Stressed staff contribute average ten hours free labour a week

British employees contribute an extra £142 billion a year to their employers, by working on average, an unpaid ten extra hours per week. According to a study by Travelodge of 2,000 workers across the UK, nearly three quarters (72 per cent) routinely do the extra hours, which translates into an average saving of £6,635 for employers. So great is the trend, that one in ten workers cram a whole extra week of unpaid work on top of their normal working schedule so that they can manage their workload, and a third of Britons now work an additional 16 hours a week for free than they did prior to the start of the recession.

Within the last 12 months, 55 per cent of employees say they have missed a vital family celebration due to a work commitment, 66 per cent report soaring stress levels on a regular basis and 33 per cent find it difficult to get through their average working week.

Nearly half (46 per cent) of workers regularly carry on working after leaving their workplace, and more than a third regularly work most weekends. Interestingly it is more women than men that put in the extra hours over the weekend.  Over a third (34 per cent) of women confess to working ‘extra hours’ during the weekend compared to a quarter of men (24 per cent) who admit to logging on when they should be relaxing.

When it comes to the biggest workaholics across the UK, Londoners take the crown as workers across the capital are giving their bosses a generous contribution of an extra 12 hours of free labour a week.  Liverpool workers come in second place for giving their bosses a free contribution of 11.5 working hours a week and workers from Birmingham take third position in the workaholics table for giving their bosses an extra 10 hours of free working time.

Corinne Sweet, psychologist said: “This research is certainly a wake-up call for us to switch off our gadgets and get away from the clutter, pressure and stress of working life.  Cramming extra work into an already busy working week shows danger signs of us becoming a nation of workaholics, heading for serious psychological and physical ‘burnout’.”