Recession making techies do more unpaid overtime

Overworked techies are putting in even more free hours than last year as the recession piles pressure on UK companies to do more with less.

One in three techies is giving away the equivalent of 34 days of unpaid overtime per year - an increase of two days on the year before, according to the TUC, which estimates these nose-to-the-grindstone workers do an average of five hours 48 minutes of free work per week.

The TUC says the recession has increased pressure on techies to clock up more hours: a third (33.8 per cent) of workers were doing unpaid overtime in autumn 2008, up 1.5 percentage points on the same period last year.

TUC general secretary Brendan Barber said in a statement: "The recession is bringing new pressure for people to work unpaid overtime, and even more IT professionals are doing unpaid overtime than last year.

"But not all unpaid overtime is useful work helping to overcome the recession. When people understandably fear for their jobs employers still have a responsibility to organise work properly and ensure their workplaces don't get gripped by a long-hours culture."