Are 8 Hours In The Office Not Enough?

Spending 40 hours a week on a job may seem like enough, but for some firms, it's NEVER enough!  It is a catastrophe that working late in the office has become a cliche nowadays.  In a highly competitive world which demands hard work in the right direction, spending long hours at the office has become a norm.  More and more people are becoming workaholics and working has become such a habit to them that they spend more and more time at the office.

It is sad that working long hours has become a sign of hard work, loyalty and sincerity in our culture.  But where is all this going to end?  I mean do we stereotype the one who works late everyday as the most efficient and productive employee?  Do we say that he/she is the one who is committed to the work because of the long working hours that are put in?  I beg to differ on this.

We as employees are given 8 hours a day at work.  If we are efficient in managing our time, we can definitely get our work done in 8 hours and not more.  Time management is a skill and I urge every employee to learn it well and practice it.

To organize your work, you should be able to differentiate between what work  is to be given priority and what is urgent work. Identify  time wasters like chit-chatting with your co-workers, unwarranted meetings, lack of delegation, desk clutter just to name a few.  Limit distractions and interruptions and you will find that you have more time to complete your work in the given 8 hours.  Deadlines don't have to be DEAD LINES if you systematically do your work every day and perhaps pass your work up even before the deadline. The deal here is that you must NEVER procrastinate when it comes to your work.  If you do, then deadlines become stress lines on your face and you will find that you are burning the midnight oil at the office.

Some of us decide to stay back at the office just so we can impress the boss for perhaps a promotion?  Be true to yourself.  Is all this sucking up really going to do you any good?  Your promotion is assessed by how well you perform in the company.  It's fine if you are bringing in the business for your company by working late sometimes but doing it all the time just so your boss will notice you may just back fire.  Your boss is not stupid.

So, now let's look at the disadvantages of working late in the office.

1) Your health will ultimately be affected-

When you work late hours, you end up eating late dinners and this will definitely affect your health. Not to mention that you don't have the time to exercise and this leads to obesity, diabetes and heart disorders.  Working late causes unwanted stress in your body and this may lead to insomnia, headaches and sometimes  loss of appetite.  Sitting too long in your work station can give you back aches and joint pains too and don't forget, posture problems.  Many also experience the 'burn out' syndrome (extreme fatigue) and this will give rise to ulcers and anxiety disorders.

Employees are the backbone of any organization.  If the employee is unhealthy, this will definitely affect the concerned company and the organization.  Late working hours may provide extra business to the company but at what expense I ask you?  You'll find a more stressed and tired employee who will not be able to give his/her best.  What happens next?  He/she may make costly errors if there's a report to be done or some accounts to review.

This will bring great damage to the company's profits and thus his/her efficiency is greatly reduced and productivity levels soon drop.  This may lead to staff resignation, retention and recruitment problems.  In short, employees must be healthy to give positive outputs for the company.  This will not happen if the employee works late at the office every day.

2) Hardly any time to spend with your family and for yourself-

This is the main disadvantage that I want to amplify in this post.  It is generally said that you spend 8 hours to sleep and 8 hours to work and 8 hours to rest in a 24 hour cycle.  But I ask you now, is this time cycle evenly divided?  Think about it. Are you getting 8 hours of sleep a day?  Are you spending 8 hours with your family and yourself and are you spending only 8 hours at work?  Most of you will surely say 'NO' to all these questions wouldn't you?

I strongly believe in a balanced life.  As much as I love my work and it is important to me, my family is important to me too.  Let's face it!  Our employers know that we as employees have a life outside the office.  We are not robots that just clock in and clock out every day with a smile on our face.  We are human-beings. We have our families and friends.  We have our commitments. If we work late in the office every day, we will not have time for our families and friends, let alone for ourselves.

I am not saying that you stop working and start enjoying your life.  No I am not. I do understand that we are all dependent on a consistent income every month to run our households and our lives. Our jobs pay the bills.  But having said that, it doesn't mean that you have to camp out in your office!  For most of us executives and higher level employees, it doesn't matter if we work 8 hours or 16 hours a day because we are still paid for the 8 hours and nothing more. So why not fully use the 8 hours at work and finish what we do?

What happens when we are always working late? We don't get to spend time with our families. We only come home and go to sleep as it is very late and we wake up early next morning to go to work.  You may ask, what about the weekends?  Well if you are free during the weekends, you tend to sleep all day through just to catch up on your sleep because you are very tired from lack of sleep throughout the week days.

Many problems arise as a direct result of working late in the office all the time.  Firstly, your relationship with your spouse will deteriorate because you don't spend much time communicating with each other and this may lead to a break-up in your marriage, in other words, a divorce.  How about your relationship with your children as well?  You will miss their precious years of growing up.  I also refer to single parents who will miss the opportunity to bond with their children as they are mostly at work.  You'll find that your kids are closer to their grandparents and their babysitters.  What about your parents?  What about your friends?  Ask yourself this question.  As a result of you spending so much time at the office, what have you missed out in your family?  How well do you know your family members and what is going on in their lives?  Obviously, you'll be left out BUT it does not have to be that way if you balance your working life with your family life.  It is not rocket science but realizing your priorities in your life.  Remember this quote, "If you don't set your priorities, somebody else will!"

