The time at work that reduces the risk of mental health issues by 30 percent.
One day of work a week is all a person needs for the maximum boost to mental health.
Above eight hours a week, there is no further increase in well-being — although, of course, there will be an increase in the bank account.
Moving from unemployment to paid work of eight hours a week reduces the risk of mental health issues by 30 percent, the researchers found.
Therefore, the most effective ‘dose’ of work for well-being is around one day a week.
Dr Brendan Burchell, study co-author, said:
“We have effective dosage guides for everything from Vitamin C to hours of sleep in order to help us feel better, but this is the first time the question has been asked of paid work.
We know unemployment is often detrimental to people’s wellbeing, negatively affecting identity, status, time use, and sense of collective purpose.
We now have some idea of just how much paid work is needed to get the psychosocial benefits of employment — and it’s not that much at all.”
The conclusions come from a study of over 71,000 people in the UK whose working hours, mental health and life satisfaction were tracked over almost a decade.
The results showed that men’s well-being jumped 30 percent with eight hours paid work in comparison to being unemployed.
Women needed 20 hours for the same increase.
Dr Daiga Kamerāde, the study’s first author, said:
“In the next few decades we could see artificial intelligence, big data and robotics replace much of the paid work currently done by humans.
If there is not enough for everybody who wants to work full-time, we will have to rethink current norms.
This should include the redistribution of working hours, so everyone can get the mental health benefits of a job, even if that means we all work much shorter weeks.
Our findings are an important step in thinking what the minimum amount of paid work people might need in a future with little work to go round.”
In the article, the researchers dream of a five-day weekend or even doing only two hours work per day.
Dr Senhu Wang, study co-author, said:
“The traditional model, in which everyone works around 40 hours a week, was never based on how much work was good for people.
Our research suggests that micro-jobs provide the same psychological benefits as full-time jobs.
However, the quality of work will always be crucial. Jobs where employees are disrespected or subject to insecure or zero-hours contracts do not provide the same benefits to wellbeing, nor are they likely to in the future.”
Related
- 10 Brutal Workplace Truths: How Jobs Destroy Mental Health (P)
- The Psychological Reason Millions Are Miserable At Work (P)
The study was published in the journal Social Science & Medicine (Kamerāde et al., 2019).
