Almost three quarters (71 per cent) of office staff are so overwhelmed with work they have to put in 180 extra hours every year, according to new research.
Brits spend on average, an extra 44 minutes every week – that’s 36 hours annually – checking emails, answering phone calls and completing other tasks originally scheduled for their contracted hours.
Over 51 hours a year are spent working late, with two thirds (63 per cent) of staff still in the office after hours at least once a week, while 6 per cent never go home on time.
Employees are also having to toil away while they dine ‘al desko’, with average worker grafting through lunchtime 2 days a week totalling 93 hours a year, while over half (53 per cent) don’t escape the office for the entire day and 16 per cent don’t get any screen breaks all day.
The shocking statistics, gathered by printer and ink suppliers Printerland.co.uk, finds that even during their hard-earned leisure time staff can struggle to relax.
Of the 2,000 surveyed, one in three workers would take business calls whilst on holiday, one in five would leave a family dinner early and 13 per cent would risk answering a call in the bath.
And it’s not just the office staff who are under pressure to perform. A fifth (21 per cent) of their other halves say their relationship is in trouble due to additional work commitments, and a staggering 9 per cent of those questioned confessed they would answer work calls during sex.
But all the hard graft is not paying off for one in five Brits (21 per cent) who admit they have taken time off work with a stress-related illness.
Catherine Bannan, HR manager at Printerland.co.uk says, ‘It’s important to take time out of work to enjoy time with family and friends.
‘It’s one thing to work an extremely long day with extra hours once every now and again in order to meet a deadline or deal with a crisis, but it’s another story to make a routine out of staying late.
‘Overworking can result in tiredness and mistakes being made, as well as having severely negative impacts on your health, happiness and quality of life – so to increase productivity, you need to make sure you leave work at work when you go home.’
Further reading on working extra hours
