Worldwide, the average number of overtime hours per week is almost equal to a whole working day, about seven extra hours per week. In the Netherlands this number is higher, about eight to twelve hours a week is worked overtime. This is according to international research conducted by Regus among more than 44,000 business people from more than 100 different countries.
Mondays are the most overtime worked by one in ten business professionals worldwide. In the Netherlands, however, Tuesday and Thursday are the days on which the most overtime is worked, 26% of Dutch employees work the longest on one of those days. On Fridays, just like the rest of the world, we prefer to start the weekend as early as possible and work the least overtime.
The work-life balance generally seems to be a long way off all over the world; 38% of business professionals say they work an average of a full working day of overtime every week. Overtime seems to be more the rule than the exception in the Netherlands. Only 13% say they work less than one hour overtime in a week. On the other hand, more than half of the Dutch (58%) indicate that they work at least six extra hours on top of their contract. Of these, no less than 16% work more than fifteen extra hours per week.
