Overtime is overdue an overhaul, according to our top Best Companies, who are keen to buck the worrying trend of working extra hours. Did you work overtime last week and is it a regular occurrence? Do you find yourself constantly going into work early and getting home too late to have dinner with your partner, see the kids or make it to social engagements?

Best Companies research shows that too many people are working far longer than is good for their health or their company’s productivity. Analysis of the overtime put in by employees of all organisations entering the competition over the past four years shows that, although there has been a fall in the number of people working up to 10 more hours than they are contracted to (a third of people do this), there has been a rise in the numbers of staff doing well over that.

The statistics show that more than one in 10 workers are putting in between 10 and 20 hours of overtime a week, while just over 2% of staff do between 20 and 30 hours over their contracted weekly hours. And the numbers putting in more than 30 hours extra has increased to 0.5%.

“Half a per cent may not sound like much but, across all workers in the UK, it would equate to 150,000 people,” says Dr Pete Bradon, head

of research at Best Companies Ltd. “This data is very worrying when you consider the effects of overtime on people’s lives.”

Of the top 10 firms whose staff work the least overtime across the Best Companies lists of small, mid-sized and big businesses, several involve employees working in people-focused jobs. When someone feels overworked, their sunny disposition is often the first thing to go. In a job where a lot rests on a smile, overtime has an effect on customer satisfaction.

St Wilfrid’s Hospice in Chichester is one of the few firms across all 220 Best Companies to boast a high number of employees who don’t work overtime — 80.7%. “We have standards of behaviour,” says chief executive Alison Moorey. “We expect anyone who comes into the hospice to be treated with smiles and courtesy. We all have to have a level of energy to do that.”

Putting in extra hours may relieve pressure at work but it leads to stress and disruption at home. Our research found that while 69% of employees doing no overtime report they are under too much pressure to perform well, this falls to 60% and below for those putting in extra hours to get through their in-tray. However, more of those doing the overtime feel stressed compared to those working just their contracted hours.

More than a third of those doing more than 10 hours’ overtime reported stress-related symptoms in the previous 12 months rising to 42% for those putting in more than 30 extra hours. That compares to just one in five of those who go home on time.

Putting in long hours to reduce workload can only ever be a short-term solution, says Bradon. “In the long term the work-hard, play-hard culture will either burn you out or kill you. It is hard to prove a causal link but it is very, very likely that work-related stress is more damaging than smoking.”

A recent study by researchers at University College London found that stress at work can increase the risk of a heart attack — the problems of staff under pressure were exacerbated because stress led to bad habits, such as poor diet and smoking.

And overtime destroys families as well as health. As extra hours increase, the percentage of people not happy with their work-life balance increases dramatically, from 33% for those doing up to 10 hours to 65% for those doing more than 30 hours’ overtime.

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