Long working hours means you work more than 60 hours in a week. It can be a normal work time or normal work time plus overtime. Unfortunately this a reality in many countries, developed, developing or emerging. In Germany the normal weekly working hours are between 32 to 38.5 days. At the same time billions of hours of overtime is done every year. The European Union gives a maximum limit of 48 hours work in a week.

There are two risk factors in long working hours. At first the long working hours can be a problem itself. This means in these extra hours many accidents are happening. During the overtime at least 60% get hurt according to studies. Working more than 12 hours a day increases this risk more than 35%. A 60-hour week brought a 23% greater risk, the study of US records from 110,236 employment periods found. These risks were not necessarily associated with hazardous works. All are affected.

The work-related injuries are mostly cuts, burns and muscle injuries. More than half of these injuries have occurred during overtime or in the extended working hours.

There is also increased risk for health problems due to long working hours and they include:

• Depression
• Burnout syndrome
• Sleeplessness
• Back pain
• Heart problems

Long working hours are not only risky for you but also for others too. If you are too tired and make a car accident the others must also suffer. Your family suffers first. Is this the reason that the number of singles drastically increases in many countries?

We miss the social responsibility of the employers here. Interestingly the major reason for overtime is the bad organization in the working place. It is a big duty of the law-makers, trade unions and employers to find solution to this increasing problem.

One side there is millions or billions of hours overtime and the other side millions of unemployed people. This is difficult to understand for a normal person. Profit is the magic word which makes this problem. Hope bad employers get the depression first…