A survey of over 1,000 of the UK’s managers has revealed that nearly half work a day’s overtime each week, while 13% work two days extra per week. 53% of managers said that a high workload was their main reason for working overtime. Over three-quarters of staff regularly stayed late at the office or worked late at home in order to finish work, while half frequently worked through their lunch break and 38% worked at weekends. Only 13% of respondents said that they were satisfied with their work-life balance.

According to the survey by the Institute of Leadership and Management, nearly all workers (95%) worked outside of their contracted hours, and approximately two-thirds of employees felt pressured by their organisation to work overtime. This time is commonly spent catching up with emails, reading documents or dealing with urgent matters.

The ILM’s Chief Executive Charles Elvin expressed concern about the findings: ‘when you add up all the skipped lunch breaks, early morning conference calls and after hours emails you see just how widespread the extra hours culture is.’

He continued: ‘excessive hours are not sustainable – there are only so many times you can burn the midnight oil before your performance, decision making and wellbeing begin to suffer.’

The study results show that workplace culture in the UK is not helping workers to find a satisfactory work-life balance. The office environment itself should be built around increasing employees’ productivity within hours, so that there is less pressure on staff to work outside their normal hours. If you’d like to give your business interior a makeover, speak to Staples Advantage. We’ll find you fantastic deals on office furniture, facility solutions and office technology.

July 17th 2014 | Back to Industry Insights