Britain's bosses are among the hardest workers in Europe, beaten only by the Germans.

The poll of 550 managers of small and medium sized businesses in the US and Europe found British executives were working an average of 60 hours a week, compared with the Germans, who clocked up 70 hours.

Red tape, skills shortages and the pressure to succeed meant 42 per cent of those polled said they were working harder than five years ago.

The smaller the company, the longer the hours, the survey by office equipment supplier Esselte found.

Of those bosses leading companies with fewer than ten staff, 61 per cent said they were significantly more likely to work in the evenings, with 62 per cent saying they took work home at weekends.

The rise of the home office meant UK executives were working an extra day a week compared with the rest of Europe and the US.

The younger the executive the more likely they were to work from home, the survey found, with 38 per cent of 18 to 35-year-olds compared with 26 per cent of over-56s taking work home.

The fact more people were working outside office hours was dramatically cutting down on leisure time, said Magnus Nicolin, Esselte's executive vice-president.

"The desire to create a decent balance between work and personal life is getting harder to achieve, because of the pressures that are placed on people due to technology such as e-mail, mobile communications, WAP and so on, resulting in people being - or at least expected to be - available any time and anywhere," he said.