The trend towards working for long hours has become popular in different parts of the world. While there are various reasons why people invest more time at work, I believe that it is a negative trend that can lead to physical and mental consequences.
One of the factors that make workers spend long hours at work is that they receive relatively low basic income insufficient to fulfill their needs. In some countries, people are not paid well, forcing them to take extra hours to gain more money. For instance, many labours in China must work longer; because they do not receive adequate salary. If they only worked 40 hours per week, they would not be able to meet their needs. Another reason is related to people’s fancy life style in certain countries, making it impossible to survive without them investing extra hours at work.
Despite the reasons mentioned above, I believe that working longer than it is supposed to be can bring some physical and mental drawbacks. Physically, employers who overwork tend to have less time to have proper rest. Not only is it difficult for them to have adequate time to sleep, but it is also unlikely for the joints and the muscles to get full recovery. Without careful attention, spending long hours at work can result in serious illness, such as fatigue, headache, and high blood pressure. In terms of mental impacts, having non-ideal working duration intensively can also inflict anxiety and stress.
To sum up, low basic income and fancy life-style can be the governing factors of people’s decision to work extra time. However, due to the physical and mental issues that workers may face, I believe that such a trend is negative and should not ne normalised.