I’m normally very good at minding my hours, so shall make a point of being down the pub on time this Friday for Work Your Proper Hours Day.
I tried this quiz for myself as I am now, and again as I was in my last job, where I did do some silly hours (and ended up giving myself RSI, which wasn’t very clever). I’m currently a “Chaos Theorist” (in other words, when I do unpaid overtime it’s often my own fault for being disorganised), but that’s a big improvement on my previous life as a wretched “Desk Junkie”.
Have a go, and see who you are and what problems you need to fix. It gives you some quite good advice on where you’re going wrong and what you need to tackle about it.
There are loads of different reasons for overworking, which combine to make a pretty whopping £23bn of free overtime done in the UK every year. Don’t make yourself one of the thousands who suffer every year from stress, broken relationships, work related illnesses, or even just a miserable social life. Even the best job in the world shouldn’t take up your life to the exclusion of everything else. See you in the pub 5:30 sharp on Friday!