A report published by City, University of London has analysed data from almost 52,000 employees across 38 different European countries and concluded that too much work and too little relaxation can damage your career prospects and damage your health. In short, hard work will not always yield rewards.

Underlying the study, as reported by the World Economic Forum, is the need for humans to have both physical and mental rest in order to recover between tasks, otherwise, they can become stressed and fatigued with obvious implications for productivity.

Investigation of the differences considered factors including access to training, task uncertainty, recognition, satisfaction, teamwork, employee discretion, and the authors point out there may also be other contributing factors: high-performing employees may garner more leniency from their managers, for example, while those who struggle come under more pressure to increase their efforts even though their chances of progression are lower.

As is almost universally true, the reality is far more complex than it at first seems. But the report’s findings were weighted to take some of these variables into account and limit their effect on the overall conclusions. One of the most important factors identified was employee discretion, ie having the flexibility and autonomy to choose when a task would be completed.

Conversely, rigid deadlines and tight schedules make sense where project management milestones are concerned, but they can add unproductive stress – especially if the need to hit a deadline begins to supersede the desire to do high-quality work. This can lead to diminished fulfilment and greater levels of anxiety and dissatisfaction.

Employee well-being is set to become increasingly relevant as the role of automation shapes much of the conversation about the future of work. There have already been moves to limit working hours in South Korea and Japan, both of which have a culture of long hours coupled with relatively low productivity per capita.

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