Owners of businesses as well as senior managers are putting at risk not only their health but also their respective companies. They do this by working up to 100 hours a week.

This was the result of a survey recently commissioned by the Employment Law Advisory Services (ELAS), which revealed that more than a third of business owners and senior managers have admitted to routinely working more than 48 hours a week. This is the current limit set by the European Working Time Directive.

The UK has long been considered a nation of workaholics. The country’s political and business leaders have national reputations for working long hours. But apparently, this attitude is not only limited to their leaders.

Based on a survey of 600 small and medium sized businesses, it was discovered that at least 34 per cent of business owners and managers work more than 48 hours a week.

Of these, the average working week lasted around 58 hours. Some of the respondents even admitted to spending an average of 80 hours a week in the office – and that figure would sometimes rise to as much as 100 hours a week.

Company formation and business solutions experts have expressed concern over this finding saying that contrary to opinion that a workaholic attitude is good for business it actually has a detrimental effect. They said that apart from lowered morale, this practice only brings higher degrees of stress to employees and managers – this would then lead to more time off from work.

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