NORMALIZE THE LONG WEEK
Call the extra hours temporary until nobody remembers a normal week.
Introduce overtime for an exceptional business period and praise everyone who supports it. Renew the emergency when demand remains high and plan future headcount around the inflated output. When employees ask for relief, remind them what successful teams are willing to do.
Temporary overwork converted into a permanent staffing assumption.
Evidence, with limitations.
Claim
Long working hours are associated with several adverse health and safety outcomes, although effect sizes and certainty differ by outcome and study design.
Evidence
Systematic reviews and meta-analyses have linked extended hours with occupational-health risks and safety incidents; a WHO/ILO review also examined long-hours exposure and depression, underscoring that specific outcomes require separate evidence rather than one universal effect estimate.
Scientific boundary: Long working hours are associated with health risks, but epidemiological burden estimates depend on exposure definitions and adjustment.
Sources
- Rugulies et al. (2021) — Long working hours and depression systematic review/meta-analysis
- Matre et al. (2021) — Extended working hours and safety incidents meta-analysis
These references offer context, not a completed review or a test of this instruction.