Americans work 6 weeks of OT outside the office
People using their laptops outside the office.
/ Jewel Samad/Getty ImagesNearly 7 of 10 Americans won't go to sleep without first checking their work email, a recent survey by mobile software maker Good Technology revealed. Overall, 80 percent of employees in the U.S. continue to work an average of seven extra hours a week answering phone calls and checking their work email after they leave the office.
The additional time employees spend on work-related matters outside the office amounts to roughly an extra month-and-a-half of overtime a year, according to Digital Journal. This overtime is also affecting family time, with 57 percent of employees checking their work email on family outings and 38 percent checking messages while at the dinner table.
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Survey: The grim realities of your working hours
Such findings reflect an emerging workplace reality: Many Americans are spending more and more of their free time on work and less on leisure. At the end of 2011, 57 percent of employed Americans had unused vacation times, according to a Harris Interactive poll.
Other findings from the Good Technology survey, which polled 1,000 U.S. adults.
- The average American worker first checks her phone around 7:09 a.m.
- 68 percent of people check their work emails before 8 a.m.
- 50 percent check their work email while still in bed
- 40 percent do work email after 10 p.m.
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