Before we start discussing the problem of overwork itself, it is of crucial importance to make it quite clear that overall work or labor is just a good or sometimes bad means to achieve some status in the society. However, under no circumstances can we call work an aim. In other words, human beings are compelled to work in order to sustain life and only very few people live in order to work. Hopefully, this statement will not be disputed.
Thus, if we have agreed on the point that work itself is just a means, we should probably pay more attention to the problem of overwork, which is extremely acute nowadays. The thing is that a great number of people tend to think of nothing else but work, which means that many other important aspects of their lives are completely disregarded, like for instance their family, their health, their friends and so on and so forth. Naturally, this list is far from being complete, but the above-mentioned issues seem to be the most important ones.
Moreover, if a person is constantly engaged with routine operations (in the overwhelming majority of cases it is really so) he or she has practically no opportunity to widen one’s horizons and find a way to express oneself better. The point we are trying to make is that if the workweek has lengthened a person will be deprived even of these minor opportunities that he or she has at the moment.
If we imagine just for the sake of the argument that a workweek is prolonged, we may say for a fact that the only possible consequence will be the degradation of a person’s inner world. The thing is that he will gradually transform into a robot (or perhaps it would be better to say a slave). It is also worth mentioning that the very word “life” will not be appropriate in this context, because life may have ups and downs, moments of joy and despair, but in no way can we say that it is only dull machine work.
Besides, many philosophers state that deep in the heart a human being is a lazy creature. They also believe that the very idea of work or any kind of labor is sometimes abhorrent to our mind, naturally, some people may say that they take pleasure in their work but then the question arises how long this pleasure lasts. Overall, we can say that such statements can be defined as a subtle form of self-suggestion or maybe self-deception. Naturally, there are workaholics, people who take pleasure only from their work. However, we should mention that the very suffix “holic” could be translated into English as an addict and if I am not mistaken any addiction leads to negative results to a persons mind and body.
Nevertheless, this is always the other side of the coin. It is not so difficult to convince an employee that a workweek should not be shortened, but it is not so easy with an employer, because as a rule, the only thing he cares about is revenue. Certainly, there are some employers, who do care about the well-being of their employees, but this is just an exception, which usually proves the rule.
Despite this fact, we will attempt to prove that the lengthening of the workweek in particular and overwork, in general, will result in the loss of profits, especially considering the long-term effects. First, it is worth mentioning that an overworked employee can no longer meet any quality standards, he gradually transforms into a hack worker. It is possible to ask a rhetorical question, how it will affect his productivity. Naturally, neither employer nor employee wants it.
Another argument we can advance is that overwork will eventually make an employee detest his work, even if it is interesting and high-paid. His attitude towards it will become careless. Sometimes it can cause not only the loss of profits but also much more grievous results.
In addition, we should not underestimate the importance of a creative approach, but a person must have time for recreation in order to find this approach. How is he or she supposed to do being constantly busy? At times, we have to take a break if we want to come up with some interesting ideas or solutions. At first glance, this statement may seem a commonplace truth but in fact, many people have entirely forgotten about it. It seems like a paradox; we take many things for granted, but they become more and more meaningless to us.
Thus, we may arrive at the conclusion that lengthening of the workweek will have an adverse effect on both sides. It is possible to singe two aspects of this problem, first, degradation of an employee and secondly the decrease in productivity.