Nowadays, people are putting an importance on being financially successful, especially now that inflation is rising. And so, the culture of hustling has become a trend – long hours within workplace are also introduced. But many are torn as long hours of working days would likely to result in a negative social consequence.
I do agree with this notion. This is because having long working hours means that most of the workers’ time would be spent on working with minimum socialization. Thus, the potential of isolation and solely dedicating life for work. With no peers to socialize with and lots of time dedicated for work, workers’ mental health would be jeopardized, which in most cases would lead in suicidal attempts. This happens in countries with rigorous working hours and demands such as China and Japan. The fact that it happens so often, it had become normalized by the society. In Japan itself, the term “Karoshi” which means overworked to death has been normalized so much that the Japanese are unphased when they saw dead bodies in busy places such as train stations or within offices. The unphased manners of the citizens around Japan, that prioritizes working over everything, is also a part of the impact of overworking time that drew people to be more individualistic, considering the isolation from networking with other humans.
Long hours at work would also damage social networking collectively, considering that people are more interested in their own goals and pursues compared to a harmonious relationship between a society. This cause is understandable as many are working to make ends meet or to support their family’s living, especially that now many necessities especially education and health care are considerably costly. As such, many families’ backbone would rather work many hours or even take a couple of jobs altogether to support their family. But even so, this could impair one’s health physically, as well as relationship within the family and society. With the growth of individualistic community that is currently built on and normalized, the threat of having a society that longs to work together for a greater good continues to bloom.
All in all, I agree with the notion of having to work long hours do bring negative social consequences that would continue threaten the well-being of the residence, even if it would help them greatly achieve financial freedom.