September means back to school for the kids and back to work for professionals. And unfortunately, according to the latest research by Regus many can expect to put in long hours during the upcoming year with 41 per cent of Canadian professionals saying they work a full extra day or more of overtime each week.

The research by global workplace provider, Regus, which surveys over 44,000 business people from more than 100 countries, found that worldwide, working long hours has become the norm with most workers putting in at least a small amount of overtime every week. Canada is no different with workers here putting in more hours than the global average.

The majority of Canadians who work overtime are putting in a whopping 8-12 hours more each week, compared to globally where the majority report doing around 2 – 4 hours more each week. Additionally, 16 per cent of Canadians are teetering close to burn out and putting in over 15 hours, basically working the equivalent of a seven-day week.

Workers report the day they are most likely to put in overtime hours is Monday (18%) when they likely want to catch up from the weekend and get ahead of the week, while Friday people are keen to get out and start the weekend with only 7 per cent reporting they work longer hours on Friday. However, the weekends are no exception for putting in hours with 14 per cent and 13 per cent reporting they work on Saturday and Sunday respectively.

Key findings include:

• Most Canadian workers do around 8-12 hours of work more each week (18%);
• Those in central Canada are more likely to put in 8-12 hours at 20.5 per cent, followed by western Canada at 18 per cent, Quebec at 16.3 per cent and Eastern Canada at 15.8 per cent
• Only 12 per cent of Canadians report doing one or less hours of overtime, meaning that if Canadians are putting in overtime, it is a substantial amount of time
• 16 per cent report putting in 2-8 hours, 16 per cent are working 15+ hours, only 12 per cent are working one hour or less
• Globally, 38 per cent of professionals work a full extra day or more. In Canada, the number rises to 41 per cent.
• Monday is when most workers will likely put in their overtime (18%) followed by Saturday at 14 per cent. Very few will choose to work overtime on Friday at 7 per cent.