Overkill from Overwork: Here’s One Simple Way to Prevent It

In 2017, a budding 31-year-old journalist from Japan never woke up. Miwa Sado suffered from heart failure despite being relatively healthy.

It turns out she died from what the country calls as karoshi. In English, it means death by overwork. She logged over 150 hours of overtime in one month, taking only two days of break.

In Japan, overworking is not unusual. The average working hours could reach over 1,700 a year. Unfortunately, it's not the only developed country to have exhausted employees. So does South Korea, whose people work more than 2,000 hours annually.

In comparison with these Asian nations, the United States might be a better lot. On average, employees work for around 38 hours a week. Note, though, that at least 11% of the workforce ended up rendering 50 hours weekly.

The Dangers of Overwork

Overwork leads to burnout and stress, and these two can lead to premature death. As a Harvard University article says, only those who experience it die young.

The article cited a UK study involving more than a million workers with either a heart attack or a stroke risk. The purpose is to determine the chances of dying from burnout and stress.

Based on their analysis, those who work for over 50 hours a week boosted their odds of a heart attack by 13%. The risk for stroke was higher, at 33%. These were their results, even if they also accounted for other possible factors like smoking and physical activity.

WebMD, meanwhile, published a post that corroborates the ill effects of overworking. Bryan Robinson, Ph.D., a psychologist in North Carolina, revealed that this behavior could be gripping.

It can lead to some addiction that significantly affects the quality of life. Like drugs or alcohol, overworking can also be debilitating to both mind and body.

An Underrated Way of Reducing Stress

The responsibility of stress management relies not only on the employees but also the employers. Even the government can have a role in it by crafting policies that help limit working hours.

While most companies now offer stress management programs, there's a straightforward step they can consider: commercial landscaping in South Denver.

More studies suggest how horticulture therapy can reduce feelings of tension, stress, and burnout. One of these is a 2017 research in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health.

In the study, the researchers rehabilitated 106 people with signs of depression, stress, and burnout. They were also out of employment for an average period of 3 years.

The researchers exposed these individuals to horticulture therapy in a specially designed garden for twenty-four weeks. They then tracked down who returned to work within a year. They discovered that a whopping 68% returned to their jobs or took specific duties. Others decided to work part-time.

The researchers considered different theories to explain the results. These include attention restoration theory that said humans could improve or return to their focus when they're exposed to nature. It takes more than time reduction to prevent overwork, but it might take a garden to help people deal with it more effectively.