Does a Mandatory Reduction of Standard Working Hours Improve Employees' Health Status?

Abstract

Most of the empirical evidence regarding the impact of reductions of standard working hours analyzes its effects on employment outcomes, family life balance, and social networks, but there is no empirical evidence of its effects on health outcomes. This study uses panel data for France and Portugal and exploits the exogenous variation of working hours coming from labor regulation and estimates its impact on health outcomes (from 39 to 35 hours a week and from 44 to 40 hours a week, respectively). Results suggest that the mandatory reduction of standard working hours decreased the working hours of treated individuals (and not the hours of individuals in the control group). Results also suggest that the fact of being treated generated a negative (positive) effect on young males’ (females’) health in France. No effects on health outcomes were found for Portugal.

Work during COVID-19: assessing the influence of job demands and resources on practical and psychological outcomes for employees

“…Further, improved work-life balance because of these resources may have led to a reduction in work exhaustion for an individual like previous research reported that autonomy that comes with telecommuting helps in mitigating workload pressure, exhaustion and further the negative impacts (Sardeshmukh et al , 2012; Allen et al , 2015; Gajendran et al , 2015; Vander Elst et al , 2017). As recent studies also found that, telecommuting improves well-being when the work arrangement is employee-centric (Sánchez, 2017; Avgoustaki and Frankort, 2018) and this also helps the organization in the long run because improved well-being increases performance and productivity and employees are less likely to quit (Magnier-Watanabe et al , 2020).…”

Examining the link between flexible working arrangement bundles and employee work effort

“…This result has further implications. Given that employee well-being is tied to work effort (Avgoustaki & Frankort, 2018;Sánchez, 2017), employees will be better off using such practices. Indirectly, employers will be better off too, as employees with improved well-being are more likely to be productive and less likely to quit their jobs (Anderson et al, 2002).…”

Implications of Work Effort and Discretion for Employee Well-Being and Career-Related Outcomes: An Integrative Assessment

“…The core idea is that work effort of either kind is associated with reduced well-being, through several mechanisms. Overtime work prolongs an employee's exposure to workplace stressors and, by shortening the periods when an employee rests, decreases the ability to recover between working days (Sánchez 2017). Work intensity instead reduces or eliminates gaps between tasks during which the body or mind can rest, thus decreasing the employee's ability to recover during working days (Green 2001).…”

“…Others have argued that high effort levels might not be of a productive kind because work effort is subject to decreasing marginal returns (Chapman 1909;Green 2001Green , 2004b. Convergent with this idea, available evidence suggests that productivity decreases as working hours increase (Pencavel 2015), which can be attributed to the reduced opportunity for physical, mental, and emotional recovery associated with overtime work (Pencavel 2016;Sánchez 2017). Limited recovery in turn reduces the ability for sustained performance at a high cognitive level and increases the likelihood of mistakes, accidents, and injuries (e.g., Dembe, Erickson, Delbos, and Banks 2005;Folkard and Lombardi 2006).…”