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Working over 55 hours a week associated with higher risk of stroke, heart attack

bbc.co.uk

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Re: Working over 55 hours a week associated with higher risk of stroke, heart attack

#131

Post by bumby »

away314159265 wrote: post #63

We are living in a culture of overwork because work (esp. desk work) has lost all boundaries. I'm in academia and had been idealizing overwork for quite a while ("the noble goal of devoting your life to science!"), but now have to fend off becoming cynical about the culture (increasingly after a parent with a blue collar-company died shortly before their well-earned retirement, stress played a role here). I have met…

>continuous smart drug usage

How prevalent is this in academia? I've heard it's fairly common in tech circles but this is the first I've heard of it in academia (although I suppose it shouldn't be surprising in any field where intellectual acumen and ambition are both high).

Re: Working over 55 hours a week associated with higher risk of stroke, heart attack

#132

Post by bumby »

bottled_poe wrote: post #79
watwut wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Higher education does not make you less prone to cognitive bias. And education in one field does not make you accurate in another field.

I don’t believe you. Can you back that up?

Daniel Khaneman has done extensive work in cognitive biases and still admits it doesn't improve his ability to avoid them in himself. If someone well-educated in that specific field can't improve much, I doubt there can be claims that education in general is much help.

Re: Working over 55 hours a week associated with higher risk of stroke, heart attack

#133

Post by Damogran6 »

admissionsguy wrote: post #49
mrpopo wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I wonder if and how they managed to properly control for things like obesity or stress. Most middle-aged working professionals are in a terrible shape from my observations. Obesity and stress were considered both as a mediator and a confounder. Long working hours cause lack of sleep and bad eating habits. https://ars.els-cdn.com/content/image/1-s2.0-S01604120210022...

My comment was a bit foolish, actually. It has to be factors like that. It's not like the work itself magically kills a person. Though speaking as someone who strives to optimise his life for longevity with the single constraint of keeping working hours at a really high level, it does make the study much less meaningful.

You're exchanging hours of your life...hours you can't get back...for money that you may not be able to spend if you die early...due to exchanging hours of your life.

Re: Working over 55 hours a week associated with higher risk of stroke, heart attack

#134

Post by bumby »

drclau wrote: post #124
user-the-name wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Absolutely disagree. I think HN is massively blind to its own biases, and makes the wrong calls very often as a result.

Ok, I can accept that as a possibility. But here's a curiosity: why are you here, then? What do you derive from reading all the comments from people that are by default wrong? Isn't it a massive waste of your time to read large number of comments, just to occasionally find one that you agree with as being correct?

Not who you were originally replying to, but I find myself in a similar boat. I don't necessary add any more weight to a comment simply because its on HN.

But I do find HN useful in terms of randomly coming across topics that may be of tangential use in my work. Also, it tends to have more discussions that I'm interested in if I just want to blow off some steam on a forum and tends to have less vitriol than, say, a sub-Reddit

Re: Working over 55 hours a week associated with higher risk of stroke, heart attack

#135

Post by dragonelite »

bserge wrote: post #28
lnsru wrote: post #12

I would differentiate between “working” and “sitting in the office”. My grandfather was a passionate carpenter. His workweek was always at least 60 hours. Sourcing wood, visiting clients, organizing everything, etc. He was in good shape and died at 92 years age. Being forced to sit in the office 45 hours a week I don’t think that I reach age above 60 years. This sitting whole day in the noisy environment was destroyi…

My grandfather was a carpenter. Died at a good old age... with missing fingers, arthritis, back problems. I fucked my knees working in construction, actually every single person I know in that line of work has health problems. Wear and tear is just part of existence, at least an office job gives you the choice to keep physically healthy without overusing your body. Tbf, it's possible to do it in a trade, too, but it'…

Pretty much this, my friend circle mostly exist out of construction, army or farmers. And everybody had either knee or back problems before they reached 30.

