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Research by the Trade Union Congress (TUC) has found that nearly 900,000 workers did ‘extreme' overtime last year, with 14,000 more employees working more than 10 hours per week in unpaid overtime.

In the UK, more than 5 million people worked an average of seven hours and 12 minutes of unpaid overtime a week, which is worth about £27.4bn or £5,402 each.

This amount of overtime suggests that, if you were to work the average amount of unpaid annual overtime at the start of the year, Friday 26th February would be your first paid day of work.

However, if you do more than 10 hours a week in unpaid overtime, you would not start getting paid until 26 April.

Public sector workers were also more likely to do 'extreme' unpaid overtime, according to the TUC, with 25% of staff working unpaid overtime in 2009. This has been calculated as worth nearly £9bn a year.

Single women are the most likely to do unpaid overtime with more than one in four women working an average of seven hours and 42 minutes' of free work a week.

Brendan Barber, general secretary of the TUC, said: "Staff are understandably doing all they can to help their company recover from the recession - and bosses should thank them for going that extra mile. But working time still needs to be properly managed. A long-hours culture is bad for workers' health and family life - whether the hours are paid or not."

The TUC has published a quiz for your employees to complete, in order to help them better understand and manage their performance, efficiency and work-life balance.

For more information on how to manage your employees at work and how to get the best out of your workforce, call Jo Donnelly at Park City on 0800 542 7550 or fill in an enquiry form.