Excessive unpaid overtime contributing to worker’s stress levels, claims survey ⁰

Almost three quarters (71 percent) of office staff are so overwhelmed with work they have to put in an 180 extra unpaid hours every year, according to a survey from Printerland. British workers spend on average, an extra 44 minutes every week – that’s 36 hours annually – checking emails, answering phone calls and completing other tasks outside their contracted hours. Over 51 hours a year are spent working late, with two thirds (63 percent) of staff still in the office after hours at least once a week, while 6 percent never go home on time. Many employees are also dining ‘al desko’, with average through lunchtime 2 days a week totalling 93 hours a year, while over half (53 percent) don’t escape the office for the entire day and 16 percent don’t get any screen breaks all day.

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 percent 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 percent) of their other halves say their relationship is in trouble due to additional work commitments, and 9 percent 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 percent) who admit they have taken time off work with a stress-related illness.