Elon Musk declares US govt department DOGE works 120 hours per week; here’s how it may affect health

Unsurprisingly, Musk’s remarks invited mixed reactions online. While immoderate users applauded his “hustle culture” mentality, others were speedy to telephone him a “terrible boss.” One idiosyncratic adjacent pointed retired the irony of Musk’s claim, stating that the DOGE website remains bare contempt employees allegedly moving 120 hours per week.

DOGE is moving 120 hr a week. Our bureaucratic opponents optimistically enactment 40 hours a week. That is wherefore they are losing truthful fast. https://t.co/dXtrL5rj1K

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 2, 2025

Musk’s comments travel amid an ongoing statement astir enactment hours successful India aft L&T president SN Subrahmanyan suggested a 90-hour workweek and Infosys co-founder Narayana Murthy projected a 70-hour workweek—both of which sparked a large backlash.

Musk formed DOGE successful practice with the Trump medication with the stated extremity of uncovering ways to occurrence national workers, chopped programmes and slash national regulations. (Reuters Photo)

What happens erstwhile you enactment 120 hours a week?

To enactment things into perspective, a 120-hour workweek means moving much than 17 hours a day, each azygous day. But is this level of productivity sustainable—or adjacent healthy?

We spoke to Srishti Vatsa, a counselling psychologist, who explained that pushing the quality assemblage beyond its limits for prolonged periods has superior intelligence and carnal consequences.

1. Sleep Deprivation and Physical Exhaustion

Working excessive hours disrupts the body’s earthy slumber cycle, starring to chronic exhaustion and reliance connected stimulants similar caffeine to enactment awake. “The body’s rhythms get thrown off, and inconsistent remainder leads to semipermanent wellness risks,” Vatsa warns.

2. Declining Mental Health and Emotional Suppression

Sleep deprivation weakens immunity, reduces focus, and affects decision-making abilities. It tin besides pb to affectional suppression—where anger, resentment, and accent physique up inside, manifesting arsenic hostility headaches, digestive issues, oregon chronic fatigue.

3. Strained Personal Relationships

Extreme enactment schedules often permission individuals emotionally disconnected from their loved ones. “The encephalon becomes overwhelmed with enactment demands and struggles to sorb idiosyncratic conversations. This tin permission household members feeling unheard, undervalued, and disconnected.

4. Carrying Workplace Stress Home

Workplace accent doesn’t conscionable enactment astatine work—it follows employees home. Vatsa warns that parents who enactment excessively whitethorn not beryllium mentally contiguous for their children, starring to affectional shutdown and strained household dynamics.

5. Disengagement and “Silent Quitting”

Ironically, overworked employees often extremity up disengaging from enactment altogether. “People whitethorn amusement up physically but lend the bare minimum,” Vatsa explains. This tin pb to passive quitting, wherever employees unreal to enactment but really discarded time—a signifier of subtle rebellion against an unsustainable system.

The verdict: Hard enactment vs. burnout

While dedication and ambition are valuable, probe overwhelmingly shows that excessive enactment hours pb to burnout, wellness issues, and decreased productivity successful the agelong run. A sustainable work-life balance—not utmost workweeks—is cardinal to semipermanent occurrence and well-being.

Musk’s “weekend warriors” mentality whitethorn enactment for some, but for most, moving 120 hours a week isn’t a superpower—it’s a look for burnout.