By: Anuradha
“I don’t like the work-no man does- but I like what is in work-the chance to find yourself. your reality-for yourself not for others-what no other man can ever know. They can only see the mere show and never can tell what it means” –Joseph Conard, Heart of Darkness.
If you are someone who is looking for inspiration, then you would not need anything else other than these words of Joseph Conard.
But can we all put all our heart and love to our work almost all the time? you might love your job like nothing but there would sure be times where you don’t feel like working anymore and here is the reason why you feel so:
When we age, our body also loses its vigor and strength with time and even though you might not be aware, you slowly lose your concentration and ability to work. You will lose the determination to work harder and the enthusiasm that you had in your early days will not be there any longer. But, this is perfectly natural and normal because your body is also a type of machine and with time it shows a reduction in its efficiency.
Recent research published in the Melbourne Institute Worker Paper Series state that people over 40 shouldn’t work a full 5-day working week.
Research says that employees who are 40 or older shows the highest rate of their performances rates if they work three days a week and this is recommended as the time they should be working at their age.
The study was conducted by the scientist from the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research and they published these results after examining working habits and results of brain tests of about 3,000 men and 3,500 women in Australia who were 40 years old or above than that.
They researched on people’s financial and moral well-being, their family structures and the job that they were doing.
After a detailed analysis, researchers found out that 30-hour weekly is beneficial to the cognitive function at a later stage, but workers who exceed the 30 working hours a week shows a declination in their performance.
It was revealed that people who exceed 55 working hours a week show a more significant cognitive decrease than the ones who are not working.
The opinion of the three authors of the research was published in The Independent and Professor Colin McKenzie from Keio University said that:
“Many countries are going to raise their retirement ages by delaying the age at which people are eligible to start receiving pension benefits. This means that more people continue to work in the later stages of their life.
The degree of intellectual stimulation may depend on working hours. Work can be a double-edged sword, in that it can stimulate brain activity, but at the same time, long working hours can cause fatigue and stress, which potentially damage cognitive functions. We point out that differences in working hours are important for maintaining cognitive functioning in middle-aged and elderly adults. That means that in middle and older age, working part-time could be effective in maintaining cognitive ability”.
So each and every country in the world must pay attention to the working age of their employees and it will not harm only the employees but also the productivity rate of the country.
