Working for long hours can not only take a toll on a person's body but it can also affect a person's mental state of well being. A recent study conducted found that women who work for over 55 hours a week were at a higher risk of developing depression as compared to men. The study was conducted on more than 20000 adults keeping factors like age, income, health and job characteristics into account. It was found that women who ended up working over 50 hours a week showed 7.3% more depressive symptoms than women working a standard 35-40 week.
It was even found that women who worked all or most weekends had 4.6% more depressive symptom as compared to women who did not work on weekends. “This is an observational study, so although we cannot establish the exact causes, we do know many women face the additional burden of doing a larger share of domestic labour than men, leading to extensive total work hours, added time pressures and overwhelming responsibilities,” said a researcher.
The researchers said that women on an average tend to be more prone to depression than men. "Independent of their working patterns, we also found that workers with the most depressive symptoms were older, on lower incomes, smokers, in physically demanding jobs, and who were dissatisfied at work... We hope our findings will encourage employers and policy-makers to think about how to reduce the burdens and increase support for women who work long or irregular hours -- without restricting their ability to work when they wish to,” the researchers added.
