Mental Health and work? (April 2021)

As reported in the Economist[i], a century of research has shown that unemployment is bad for mental health.  Anxiety, depression and lower self-esteem are common afflictions connected with being out of work.  But how much work is necessary for good mental health?  Not very much according to new research carried out at Cambridge University[ii].

Researchers used the pandemic to investigate the effect of reduced working hours on well-being. What was surprising is how little work was needed to keep people happy. The threshold of good mental health was one day a week!  After that it seemed to make little difference to people whether they worked for eight hours or forty-eight hours a week. It seems that the advantage of working comes from having a purpose, from the social status it creates and from the camaraderie of colleagues.

While some work may be satisfying too much is not.  Recently, the Press was full of a story about junior analysts at Goldman Sachs, an investment bank who, in their first year of employment worked on average 98 hours a week and only managed 5 hours sleep a night!  The group suffered sharp declines in mental and physical health, but were, of course well paid!!

What can we take from this?  Well, don’t expect to see everyone working one day a week – the economy cannot operate nor can we prosper on such a short working week.  Second, avoid working 98 hours a week on a regular basis, for sure!  Third, take courage if, like the writer you have worked all your life into your 80’s, that it’s safe to (gradually?) reduce one’s hours to one day a week. 

[i] Economist, April 3rd 2021

[ii]  “Cut hours, not people: No work, furlough, short hours and mental health during the covid-19 pandemic in the UK”, by B. Burchell, S. Wang, D. Kamerade, L. Bessa & J. Rubery.

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