Get your head down, nobody’s looking…

One in ten have slept in the office, a survey reveals Britain’s office workers are spending more hours than ever at work, with one in ten having slept overnight at their desks.

The poll, run by officebroker.com, market leaders in helping businesses find office space, also found that an alarming four percent of employees were working seven days a week. It’s thought company cost-cutting has resulted in an extra burden being placed on workers with nearly three quarters of those polled stating their workload had increased during the last twelve months. Contracted working hours were also in the spotlight with 60 percent of respondents stating they commenced work before their official start time. More than two thirds of those polled regularly worked through their lunch break, with 56 percent admitting to frequently leaving the office later than agreed.

And for many workers leaving the office didn’t signal the end of the working day with 45 percent of those polled stating they regularly took work home to complete in the evenings which they haven’t found time to look at during ‘normal’ working hours. The poll also revealed that staff members were not being fairly rewarded for taking on extra duties, with 58 percent stating that their pay had stayed the same or decreased during the last 12 months. Many firms are relying on their staff to do unpaid overtime, with 14 percent of those polled admitting to working more than 50 hours per week with one in eight workers spending between six to ten additional hours a week in the office when compared to two years ago.

In addition to the ten per cent of workers who admitted to having slept in the office, more than a third of workers admitted to having left the office after 8pm with a further ten per cent stating they called it a day between midnight and 3am during the last year. Jim Venables, from officebroker.com, says the findings highlight a growing trend amongst UK employers. He 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.”  “Many employers would argue that taking on extra work for extra money is a fair trade and few would disagree, however more than half of those polled said they hadn’t received any pay increase for extra work taken on in the past year.” He concluded: “Hopefully as the economy continues its slow recovery workers will be placed under less demanding schedules.”