is that the recovery function of the brain in
younger people is a little bit different," he said. "Younger people
are more resilient ... to working longer hours on a continued basis."
The
researchers suggested that rather than the ''use it or lose it'' argument that
delaying retirement age could stave off the deterioration in cognitive ability,
it could actually be a case of ''use it too much and lose it'' when it comes to
brain functioning and work.
"[The
study] results suggest that people in old age could maintain their cognitive
ability by working in a part-time job that requires them to work around 20-30
hours per week," the researchers said.
