正視長工時

Many people in Hong Kong work for long hours and some even stay in the office overnight. Write an article for your school magazine examining two reasons for this phenomenon. You should also discuss the impact of this on the workers who continuously work overtime.

A nightmare for employees - prolonged working life

Gone are the days when employees did not have long working hours. According to an international study, Hong Kong has longest working hours of 71 cities; employees work for an average of 50.1 hours each week. This situation is very serious. It is high time to let us reflect the real reasons behind, and negative effects on this matter.

The external reason is the need to earn enough for living. First, Hong Kong has high price level. All things are pretty expensive, especially houses. Hong Kong price level raises rapidly. Also, base salary is slow, particularly for teenagers who don’t have relevant work experience. Their salary tends to be insufficient to support the living costs in Hong Kong. If employees get low salary, they may scrape a living and need to tighten their belt. In light of this, employees cannot help but work overtime to earn overtime pay. For instance, some bus drivers work overtime to earn extra money in order to make ends meet. They usually work two to three hours more in addition to their 12-hour daily shift. In the most extreme cases, drivers work both the early morning and night shift, whereas they can earn an extra HK$3000. It can be seen from this example that many people in Hong Kong work for long hours.

The hidden agenda for working long hours is striving for performance or promotion. Some people spend most of their time pursuing their career dreams and goals or to gain benefits such as salary raises and the like. Also, some employees have poor working efficiency, spending more time finishing same tasks which others can complete on time; thus, they need to pull an all-nighter in the office to complete it. Otherwise, their performance would be rated as bad and they may be fired. Moreover, some people yearn for approval and appreciation from their bosses or supervisors. In light of above-mentioned reasons, they work long hours willingly.

Whether to have long working hours is sometimes a matter of choice, prolonged working indeed has various impacts. If you know the consequences, you may not want to work for extensively long hours again. To begin with, people who work overtime constantly do not get adequate sleep. In the long term, a lack of sleep can easily cause fatigue or make one become less meticulous, therefore affecting their productivity and quality of work. Besides, if you always work under a busy environment, you may feel stressed and have a hectic lifestyle. You will not have time to sleep, not to mention to release stress. According to a survey by the University of Hong Kong, if you always feel stressed, you are more likely to suffer mental illnesses such as depression. Furthermore, long working hours means that you lead a sedentary lifestyle and have less time for exercise. It is more likely for you to have some physical illness, such as obesity, diabetes and heart disease. You might need to pay a heavy price for failing to maintain a good work-life balance.

All in all, it is no exaggeration to say that long working hours does more harm than good. The government should set up standard working hours which safeguards the interests of employees.

Poon Sing Man Simon 5B

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