Re: Working over 55 hours a week associated with higher risk of stroke, heart attack

#136

Post by agumonkey »

nathias wrote: post #126
agumonkey wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a few anecdotes like that: - 39h/week at a truck dismantling warehouse (very heavy duty stuff) I was fresh like a dolphin (was doing pushups during pauses to get ready for the next shift, pretty telling), had to leave after harassment, missed that job a lot. - part time gig as morning newspaper delivery, couldn't be easier on paper.. couldn't last more than 2 months due to very peculiar stress that driving and…

If you are paid for it, it's a job.

It's an important factor. How does this affect people.

For the same task t:

You're paid a lot

You're paid a little

You're volunteering for zero benefits

How does this impact your emotions and we'll being long term ?

Re: Working over 55 hours a week associated with higher risk of stroke, heart attack

#137

Post by drclau »

bumby wrote: post #134
drclau wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ok, I can accept that as a possibility. But here's a curiosity: why are you here, then? What do you derive from reading all the comments from people that are by default wrong? Isn't it a massive waste of your time to read large number of comments, just to occasionally find one that you agree with as being correct?

Not who you were originally replying to, but I find myself in a similar boat. I don't necessary add any more weight to a comment simply because its on HN. But I do find HN useful in terms of randomly coming across topics that may be of tangential use in my work. Also, it tends to have more discussions that I'm interested in if I just want to blow off some steam on a forum and tends to have less vitriol than, say, a s…

I am here for similar reasons, and I don't spend much time anywhere else, again for reasons similar to yours. On average, I found HN to be good, and that I believe is due to the people who contribute here. And I am rather surprised to see that some people have such a bad impression of the overall quality of the contributors.

Maybe it's due to my approach to HN comments: if I find something interesting, I read, upvote and dive further into the thread; sometimes I comment. Otherwise, I move on.

Re: Working over 55 hours a week associated with higher risk of stroke, heart attack

#138

Post by tk75x »

535188B17C93743 wrote: post #85
leipert wrote: post #17

The Japanese even have a word for it: Karoshi. > which can be translated literally as "overwork death", […] The most common medical causes of karoshi deaths are heart attacks or strokes due to stress and a starvation diet. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karoshi

The Japanese and the Germans are something else with their brilliant words for random things.

Seems like a common function in languages that utilize compound words for many things.

Re: Working over 55 hours a week associated with higher risk of stroke, heart attack

#139

Post by ploika »

JohnPrine wrote: post #87
lmarcos wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agree. A bit off topic: living in a foreign country allows you to progressively discover those little differences in comparison to your own country: the way people say good morning, the way people wait (or not) for the light to turn green, paper bags or plastic ones for grocery shopping?... I find those popular places (e.g., Yosemite, Eiffel tower, etc.) to be the less interesting parts of foreign countries. But sure…

I find it hard to believe that anyone could visit Yosemite and not find it to be one of the best parts of the USA

I think you're talking about different things.

Yosemite could be breathtaking, but not interesting (because it feels very foreign) the way that a huge high school football game or a typical American diner might be interesting to non-American eyes.

(In case it's not obvious, I've never been to the USA)

Re: Working over 55 hours a week associated with higher risk of stroke, heart attack

#140

Post by philmcp »

akersten wrote: post #105
philmcp wrote: post #33

In years to come we will look down on current working conditions in the same way we currently do with 15hr factory shifts during the industrial revolution. As a step in the right direction, I believe that most jobs should be offered on either 4 days (80% salary) or 5 day (100% salary) contracts. On this topic, I recently built https://4dayweek.io - Software Jobs with a better work / life balance

> In years to come we will look down on current working conditions in the same way we currently do with 15hr factory shifts during the industrial revolution. Absolutely agreed. Working for someone else for 8 of the best hours of the day (if you're lucky, and not pressured into 9 or 10 hours), plus the surrounding 1 hour on either side to get ready/commute, for 5/7 of the days of the week, is no way to live. > most jo…

I'm totally with you, although if I'm being honest I think the fairer amount would be 90-95% of salary for 4 days.

The only reason I'm pushing for 4 days (80% salary) or 5 days (100% salary) is to try and get companies on board. Working a 4 day week is still a taboo topic to most c-suites - I think a small reduction in salary would be a good "first step" towards normalising the 4 day week @ ~100% salary.

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