Lineman for the bounty

As the year draws to a close, New Zealanders are working longer hours than ever before – and they’re exhausted. But experts say there is a new solution to workplace fatigue that could save lives. Anuja Nadkarni investigates.

Anthony Eggertsen had psyched himself into liking his job. He worked in high-pressure customer service at a US power company for half a decade. During power cuts he was the communication middle man between workers out in the field and top management, becoming a punching bag for the frustrations at both ends of the service line.

Every morning, he would give himself a pep talk as he walked through the office corridor to his desk. ‘‘I was like a light switch. I would prepare myself and then fake it for 12 hours.’’

Eggertsen says his job robbed him of his personal life. ‘‘I’m naturally a social person,’’ he says. ‘‘I was the guy that was always up to do something.

But I became the guy who just didn’t go out because I was afraid I’d be too tired at work the next day.’’

Eggertsen’s story isn’t unusual. A recent survey by

Seek found one in three New Zealanders felt their job was stressful and most took their work problems home.

Helena Cooper-Thomas, organisational psychology professor at Auckland University of Technology, says people who work too much risk damaging their personal and professional lives. Overwork can affect sleep patterns, incite anxiety and heart conditions as well as weaken immune systems and wear down relationships.

With New Zealand’s unemployment having sunk to a nine-year low, more people are working today, but at what cost to their own well-being?

Cooper-Thomas says new workforce flexibility allowing employees to take work into their homes is a double-edged sword. ‘‘You’re finding people are more autonomous in their jobs than ever before, but these are also jobs where people can’t disconnect and leave. There are constant deadlines and emails that won’t reply themselves.

‘‘With screens being quite addictive it’s far harder to end the day, because bright light keeps you awake and people aren’t as good at controlling when to go to bed because they’re not listening to their bodies.’’

The Wellness in the Workplace survey of 93,000 employees, published by insurance giant Southern Cross and BusinessNZ, finds New Zealand workers have experienced sharp increases in workplace stress in the past two years.

People are increasingly turning up to work when sick. Over 40 per cent of staff go to work sick, despite clear communication from employers to stay at home. This is especially common among staff of smallersized businesses.

Among the biggest causes of stress are excessive workloads, pressure to meet work targets, management style and workplace relationships – and long hours.

Eggertsen gained 10 kilograms in his previous job, working 12-hour shifts. He even worked a full 24 hours straight a few times. And when he did get home, he would think about work when he was in bed.

‘‘That’s zombie state when you do that,’’ he says. ‘‘I always kept my wife in the loop, so she always knew to be prepared. I tried to make it up to her when I could.’’

He felt like he was forced to work those hours because of his mortgage, and the pay.

Lack of sleep has also been linked to overeating of foods that are high in calories because the body looks for ways to replenish its energy levels.

Cooper-Thomas says bad sleep diminishes self-restraint and causes erratic changes in blood sugar levels.

Since leaving his power company job and moving to New Zealand, Eggertsen has been trying to get more active and reduce his skyhigh blood pressure and cholesterol.

Omar Ibrahim worked such long hours that his doctor told him he would die before reaching 40 if he did not change his ways. Ibrahim came to New Zealand from East Africa as a refugee almost a decade ago. But from 2012 to 2014 he worked two fulltime jobs and one part-time job as a cleaner to pay for his university course.

‘‘I needed that job without any qualifications and I was happy with that job but I wasn’t happy with the way I was treated and the low wages,’’ Ibrahim says. ‘‘That’s just unfair, the pay, dignity and respect is not there.’’ Some days Ibrahim went to work with just two or three hours of sleep and worked almost 90 hours a week. ‘‘I didn’t have a life . . . My immune system was so weak. If I got the flu I would be knocked down for weeks.

‘‘The doctor said ‘you’re killing yourself. You’re going to die soon’.’’

The Wellness in the Workplace survey found sick and stressed workers took 6.6 million working days off last year, costing employers as much as $1.5 billion.

The toll on Ibrahim’s health even in the short term was ‘‘absolutely deadly’’. ‘‘You can hurt yourself, or someone else, have an accident. I was sleeping while I was walking – I could have been hit by a car.’’

Once Ibrahim had saved enough to go to university he decided he would change his life and never work like that again.

‘‘You have to do what you have to do with some jobs, but if you have an option, and most do, don’t kill yourself.’’

Personal trainer Alana Joe flipped the switch to change her life around after her high-paying corporate career left her feeling empty on the inside.

‘‘I wanted to be a perfectionist, the best athlete, the best employee, the best aunty, I just wanted to give all I could to the people around me,’’

Joe says. ‘‘I was on the hamster wheel, I had everything but felt shallow.’’

Starting as an accountant for Price Waterhouse 23 years ago, Joe moved through several areas of the business world, eventually working for New Zealand Post in various roles for nine years.

Her final job, as a product manager, was unbelievably taxing, she says. She wanted to prove herself to her boss so she worked 60 to 80 hours a week for three years.

‘‘Part of it was saying yes to everyone,’’ she recalls.

‘‘I thought having a high-powered corporate job was success but if I really knew myself better and what I wanted intrinsically, and that was to have a healthy mind, then I would’ve said no and not given in to social pressures.’’

Joe thought her threshold was pretty high until she had a mental breakdown that left her seeking professional help.

Similarly, Kara Sweney swapped her fastpaced public relations and marketing career for a job as a yoga instructor after her mother’s death forced her to evaluate her own life.

Sweney worked in London for the better part of two decades but eventually tired of the hustle of the big city and decided to move back to New Zealand.

But the high pace continued. Consumed by trying to meet clients’ expectations and constantly having to find new ideas and marketing projects, Sweney spread herself too thin and started experiencing anxiety.

‘‘During client meetings I would get short of breath, my hands would start shaking. When I told my colleagues they couldn’t believe that I was going through that.’’

Her mother passed away from cancer 18 months after Sweney returned to New Zealand. The illness got her thinking about having a greater purpose in life than meeting targets and having busy schedules. After travelling for some time and training as a yoga teacher, Sweney bought a yoga studio in central Auckland two years and decided to run her own business.

‘‘The first six months were the hardest, I went through imposter syndrome, I made mistakes but it also brought me a lot of happiness,’’ Sweney says.

She has now struck a happy balance, running her studio fulltime and taking freelance marketing roles for events every so often.

‘‘I wanted to start my own yoga studio but also want to utilise the skills I had developed over all those years in my previous career.’’

The way employees recharge after work is crucial to helping the body and mind recover after a long day on the grind, says Professor CooperThomas.

For some that might be vegetating in front of the TV, doing hobbies that use their hands, colouring-in books, gardening, pottery. Diverting focus from work. For some people it might be learning a new language or dancing.

But Sweney still experiences stress when worrying about the future, despite spending years trying to use yoga as an outlet.

The silver bullet? Breathing. ‘‘We think too much. Things from work keep racing through our minds in bed, you just need to stop and breathe.’’

Earlier this year American researchers found a direct link between deep breathing and keeping calm. Stanford University scientists performed experiments on mice brains, removing neurons that control sighs and short breaths, similar to those in humans, and found that when mice were forced to take deeper breaths they were calmer.

Sweney says mindfulness apps are also a good way to practise breathing and stay in the present.

‘‘I remember practising it when I was starting out in the check-out queue or at the bank. Just reminding yourself to take a couple of deep breaths is like magic.’’

So before booking your flights to Bali and embarking on an expensive self-discovery journey, the start of a more blended work and personal life is remembering to stay in the present.

Take a breath.