“The recession is bringing new pressure for people to work unpaid overtime, and even more IT professionals are doing unpaid overtime than last year,” stressed TUC general secretary Brendan Barber. But not all unpaid overtime is useful work helping to overcome the recession. When people understandably fear for their jobs employers still have a responsibility to organise work properly and ensure their workplaces do not get gripped by a long hours culture.
TUC expressed some concerns about the health implications of this additional workload:
- additional hours reduces the productivity of employees
- exhausted workers are more likely to make serious mistakes
- fear of the employees to lost their jobs could create a harmful atmosphere inside the company
"This economic downturn affects people’s working attitudes - said Cary Cooper, professor of organizational psychology and health at Lancaster University.
“During a recession, we must all be fully committed to our colleagues and there is more pressure to work longer hours in order to get the job done. Many employees also feel obliged to put more hours into their work, in order to prove to the boss that they are committed and indispensable,” he added.
A lot of extra hours will be worked late into the night, and employees may turn in seven day weeks for weeks. But we should remember that working long hours is likely to affect your health as well as your productivity. A good work-life balance, that implies enough time at home to relax, is vitally important to both the health of the employee and to the productivity of whole company.
Tags: outsourcing