Why Is a 9–5 Job Unhealthy?

Do you hate your 9–5 job?

Do you not feel motivated to go to the office?

If you have answered ‘yes’ to the above-mentioned questions, then you are not alone in this.

Before moving forward, I want to ask one more question: do you know why 9–5 timings were decided for jobs?

No, right?

Don’t worry, I will tell you.

These 9–5 job timings i.e. 8 hours were decided for work as they make 1/3rd portion of a day. The idea was that people should have 2/3rd time of a day for their personal life to maintain a healthy work-life balance. However, in today’s world, this has proved severely wrong. This 9–5 job has destroyed the work-life balance and therefore, it is often considered as a ‘modern slavery.’

A lot of people suffer from job stress. Your 9–5 job can be harmful to your physical and emotional health due to the following reasons:

1. Decreases Physical Health

Sitting for extra hours in offices is very common. Employers also have a wrong bias that employees who are sitting for long hours are hard workers. This forces employees to put in extra hours. However, these long hours can be unhealthy. Sitting for long hours can result in back and neck pain. It is hurting your body. The long office hours leave little time for exercise and physical activities.

2. Diminishes Mental Capabilities

By constantly working, you aren’t giving your brain the time to recharge and refresh. It reduces your creativity and can harm your mental capabilities as well. Companies say that they hire fresh blood to get new ideas. This can also mean that current employees who are working for 9–5 have less creativity.

Other than this, your toxic boss can also damage your mental capacities.

3. Affects Posture

Your job might lead to poor posture. Your posture i.e. the way you sit on your chair facing the computer screen also has an impact on your health. It can be weakening your eyesight if the screen is near or above your eye level. Poor posture puts stress on certain joints and muscles that can cause fatigue. Continuous poor posture may also result in chronic pain or misalignment in your spine.

4. Impairs Blood Circulation

If you don’t have any physical activity in the office and you only do desk work, then, unfortunately, it leads to poor blood circulation. It is impacting your health. You may get varicose veins due to this. Additionally, it will also result in decreased energy level causing fatigue more quickly.

5. Compromises Emotional Wellbeing

Your 9–5 job is unhealthy. The long hours of your job can cause stress and depression. The boring work environment may lead you to feel unfulfilled and unsatisfied. It can ruin one’s mood as well. You feel yourself under constant pressure that you might lose your job due to poor work performance, your skills becoming an obsolete or economic recession.

Job stress is a serious phenomenon. The office’s politics can become toxic and prove to be unhealthy. Unfortunately, you can’t escape it as long as you are a part of the organization. You will have to work with people you hate. Thus, your 9–5 job is proving to be unhealthy for your emotional wellbeing.

6. Destroys Oral Health

Do you know currently studies are being done to find out the link between job stress and poor oral health? It is expected that oral health symptoms may be caused by job stress. Your poor posture can misalign your posture, along with impairing your bite pattern. There’s a possibility that temporomandibular joints can also get negatively affected by the 9–5 job.