The worst thing for staff's Monday Blues? Working overtime

Monday is always the toughest day of the week - most people feel uninspired and wish they were still in bed.

But that is not the only reason for Monday Blues, as research by Regus revealed that workers globally are most likely to work overtime on Monday.

The situation in Hong Kong is even more concerning, with 27% of respondents confirming they tend to work overtime on Monday to catch up on work that built up over the weekend, much higher than the global figure at 16%.

In China, a similar 25.8% of respondents stay back late on Mondays.

Towards the middle of the week, Tuesday or Wednesday, staff tend to do less overtime work, with only 9% in Hong Kong, a figure similar to the global findings.

Workers are also keen to get out early on Fridays, with only 15% of Hong Kong employees and 10% globally committing to regularly doing overtime.

Even so, overtime amount to a lot - in Hong Kong, close to one-third of workers (31%) work a full extra day or more, and 38% do so globally.

Worse still, more than one in ten (14%) respondents in Hong Kong, are teetering close to burn out and putting in over 15 overtime hours in a week.

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Looking at the highest percentage of overtime hours across key Asia Pacific markets, Hong Kongers are the most hard working, with one in five employees working 4 to 6 hours of overtime a week.

The majority of other key Asia Pacific markets work 2 to 4 hours overtime a week.

This echoes earlier findings on Hong Kong being the world’s hardest working city, at 50 hours a week.

"While the commitment of workers is admirable, it is worrying that a small proportion of Hong Kong professionals are working the equivalent of a seven-day week!,"  said John Wright, CEO of Regus Asia-Pacific.

"If workers are able to carry out an acceptable amount of overtime from a location closer to home, they will benefit from a shorter commute at the end of the day and a more efficient use of their time. If instead, punitively long hours are combined with gruelling commutes, workers could be facing burnout all too soon," he added.

The research surveyed over 44,000 employees from more than 100 countries, including 349 business professionals in Hong Kong.

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