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Health

28th Sep 2019

Working on the weekend can mess with your mental health, study says

Olivia Hayes

We’re not going to lie, it’s always crap.

But no doubt everyone reading this has probably worked a few weekends in their life. Whether it was working in a bar or restaurant, in retail, in a newsroom or in a hotel – the world doesn’t stop on weekends so neither do you.

We all know how awful it can be – especially when your mates or family are all off having a great time and you’re stuck serving grumpy customers.

Well, a new study has found that working weekends can really mess with your mental health.

Researchers at UCL and Queen Mary University of London found that those working long hours and at weekends are at higher risk of depression – and women are at risk more so than men, too.

The survey analysed 20,000 workers and found that those who worked more than 55 hours per week displayed 7.3 percent more depressive symptoms.

4.6 percent of women who worked weekends also displayed depressive symptoms while 3.4 percent of men showed signs of depression.

Lead author of the study, Gill Weston said: “This is an observational study, so although we cannot establish the exact causes, we do know many women face the additional burden of doing a larger share of domestic labour than men, leading to extensive total work hours, added time pressures and overwhelming responsibilities.

“Independent of their working patterns, we also found that workers with the most depressive symptoms were older, on lower incomes, smokers, in physically demanding jobs, and who were dissatisfied at work.

“We hope our findings will encourage employers and policy-makers to think about how to reduce the burdens and increase support for women who work long or irregular hours – without restricting their ability to work when they wish to.”