One in ten office workers have slept overnight at their desks over the past year, with a further 10% calling it a day between 12pm-3am as they try to tackle ever-growing workloads.
According to a poll undertaken by officebrokers.com, which helps companies find office space, some three out of five also regularly started work ahead of office hours, while two thirds worked through their lunch break. A further 56% worked late, with more than a third having left the office after 8pm during the last 12 months.
Another 45% regularly took work home in the evenings that they had not had time to complete during the day, while a worrying 4% even said that they were now working seven days a week to keep on top of things.
Jim Venables, managing director of officebroker, said: “What is clear from our research is that people are working longer than before, cramming in every spare second they can get to plough on with tasks. The fact that one in ten workers has slept overnight in the office is staggering and really shows that for many people a healthy work-life balance is far from a reality.”
But the survey also revealed that workers were not being adequately compensated for their pains. Some 58% of respondents indicated that their pay had either remained the same or fallen over the last year, even though 14% were working for more than 50 hours a week and one in eight spent six to 10 more hours in the office than they did two years ago.
