Overwork Quantified

Some affects are so ubiquitous that we accept them without question or challenge. Of course many people complain about having to go to work and that work seems to have taken over life. It is a surprise that it took so long for the data to be collected. Approximately 745,000 people died worldwide from overwork in 2016. That is significant and may only seem less so because of our current pandemic. Other such causes of death inspire large efforts and the budgets to support them. Instead, despite talk of work-life balance, overwork persists and continues to lead to degraded health. Even if degraded health doesn’t lead to death, the impact on general health is very likely to be increasing the cost of health care. Overwork is injuring us, as well as the economy.