British managers are suffering from spiralling working hours more than their European counterparts.

A report by transport company TNT says the ever-increasing demands on personal time is taking its toll on executive health.

One in three British managers claims to work more hours now than they did two years ago and 40 per cent complained of taking work calls in private time, more than any other country.

More than half of executives in Europe who said the pace of business was affecting their ability to do their job well were from the UK. Nearly half of all executives said they had missed out on family engagement because of workload.

In the UK 38 per cent of managers said they worked more than two hours per day more than they did two years ago compared to an average of 28 per cent of people in similar jobs in Germany, Italy and The Netherlands.

Stuart Stobie, TNT Internationa general manager for the UK, said: "As a major express distrubution business we are well aware of the greater pressure our clients are under to meet ever tighter deadlines from their own customers."

Further findings from the report show some common ground between British and European executives with family occasions falling victim to work in equal measure across Europe. Nearly half of all the European executives said their family life was suffering owing to work pressures. Only slightly fewer reported disruptions to their family holiday plans.

Despite risking the charge of incompetance, UK executives admitted the quickening pace of business life is affecting their ability to do their job well. Of all those surveyed who said their ability was affected 56 per cent were from the UK.

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