The UK has turned into a nation of workaholics, according to a new study, which says that many people simply cannot switch off from work.
Two thirds of those surveyed for the study, which was carried out by Avery Office & Consumer Products, said they often work at times they feel should be their own.
On top of this half of respondents said that even when they weren’t carrying out tasks related to their jobs they were often thinking about them during their leisure time.
The extent of this is shown by the fact that some people said they wrote emails before even getting up in the morning and responded to work calls after ten o’clock at night.
With work being the first thing which is thought of in the morning and the last consideration before bed it is easy to see why work is inescapable for much of the population.
Gregg Corbett, marketing director at Avery said: “What these results show is that the average person is finding it increasingly hard to get the right work life balance. Clearly a little escapism from work is both needed and deserved.”
The average amount of extra time a worker in the UK dedicates towards their jobs outside of their contracted hours is one hour and 13 minutes each day, according to the survey of 2,000 people.
Meanwhile the Trades Union Congress recently released figures suggesting that unpaid overtime accounted for a £29 billion boost to the economy.
Part of the motivation for putting in so much overtime is a lack of job security, as the survey found that a quarter of workers believe doing extra work will help to insulate them in case of redundancies.
Mr Corbett said: “With advances in mobile and wireless technology, we’re able to work almost anywhere and at any time – but just because we have the capability to work at any hour of the day, that doesn’t mean we should.”
