Good for the Career, Bad for the Soul

These days working long hours can seem like a necessary evil in order to get ahead. While impressing your boss through workaholism can be exhausting, studies show that the long hours put in by many young professionals do usually pay off in the long run when it comes to compensation.

In a study conducted Dora Gicheva from the Bryan School of Business and Economics at the University of North Carolina-Greensboro, it was found there is a positive (though non-linear) relationship between extra weekly hours and annual wage growth.

According to Gicheva, for workers putting in over 47 hours a week on the job, the five extra hours are generally associated with 1% wage growth each year. This data relationship is apparently especially strong for young professionals.

While Gicheva’s study appears to confirm the age old saying that hard work pays off, it doesn’t address the negative impacts that long hours and frequent weekend work days can have on your well-being. In one British study published in the journal PLoS One, data collected over a five year period showed that men and women who were routinely working 11 hours per day had double the risk of developing depression compared to those working an average eight our day.

This study’s findings were echoed in a (fairly) recent article in Business Insider by Jenna Goudreau who argues working 6 day work weeks is a “terrible idea”:

Decades of research supports the 40-hour workweek and shows that working longer can lead to serious negative effects on health, family life, and productivity.

Studies show that, over time, working long hours can increase your risk of depressionheart attack, and heart disease.

The New Formula for Workaholics

So where does that leave ambitious young professionals who are eager to achieve their career potential yesterday?

These days many Millenials are blending their work, passions and home life into a seamless a career experience. Passion projects (like this one) blend with the 9-5 job, off-hours job responsibilities (read the endless flood of emails), volunteer commitments and other family and friend responsibilities. None of these responsibilities are self-contained and all of them play a part in advancing your career and personal potential.

Sound like an interesting concept? Here are three tips to start making it happen in your own life:

Arrive Early (Like Really Early)

It may seem like a horrible idea when the alarm goes off at 6 AM in the morning, but think about how much more you can get done with an extra 2 hours of prime “thinking time”. Don’t take it from me. Getting up early is exactly what real-estate marketing tycoon Bob Rennie says was a recipe for his success when he rose at the crack of dawn to be the only marketer having breakfast each morning with the local contractors throwing up Vancouver-specials all over the City. The added bonus to an early rise is it will free you up for passion projects, volunteering and leadership opportunities beyond your 9-5 job.

Diversify your workaholism

You may be working 12 hour days, but the variety of work – and how it aligns with your passions – and diversity of what you’re doing inoculates you from the depression and isolation of being locked away in a cubicle trying to please your workaholic boss with the same tactics as the other 11 interns/juniors in your department.

Bring Your Network to Work

Show that your commitments beyond 9-5 bring in new hires, clients, and showcase your brand better than your buddies who work until 11pm and then talk about spreadsheets while bemoaning the drudge work and monotony that is their working life.

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