I have already written an article about the new "chronoworking" trend. Essentially, it's about taking…
Can working hours kill?
I have repeatedly mentioned in my presentations that working hours can kill. It sounds brutal and exaggerated, but on closer inspection it is not at all. Most of the time, the reaction to my explanations was embarrassed silence; there was rarely any contradiction.
The fact is: working hours are the number one cause of too little sleep. Very few people are aware of this, as it has been normal since industrialization for us to be woken up by some kind of alarm clock in order to get to work on time. Since industrialization, working hours have been massively shortened, but almost exclusively towards the end of the day, i.e. the end of work has been pushed forward in order to “still get something out of the day!”
That’s not a bad thing in principle, but it’s only one side of the coin, because it doesn’t ensure more sleep. When it comes to working hours, it’s not just about the duration, but also about the timing. If you then put this in the context of chronotypes, a picture emerges that is particularly relevant for hazardous work.
The alarm clock stands as a quasi “reminder” of what can be caused, for example, by the requirements regarding the start of work. Employers are not aware that they actually bear the responsibility here, as sleep is predominantly seen as a private matter. “Just go to bed earlier” is the classic argument. However … this often doesn’t work biologically, as the position of our sleep/wake times is strongly genetic in nature, and falling asleep earlier is simply not possible due to a lack of melatonin, depending on the chronotype. Knowing this, however, means that employers can no longer use the excuse “I didn’t know that!”.
Alongside nutrition, working hours therefore offer the greatest leverage for improving sick leave, absenteeism and public health. In our COPEP® projects, we have already been able to scientifically prove that this works. The only thing … it is just so profoundly disruptive that many entrepreneurs (still) shy away from it.
However, if you take a consistent view of this situation, you could accuse companies of deliberately endangering health, e.g. as part of their obligations under the Health and Safety at Work Act, if they ignore the facts here. Above all, however, if the person actually suffers harm or it leads to an event that causes damage on a large scale (e.g. Chernobyl, Three Miles Island etc.), the company can be legally accused of negligence.
As just mentioned, this is made even more serious by the knowledge of chronotypes. If people in high-risk jobs, such as hazardous goods truck drivers, pilots or air traffic controllers, are not sufficiently examined for their chronotype, this may lead to legal consequences in the future, even as a preventive measure, but especially in the event of an accident.
Reason enough for me to ask ChatGPT the same question:
 |  |
Can working hours kill?
First of all: when we talk about working hours here, it’s not just about their length, but above all their timing. By the way, you can tell that I discuss a lot with the AI. But now to the answer:
“Yes, working hours can actually kill or at least have serious negative effects on health under certain circumstances. The link between working hours and health is a well-documented topic in occupational medicine and chronobiology. Here are some aspects that shed light on how working hours can be life-threatening:
1. chronic lack of sleep
Shift work, long working hours or working at night can significantly affect the duration and quality of sleep. Chronic sleep deprivation increases the risk of:
-Cardiovascular diseases (e.g. heart attack, high blood pressure)
-Diabetes
-Overweight
-Depression and anxiety disorders
In the long term, a lack of sufficient sleep can weaken the immune system and reduce life expectancy.
2. increased risk of accidents
Long or irregular working hours lead to exhaustion and concentration problems. Especially in professions with a high level of responsibility
(e.g. pilots, doctors, truck drivers) this can have fatal consequences:
– Traffic accidents due to fatigue
– Errors in safety-critical areas (e.g. medicine or construction)
3. chronic stress
Working hours that do not allow sufficient rest expose the body to chronic stress. This can lead to:
-Burnout
-Heart attack or stroke
-immunosuppression.
4. disruption of biological rhythms
Shift work throws our internal clocks out of sync, which is known as social jet lag. The health consequences range from metabolic syndrome to an increased risk of cancer, particularly breast and bowel cancer.
5. neglect of basic needs
Diet: Irregular meals or an unhealthy diet due to time pressure increase the risk of illness.
Exercise: Longer working hours can displace exercise and sport.
Social isolation: A lack of free time leads to less social contact, which promotes depression and loneliness.
6. extreme cases
Working hours can be directly fatal in extreme cases. Examples:
-Karōshi (Japanese for “death from overwork”): Many deaths from overwork have been documented in Japan, often from heart attacks or strokes.
-Cardiovascular collapse after excessive shift work or long working hours.
Conclusion
Working hours can kill indirectly through long-term health consequences or directly through accidents and extreme stress. This underlines the importance of working time regulations, health-promoting working conditions and the consideration of chronotypes and biological rhythms in order to protect the health of workers.
What to do?
There are now chronobiological solutions, such as COPEP® – chronotype-optimized personnel deployment or shift planning. There are two ways to achieve concrete progress here:
- To analyze working times for chronobiological situations and to optimize working times based on this by having an expert in this field (such as myself) accompany you. I have developed COPEP myself and successfully implemented it in the projects mentioned.
- employees as experts for COPEP® through our ChronoCoach® training.
