New research commissioned by Opodo revealed today that nine out of ten of us are stressed out from work, two thirds of us work longer than the standard 35-hour week and just under half of us regularly work unpaid overtime.
The report suggests that two thirds (58%) of UK workers never take a proper lunch break and while almost all of us (94%) would welcome a weekend break as a way to relieve work stress, 1 in 10 of us failed to take a holiday last year, and almost 1 in 5 didn’t take their full holiday allowance.
Even weekends aren’t what they should be: half of respondents (55%) think about work on and off all weekend and a staggering three quarters of those working over 60 hours a week spend the entire weekend thinking about work.
However, this preoccupation with work doesn’t pay off: the report showed that most people have psychologically switched off for the weekend by Friday afternoon, with many using it as a time to gossip with colleagues (28%) or plan a weekend escape (21%). Nearly a fifth of urespondents are also pretending to look busy on a Friday afternoon but not actually working at all.
Two thirds of workers believe their personal relationships would improve if they had longer weekends, nearly half of us said we get more sex than usual when on weekend breaks and 1 in 10 have actually fallen in love with their partners all over again when on a weekend away.
