Classic Rant #254 (May 12, 2010): Work, Work, Work, Work … Idle Hands Are the Devil’s Playground (?)

Here's another study that bears looking at.

In a study of more than 10,000 British civil servants, researchers have found that working 10 hours or more a day may harm your heart.

People who added three or more hours to a seven-hour workday had a 60-percent greater risk of heart attack, angina and death from cardiovascular disease than those who didn't work overtime. The results support evidence that longer work schedules can lead to poor heath and plays a greater role in heart disease.

Of course, no one would say that working a lot of hours each week can kill you, but evidently, if you want to believe this study, the human body needs time to rebound each day. You can't work all the time and expect that it won't negatively impact your health.

Personally, I think that there are other factors involved in wrecking the human body, but I can't argue that excess work doesn't hurt you. It clearly does. It brings on more stress, and when you have more stress, your sleeping patterns are also fouled up. The body regenerates itself when you are asleep, so if you aren't getting enough sleep, well, the body isn't being given enough time to make itself the best that it can be.

Me, I wake up at 4:30 a.m. each weekday morning, get ready for work, and I am in the office at about 6:10 a.m. each day. I work until 5:30 each day (not including days when I stay a little later for one reason or another), so I have a pretty full workday.

This is my choice. I am a pretty light sleeper anyway, and I have one bathroom with my wife and son next in line to use it. 'Nuff said.

But yes, I am probably not helping myself by working nearly 12 hours each day, not including commuting time.

On the weekend, I sleep a bit more, but my family is always in a rush to get things done, especially on Saturday, and especially if my wife has to work one day on the weekend, which she often does (I work on the weekend maybe two or three times each year).

So that is how it is. Everyone seems to be working more, but I guess we won't be able to enjoy it, because we will be in the ground from all of this work.

Is it all worth it?

I really don't know.

(It isn't. I didn't get my raise I told you about a while back, but I will ask again in a few months.)