Is working overtime bad for your health?

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Specializes in ACE.

Lately I have been working a lot. Shifts are 8 hours, but I would pick up extra shifts, basically I am picking up shifts on the weekends I'm suppose to be off.

Now my mom is telling me not to pick up any shifts so I don't get "burnt out". I mean I'm 23 years old, anyone can get burnt out, but I feel good healthy, and vaccinated. Thing is the workload is pretty good I accepted these extra shifts because they need extra staff due to the suspected covid cases in our home. 

So in a 2 week period I should be getting 10 out of 14 shifts but lately its like 11-12/14 days. I don't feel burnt out. Feel pretty good, but is it important to rest even when your body isn't telling you too?

The reason why I want to work a lot is because where I live in Ontario everything is closed, nothing to do cannot even hang out with friends. Literally just stay home all day watch netflix etc... eventually that gets boring.

I had a family friend he has 2 teenage kids. he had 2 jobs one as a maintenance guy and one as a janitor he would work 16 hours a day 5 days a week.

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Specializes in Psych (25 years), Medical (15 years).
10 minutes ago, DribbleKing97 said:

I'm 23 years old

Nah, DribbleKing, at your age, don't worry about it.

But don't tell Mom that I said it was okay.

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Specializes in ACE.
16 minutes ago, Davey Do said:

Nah, DribbleKing, at your age, don't worry about it.

But don't tell Mom that I said it was okay.

LOL

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Specializes in ACE.
31 minutes ago, Davey Do said:

Nah, DribbleKing, at your age, don't worry about it.

But don't tell Mom that I said it was okay.

I won't. but I'll tell your mom it was okay ?

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Specializes in New Critical care NP, Critical care, Med-surg, LTC.

Working overtime is fine if it works for you. I regularly work 52-60 hours per week on night shift. When I worked eight hour shifts I regularly did 12 straight and then took off a weekend, now I have some 12s thrown in there and they mess it up. I'm fine with the extra hours for a few months and then I'll have a few shifts where I find myself crabby for "no reason" and then I realize the reason is that I've overdone it. Unfortunately, with the schedule coming out in one month blocks I've got to just work through it and then decide if I'm going to pick up in the next month. I'm significantly older than you are so I would imagine you are physically far more capable of handling the overtime than myself. I'm sure that your mother is very nice and she's just concerned about your health, but you're not guaranteed to burn out just because you work a lot of hours. Nurses can get burnt out for a variety of reasons, working as few or a many hours as they do, due to many different circumstances. Just find your right work/life balance and you'll be fine. Try to fit in a lunch with mom and she'll feel better!

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Specializes in ACE.
46 minutes ago, JBMmom said:

Working overtime is fine if it works for you. I regularly work 52-60 hours per week on night shift. When I worked eight hour shifts I regularly did 12 straight and then took off a weekend, now I have some 12s thrown in there and they mess it up. I'm fine with the extra hours for a few months and then I'll have a few shifts where I find myself crabby for "no reason" and then I realize the reason is that I've overdone it. Unfortunately, with the schedule coming out in one month blocks I've got to just work through it and then decide if I'm going to pick up in the next month. I'm significantly older than you are so I would imagine you are physically far more capable of handling the overtime than myself. I'm sure that your mother is very nice and she's just concerned about your health, but you're not guaranteed to burn out just because you work a lot of hours. Nurses can get burnt out for a variety of reasons, working as few or a many hours as they do, due to many different circumstances. Just find your right work/life balance and you'll be fine. Try to fit in a lunch with mom and she'll feel better!

thanks for your answer. I agree there are a lot of factors to burn out, even your life at home can contribute to it. my mom told me to rest while my dad said it should be fine since I am young.

I just don't want to do any inadvertent damage, but your opinion matters.

You work a lot of hours. Sometimes you are just needed.

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Specializes in Psych (25 years), Medical (15 years).
12 hours ago, DK123 said:

I won't. but I'll tell your mom it was okay ?

Not right now, please? She's resting.

In St. Patrick's cemetery.

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Specializes in Pediatrics, Pediatric Float, PICU, NICU.

There's nothing wrong with working overtime as long as it isn't effecting your mental (and physical) health. I go through spurts of overtime cycles where I pick up a whole bunch and then go a while without picking up anymore.

The only thing I would be concerned about, based on your previous posts, if working all these extra will increase some of the issues you already seem to be having. Other than that, go for it until your body tells you to take a break.

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Specializes in ACE.
2 hours ago, Davey Do said:

Not right now, please? She's resting.

In St. Patrick's cemetery.

???

45 minutes ago, JadedCPN said:

There's nothing wrong with working overtime as long as it isn't effecting your mental (and physical) health. I go through spurts of overtime cycles where I pick up a whole bunch and then go a while without picking up anymore.

The only thing I would be concerned about, based on your previous posts, if working all these extra will increase some of the issues you already seem to be having. Other than that, go for it until your body tells you to take a break.

Thanks. I just pick up shifts cause nowadays I feel grateful to be employed. Lots of people in other fields have lost their jobs.

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Specializes in ER, Pre-Op, PACU.

If you feel like you are doing fine with picking up shifts, then go for it. You will know if you are getting burnout. As another person mentioned, lots of things cause burnout, such as unsafe ratios, poor management, poor teamwork, etc. Not necessarily picking up more shifts. I am in a point in my career that I have no interest in picking up more shifts, but I think that’s my post ED self and other things going on in life. You will know when you reach burnout.

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Specializes in ACE.
1 hour ago, speedynurse said:

If you feel like you are doing fine with picking up shifts, then go for it. You will know if you are getting burnout. As another person mentioned, lots of things cause burnout, such as unsafe ratios, poor management, poor teamwork, etc. Not necessarily picking up more shifts. I am in a point in my career that I have no interest in picking up more shifts, but I think that’s my post ED self and other things going on in life. You will know when you reach burnout.

thanks so much. I agree with your answer! Much better than some of the people on here. We will see how it goes!!

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Specializes in orthopedic/trauma, Informatics, diabetes.

I work 12 hour shifts and pick up an occasional extra shift (one every pay period or so) I am not 23 (56 LOL) so I have to be careful not to get burned out. We are supposed to limited to 100 hours for a 2 week pay period, but many nurses have second PRN or even FT jobs. That scares me. That's perhaps 80 hours a week. That is setting yourself up for burn out. 

We are being offered some decent incentive pay to work an extra shift on the Covid units, but I haven't braved that yet. 

Let your body and mind tell you. Sometimes staying at home is more stressful to some. I am an introvert and need my time to myself. 

 

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