As long as a person is single, one can cope with long hours at work.  But once you are married with children, these long hours don't make any sense.  Never forget the joys of family life.  It is a gift and not everybody is bestowed with it.  So, what I'm trying to say here is spend time with your families for they are what matters most in your lives.  Spend time with your parents, your spouse, your children and your friends.  Find a hobby that you like and cultivate what interests you.  When you are relaxed with your family and friends, you tend to de-stress and this is very good for your health. Try to go for a walk for at least 30 minutes a day and this will energize and relax you.  Laugh as much as you can...it is the natural healer of your body.  Never apologize to your boss or feel guilty for having spent some quality time with your family because it is YOUR RIGHT to do so when you have already spent enough time in your office for the day.  Remember if you are HAPPY at HOME, you are HAPPY at WORK.  That's the golden rule to take note of.

3) Your personal safety maybe at risk-

This may not seem something important to most of you but let me point out this disadvantage.  When you work late in the office, it means you will be going home late.  As it is you are already tired and sleepy and if you drive back home, there is a high chance that in your grogginess, you may make a wrong judgment in your driving and meet with an accident.  Remember, it can be FATAL.  What about lady employees?  Not all of them are fortunate enough to have someone drive them back home or they drive home on their own.  Some of them take the public transport back home.  If it's very late, there is always trouble lurking around somewhere for the women employees. For instance: mugging, purse snatching or even sexual assaults.  Somehow, the predators like to prey on women and so women are at a higher risk when it comes to their personal safety when working late.  Do you want to be a victim?  Try your hardest to go home on time and if you do have to stay back sometimes, don't stay longer than 2 hours.  Always be safe and not sorry.

4) You become anti-social-

One of the disadvantages of working late in the office every day is you sooner or later become anti-social.  What does this mean?  It means you are not in touch with anybody around you.  You start disliking being around people for no reason.  You have no social life, you don't attend functions and you miss out on all the good things in life.  Your whole life revolves around your work.  All you do is wake up and go to work on time and stay back till late hours in the office and then go home and sleep and this vicious cycle repeats itself day in and day out until your quality of life is totally diminished.  The repercussions are great.  Your mental health will deteriorate a great deal and you may have trouble dealing with your inner feelings of wanting to be free and be like everybody else.  You may take up a bad habit like drinking profusely or smoking heavily.  After all, you are only human.  you are not a machine and so it is only natural that you act out in other ways.

At the end of the day, who will suffer most?  It is you.  How can you do your best at work when you are drunk?   Your company can just fire you and take someone else if you don't do your best and in the end, your long hours of work and sacrificing your social life will all seem futile...just dust in the wind.  So my advice is, work smart and try to finish your work on time and go and get yourself a life!!

5) Inefficiency if employees slacken their pace of work in order to qualify for over time-

Although this doesn't apply to employees of higher levels, it does apply to your subordinates. Your staffs are paid for their extra time at work and so many of them in order to want to work longer hours in the office, delay their work so that they can claim over time from their company.  What happens here is that not only is the company paying over time salary for jobs that could have been completed during normal office hours but indirectly, the company doesn't realize that its productivity level is declining and the company is losing money.

Everyone wants to make that extra cash for something and so you as their employer may find it difficult to get your projects done on time and to answer to your boss.  It may leave you wondering whether your staffs are not able to  handle their jobs or have become inefficient in their work that they must stay back long hours to complete it.  It will also not look good on you as their manager as your boss may find you not capable enough to motivate your staffs to want to work efficiently and on time.

The above disadvantages of working late in the office I hope will help you see that there is more to life than just your career.  I never said that your job is not important but if you can manage your time well, 8 hours of office work is sufficient for you as an employee and you can go home on time and be able to devote yourself to all the things that you would want to do.

I can also understand that there may be some times when it is imperative for you to stay back in the office longer.  Try to limit this to perhaps twice a week.  Always remember that if you have clients to meet, you can always schedule an appointment with them later unless it is absolutely urgent but, this rarely happens unless it's a very important and profitable deal that you have to clinch.  Most of the times, your clients are more than willing to make an appointment with you for a meeting.

I would like to end this post with something for you to think about. This is a 30 second speech by Bryan Dyson- Former CEO of Coca Cola.

"Imagine life as a game in which you are  juggling some five balls in the air.  They are Work, Family, Health, Friends and Spirit and you are keeping all of these in the air.  You will soon understand that work is a rubber ball.  If you drop it, it will bounce back.  But the other four Balls- Family, Health, Friends and Spirit- are made of glass.  If you drop one of these; they will be irrevocably scuffed, marked, nicked, damaged or even shattered.  They will never be the same. You must understand that and strive for it."

"Work efficiently during office hours and leave on time.  Give the required time to your family, friends and have proper rest.  Value has a value only if its value is valued."

Our work no doubt gives you the money to live a better life.  But if the same work is making your life worse, then what is the need for all this hard work of staying up late in the office?  You might as well go home after 8 hours and be happy!

I am eager to read your comments on this post.  Please feel free to tell me what your views are.